“Remi, shut up. Anyone would be lucky to be with you.”
Her laugh fizzes through the speaker, but it’s thinner now, shaky. My girl is insanely gorgeous and brilliant, but she doesn’t always see it. She hides behind her sharp tongue and that fire,but I know how much she doubts herself, how often she mistakes her restless mind, her ADHD, as some kind of flaw. As if it makes her less lovable.
“Yeah, maybe we’ll have double weddings someday,” she jokes, accelerating and slipping a few cars ahead. Classic Remi, dodging the subject with speed. I hang back, giving her space, my thoughts circling back to fucking Cole. The aggravation flares all over again, but it’s a good reminder that love is the last thing on my mind anyway.
Today, all men suck.
“Rem, last one to the Pit buys dinner,” I say, rolling up beside her.
“I’m an expensive date, and I’m starving, so get that wallet ready.”
I reach out and tap the back of her helmet. “You gotta be faster, and that’s tough to do when you’re second best.”
“You bitch,” she laughs, glancing at me briefly. I can’t see through her tinted visor, but I know there’s a cunning grin hiding underneath. Right on cue, she takes off, weaving between cars and tearing through the intersection.
“Cheating because you know I’ll win, huh?” I shout after her, gunning the throttle. Laughter rises in my throat…right up until a horn blares. My head snaps left in time to see a black sedan’s grill barreling toward me.
No time to swerve. No time to stop.
The world detonates on impact. Pain tears through me, sharp and white hot. Then the world goes dark.
Two
MAKSIM
Ipace the length of the hallway, every step a war against the urge to tear through those doors myself. Sitting isn’t an option, not when she’s in there because of me. I have to be the first to know, the first face she sees when she opens her eyes.
And if she doesn’t?—
I shut the thought down before it finishes forming. She was breathing when they took her. Unconscious, but alive. And that has to be enough. For now.
“Maksim.” Remi’s choked voice drags me from my pacing. Her hand lands on my shoulder, trembling. “I called everyone. They’re on their way.”
Her touch lingers like she wants me to hold her together, but I stand rigid, my jaw locked, heart thrumming too violently to offer more than a curt nod. Tears streak down her cheeks as she drifts closer, arms now wrapped tightly around herself. Her eyes cling to mine like I might have the comfort she’s searching for. But I don’t.
Despite the affection, despite the years I spent watching her grow, I’m not the kind of man who feeds lies or offers comfort I don’t believe in. A pang of guilt stirs, but I smother it.
“Have they given an update?” she asks, finally stepping back. Maybe she sees it now, that I’m not the same boy she remembers from childhood, not the one who once felt like family.
“Nothing. They took her back for surgery, but it could be hours before we know anything.” I rake a rough hand through my hair and curse under my breath.
Valentina.
She’s been a distant memory through the years I stayed away. But not like Remi. With Valentina, it was…different. We’d spent more time together, and somewhere in that chaos of childhood, I grew fond of her. Loved her like family. As annoying as she could be.
My littlekolibri. My hummingbird.
Always in motion, always chasing life like it might slip through her fingers if she stood still even a goddamn second. For a breath, a smile tugs at the corner of my mouth but vanishes just as quickly. I try to recall the last time we spoke. Fuck. How easily I let the silence grow between us, and how carelessly I left her behind.
I must have been wearing the anguish plain on my face because Remi’s hand finds me again—gentle, comforting in all the ways I’d denied her before.
“It’s not your fault. You weren’t driving. If I thought for a second it was, you’d have tasted my helmet too.”
The joke doesn’t quite reach her eyes, but I appreciate the attempt, strange as it feels. And somehow, I know she means every word. She would. She’s Amalia and Kai’s daughter, after all.
I don’t get the chance to respond as the double doors slam open, and a familiar face barrels through, his eyes locking on me like a predator sighting its prey.
Derek Cain.
