I crawl toward him, dropping the gun like it burned me, my hands slick with his blood as I press them against his chest, trying to stop it, trying to undo what I just did.
I shot him.
I shot Blade.
He’s bleeding out, his face already pale, his eyes glassy but still on me. Still worried about me.
“Bri,” he tries to say, his voice wrecked, barely there. “It’s okay.”
It’s not okay.
Nothing about this is okay.
“I’m sorry,” I cry, my whole body shaking. “I didn’t mean to. I didn’t—I was trying to—”
I don’t even know what I was trying to do anymore.
Then the man is there.
I don’t hear him come up behind me. I just feel it. A shadow falling over us, heavy and cold. Before I can turn, his fist slams into my face.
Pain explodes.
My head snaps back, stars bursting behind my eyes, and I go down hard. The world tilts, spins, and then everything goes black.
—
I wake up choking on air.
My body jerks, muscles screaming, and pain floods in all at once like I’ve been dropped into fire. My head throbs. My face aches. My arm feels like it’s been shattered and put back together wrong. Every breath hurts.
I blink, trying to focus.
This isn’t the road.
This isn’t the crash site.
I’m in a room. A small one. Beige walls. Cheap hotel art hanging crooked. The hum of an air conditioner rattling in the background. The smell of stale cleaner and something metallic that makes my stomach turn.
I try to move.
I can’t.
My wrists are restrained above me, metal biting into my skin. Handcuffs. One wrist is secured to the headboard, the other… something solid. The bed frame, maybe. I test it gently and hiss when the movement sends pain shooting through my shoulder.
Panic slams into me.
“No,” I whisper, my voice cracked and dry. “No, no, no.”
I look down at myself. My clothes are still on, torn and dirty, streaked with blood that I don’t know how much of it is mine. My arm is wrapped badly, like someone did it just enough to keep me from bleeding everywhere but not enough to help.
My whole body hurts. Deep. Bone-deep.
And Blade—
The thought hits me like a punch.
Blade.
