Chapter Thirty-Three
Mia
I put my foot down on the A road and zoomed out of town towards the hospital.
Beside me, Gus gripped the dashboard. “Jesus. We’re not going to be any good to him if you kill us before we get there.”
I ignored him and drove faster, closing my ears to Gus’s complaints and my struggling one-litre engine. All I could see was Luke lying bloodied on a hospitalbed, or worse, a fucking morgue, and my world narrowed to getting to him as quickly as possible.
“You know, if it’s really bad, he won’t even be at Stoke Mandeville. They’ll have airlifted him to London or some shit.”
Words beyond me, I growled and clenched the steering wheel. Gus rubbed my arm, but his attempts at comfort fell by the wayside as I fixated on the implications of what he’dsaid. Matched it with Fran’s neighbour’s ominous words.“Luke’s been in a terrible accident.”
Terrible. What did that even mean? Was he already dead?
I changed lanes, undertaking a boy racer in a souped-up Golf as my car shuddered and shook.
“Mia.”
“Shutup,” I snapped. “I just need to get there.”
“I know, but—”
“Just fuck off!” My voice rang out in the cramped car, bouncingoff the stained interior. “Unless you want to talk about how Billy still has your number after your non-hook-up all those years ago.”
“I’ve had the same number for fifteen years. It’s not relevant to the fact that you’re going to get us both killed.”
It really wasn’t. But my mind was racing so hard, nonsense was merging with terror. I had no control over anything, except how fast I drovethe goddamn car. I ignored Gus and pressed my foot to the floor.
“Mia!” Gus’s voice dropped an octave, authority he’d never had over me seeping into every syllable. “Listen to me, you need to slow down, pull over, and stop the car, okay?”
“No.”
“Just do it. There’s a police car behind you, and it’s flashing you to pull over. If you don’t do it, they’ll make you, and you’ll be evenfurther away from finding Luke.”
It took a few seconds for the words to sink in. My gaze flickered from the clear road ahead of me to the blinding blue lights in the rearview mirror, and my foot slipped from the accelerator of its own accord. The car slowed, veering sideways until Gus steadied the wheel. “Fuck.”
He sighed. “Yup.”
Somehow I managed to pull onto the lorry park at theside of the road. The police car blocked me in, and two officers got out.
Cringing, I tried not to think about the bazillion speed cameras I’d zoomed through. Did they arrest people for speeding? Take their license away on the spot?
The hysterical idiot in me had no idea, and the thought of Gus’s terminally slow driving had my teeth chattering as an officer approached my window.
“Becool, Mia,” Gus murmured. “Do not lose your shit.”
At any other point in my life, I might’ve lamped him one, but apparently there was a tiny part of me clinging doggedly to common sense. A part of me that knew if I was to stand any chance of getting to Luke Ihadto swallow whatever the police officer had to say.
I painted a calm expression on my face and opened the window. The officerbent down, glancing quickly between me and Gus.
“Mia Amour?”
“Yes.”
He nodded. “Get out of the car. We’ve been looking for you.”
I could’ve screamed when the friendly officer suggested I follow him sensibly to the hospital, but the remainder of the journey passed in a flash. I ditched the car at the main entrance, sprinting away, door wide open, leaving Gus to park it and dealwith the police.
