“Whoa there, Len,” Brooks was saying, his face wobbling in my vision as he reached for me.
“No!” I managed to gasp as I pedaled back against the wall of the SUV and realized that, at some point, the SUV had flipped. “We’re not safe here. We have to get out.”
My heart pounded in my chest as I began to scramble to find the door handle.
“Lennon,” another voice, Zeke’s I realized, cut into my panic as he tried to pull my hands away from the wall. “We’re safe, it’s okay, but you shouldn’t move around too much. You’ve got a pretty nasty cut on your forehead.”
I reached up to touch my forehead and a low whine left my throat when my fingers came away shining with blood.
“Shit,” Dallas said from behind me, his words tight. “Her panic is not helping things right now.”
“Not safe,” I repeated. It was like coherent thought was escaping me entirely and all that was left was pure instinct and that instinct was telling me we were in grave, terrible danger. “Not safe!”
Waves of fear leaked off of me in heavy shudders as I pulled out of Zeke’s grasp and continued to search for the door handle, but once I found it I realized that the door was so damaged that we were trapped.
“No,” I wailed inconsolably as I stood on wobbly feet and threw my shoulder against the door. I needed to get out of here. Out of this space filled with the stale air of fear.
“Jesus,” one of the guys said behind me as I tried again in vain to free myself.
“Lennon.”
Hands caught my shoulders and half-pulled, half-yanked me off of my feet and down into a lap that smelled of vanilla bourbon.
“No,” I said weakly, pushing against Maverick’s broad chest as he wrapped his arms around me like a steel cage. “Need to get out.”
“Shh,” Maverick soothed, a large, warm hand making circles down my back. “You are safe here with us. Just breathe.”
I continued to fight until he pressed my ear to his chest and I could hear his heartbeat. It was strong and steady, each beat pushing my baser instincts down and bringing me out of myself bit by bit.
Sucking in a deep breath of his scent—something I shouldn’t have been able to smell at all considering the suppressants—I felt my locked muscles start to relax until I melted against him completely and began to sob.
“It’s okay, shh,” Maverick continued to comfort me, even rocking back and forth as I shivered. Then someone, probably Zeke based on the fruit champagne smell, put their jacket around my shoulders and even the shivers started to dissipate as I floated in the comfort of the moment.
I barely even noticed when the sound of crunching came from overhead and hands covered my head to keep the falling debris from hitting me.
“Is she all right?” someone asked from above. “I’ve got the president on the phone.”
“She’s fine, but I don’t think she’s up to talking,” Zeke said as he jumped up out of the SUV and held his hands down for Maverick to hand me up to him.
“I can climb out on my own,” I managed to say, though my tongue felt sluggish.
“Hush,” Maverick told me softly and I managed to look up into his deep brown eyes. There was a softness there that made myinsides clench. “You’ve had a long enough day. Let us take care of you and you just rest.”
I nodded and by the time I was hefted up into Zeke’s arms I was asleep again, the sounds of sirens still filling my ears as I let myself trust them to handle things while I checked out of life for a little while.
Chapter Eleven
“Adrunk driver?” I asked as we all sat around the kitchen island of the hotel suite picking at cold stir fry. “That’s who hit us? I don’t fucking believe it.”
I had the nastiest headache and desperately needed sleep, but I wasn’t sure if my body would even let me wind down enough to get a couple of hours in before we needed to be up in the morning.
Thankfully, the president had canceled our events for the rest of the week, giving us some breathing room while we tried to recuperate from the shitshow that was today.
Something she should have, in my opinion, done the moment Carter Holloway was hauled out on a gurney earlier.
There would have been no damned car accident in the first place if she hadn’t let her stubborn daughter go to that event. But Lennon had felt like she needed to go out of some misplaced need to protect her older brother.
But, then again, no one was asking my opinion, as usual.
