“She’s at work today.” A detail I remembered from our conversation, her schedule.
We head toward home, passing the clubhouse, but we’re about a mile out when a tan-colored truck comes around the bend behind us and clips my back wheel, sending the world to a tilt.
“Garrett,” I hear Kai yell as my tire fishtails across the gravel.
I grip the handlebars of the bike, but momentum gets the better of me.
If this is it… If this is the moment I die, I can’t think of a better way to do it. I’m on my bike. In open space. With a man I love, now settled in our forever home.
But I’m not fucking ready.
The bike tips over. Like a painful waltz, we skid the first track of road connected, my leg trapped beneath the bike. The soundof my helmet getting shredded on the tarmac is like an explosion through my skull.
Jarringly, I bounce, the weight of the bike on me.
Everything spins so fast, it’s impossible to know exactly how I feel or what damage is being done.
Then, we separate.
Metal grinds, my bike hitting boulders that sit along the edge of the road. Thankfully, I stop just shy of my bike, only nudging into the rocks.
I don’t move. I simply lie there, sucking in air, putting off the moment I have to decide what hurts. Adrenaline and panic flood my system, leaving me with shakes that run through my body.
Kai slides to his knees next to me, throwing his helmet to the ground. “Bear,” he cries, not moving my helmet but opening the visor. I want to kill that fucking driver for putting the look of fear on his face. “Stay down. You know better than to move.”
I try to look around for the truck, but Kai’s hand sits firmly on my chest. “They didn’t stop?” I ask.
“The guy was wearing a balaclava. Only his eyes. Flipped me the bird, then U-turned.”
I try to sit up, but the world goes even more tilted.
“Go after him.”
“Yeah. That’s what I’m gonna do when you’re lying on the asphalt in a mangled pile.” He reaches for his phone. “Greer? You busy?”
“I don’t need Greer,” I say, but my words do sound a little mumbled. Butcher, our old president, hooked up with Greer after she operated on him after a shooting. Now, she’s expecting his baby and runs a mobile emergency clinic from a renovated ambulance Butcher bought for her.
I don’t hear the rest of the conversation because I close my eyes. Probably the worst fucking thing I can do.
“You two okay?” I hear someone say, then hear Kai explain what happened. They talk about roadblocks and shit. I don’t really pay attention. Just dial into Kai’s voice. Wishing the worry wasn’t there.
“Tell me what hurts,” Kai says.
“My fucking bike.”
“We’ll buy you a new one. Hell, you can have mine. Can you wiggle your toes?”
I wiggle them to check. “Are they moving?”
Kai looks down at my boots. “Yeah, can’t see your toes but your boots are moving. What about your fingers?”
I wiggle them too. One of them in sight. And the relief I feel that my spine has come out of this unscathed causes me to start shaking again.
Without moving me, Kai squeezes my forearms. “You got any numbness going on? Buzzing? Anything feel weird?”
“Felt like I got thrown through a brick wall. Pretty sure it all feels weird.”
“At least you haven’t lost your sense of humor. And don’t try to move. One of the locals came out with their teen kid. They’re flagging traffic and telling them there’s an obstruction and to go around.”
