We swerve to the right, trying to avoid the van, but out of nowhere, a huge truck appears behind the second SUV. The men inside lay on the horn, trying to get clear, while our driver guns it with nowhere left to go.
Then the truck slams into the SUV.
The impact sends it spinning into the air. When it crashes down on its roof, both boys scream. My pulse pounds so hard I can barely breathe as I curl myself around them, trying to shield them from every bit of the terror clawing through me.
When the SUV bursts into flames, they scream again. Milo is crying now as I jerk back, my hand flying to my mouth.
“Oh my God.”
The driver curses and yanks the wheel again, sending us swerving off the road as he tries to keep the van and the truck from boxing us in.
We drop into a grassy ditch running alongside the trees, the SUV bouncing so violently, it’s like my bones are rattling.
Everything blurs after that. Milo is screaming. Lev is shaking so hard his breathing turns sharp and panicked.
“We’re okay,” I tell them, even though nothing about this is okay. “Just hold on.”
Branches whip against the sides of the SUV as we tear over uneven ground, the whole vehicle bouncing so violently, it’s like it could come apart at any second. Behind us, the van is still there, engine screaming louder as it gains on us. The driver jerks the wheel, trying to cut toward another road that opens just past the trees.
The hit comes before I can even brace for it. The truck plows into us head-on with a crash so loud it shatters my skull. The force lifts the SUV off the ground, and suddenly the world tips.
Everything spins. Sky flashes through the windows. Then dirt. Then sky again.
The vehicle rolls once. Then again.
I scream the boys’ names through their wailing, but the sound that comes out of me is high and broken, nothing like my own voice. My head smashes into the side window, and pain bursts across my skull, so hard and hot that it blinds me.
Then everything stops. The world hangs upside down, and I can’t breathe at all.
Gasoline stings the air. Broken glass trickles around us in soft little falls, and the seat belt cuts hard across my chest, holding me suspended in the wreckage.
“Milo…Lev…” I can barely get the words out.
Both boys are crying. That means they’re alive.
I move my arms to them, trying to reassure them, and pain shoots across my torso.
“Mommy,” Milo sobs while Lev shrieks, the kind of scream that tears straight through my soul.
“I’m here, boys. Mama’s here.” I reach for them even as everything blurs, trying to soothe them, trying not to let my own panic swallow me whole.
When I look toward the driver and the bodyguard in the passenger seat, my stomach turns. They’re hanging there in their belts, heads slumped at awful angles, faces smashed and bloodied.
“Oh my God…” I whisper.
I need my bag. Where the fuck is my bag? I just need to call Kirill. I fumble for the seat belt, trying to unclip it, but it won’t move.
No.
No, no, no.
Then the rear door on Lev’s side flies open, and for one brief, desperate second, I think someone is here to help us.
Cold air rushes in. Boots crunch over broken glass. Until a masked man leans inside.
And I know that voice before he even finishes speaking.
“I told you what would happen if you played me.”
