The bike kicks forward suddenly and all I can do is grab his jacket, and then his torso desperately, as he pulls out into traffic and starts weaving through the streets, making his way towards the museum.
The highway is a nightmare. Flashing lights brighten the darkened evening sky over the police cruisers scattered around. Firetrucks are still working on what I’m guessing is the drunk driver’s vehicle considering the state of the mangled, flaming metal lump of a car.
If anyone got out of that vehicle alive, I’ll be amazed.
The entire stretch of the highway is blocked off by PD redirecting traffic. And at the middle of the scattered broken glass and crumpled pieces of undistinguishable metal… sits the rig.
Or what’s left of it.
My stomach drops so hard I think I might get sick. The back end is crushed inwards, metal twisting like it’s been folded in on itself. Glass is everywhere with more debris scattered across lanes.
“Liv-”
I’ve already pulled off the helmet and shoved it into his waiting arms.
And I’m running.
“Unit 12!” someone shouts. “Over here!”
I don’t even register who it is. All I see is the Reeves stretcher.
Covered.
No.
No, no, no-
“Liv!” Scott screams, suddenly appearing beside me and grabbing my arms to pull me away before I can get closer.
“Don’t,” he says with enough force that I actually listen to him despite myself.
My chest is heaving. “Where are they?” I demand. “Where’s Alice? Where’s Jett?”
Scott hesitates and it breaks something more in me.
“Scott, it’s their rig,” I say, my voice rising. “They were on shift. Stop-”
“Jett left early.”
The words hit like a collision, again.
“What?”
“Family emergency,” Scott says quickly. “Alice got reassigned for the night. A different partner.”
I blink. Once, twice. So, he wasn’t here. But… “Where’s Alice?”
“She’s over there,” he nods toward the shoulder.
I turn and spot her immediately, sitting on the ground and wrapped in a shiny foil-looking emergency blanket from either one of the firetrucks or the rig Scott brought that’s sitting nearby.
Her face is streaked with soot and tears. But alive, very clearly. Relief crashes into me so hard my knees almost give out.
I’m moving again before I even realize it. Scott lets me go.
“Alice-”
Her head snaps up. “Liv-”
