29
Bliss
The engine turned over beneath me while rainwater hissed softly beneath the tires as I pulled onto the road.
Downtown Kimball Falls glowed around me in blurred neon streaks. Students flooded sidewalks in Fury hoodies and winter jackets while bars spilled music and laughter into the cold night air. Headlights reflected across wet pavement beneath old streetlamps, and somewhere farther across town, The Furnace glowed against the dark sky like a beacon.
Cade was there, and the thought settled something deep inside me almost instantly.
Just get to Cade.
That was all I had to do now. Get to him, tell him we were not friends with benefits and that I always knew it was more than that, and maybe for the first time in years, I could finally stop feeling like I was drowning alone inside my own life.
The idea should have overwhelmed me with panic, but instead, it steadied something fragile in my chest. I would be free from Luke once and for all, and if things went the way I believed they would, I would be Cade’s. I wouldn’t need reassurance because I was choosing him with my entire chest.
Rainwater hissed softly beneath my tires as I drove farther from downtown, the glow of bars and restaurants slowly fading behind me while the darker backroads surrounding the lake stretched ahead through drifting fog and towering trees. The Furnace still glowed faintly in the distance somewhere beyond campus, and I tightened my grip on the steering wheel as relief and nerves tangled painfully together beneath my ribs.
Then headlights appeared behind me.
At first, I barely noticed them. Just another truck riding too close along the narrow stretch of road curving around the lake toward campus. But then the brights flashed once.
Twice.
Aggressive enough that my stomach tightened immediately.
My eyes flicked toward the rearview mirror.
The truck accelerated hard.
Closer.
Closer.
Cold panic exploded through me so fast my fingers nearly slipped against the steering wheel.
No.
Please no.
The headlights flooded the inside of my Jeep now, harsh white light swallowing my mirrors while my pulse slammed violently against my ribs. Every instinct inside me started screaming at once because I already knew before I saw the truck clearly. My body recognized danger before my brain could fully catch up to it.
Then the truck swerved briefly into the opposite lane beside me, and my blood turned to ice when I recognized that black Ford.
Luke.
He laid on the horn once, long and aggressive, before jerking back behind me again. Then the brights flashed repeatedly.
“Oh fuck,” I whispered shakily.
The road around us sat nearly empty this late at night, this close to campus. Everyone was either in town bar-hopping or on Athlete Row for parties. Thick trees lined both sides while lake fog drifted low across the pavement in pale, ghostly streaks beneath the headlights. No witnesses or traffic meant no help.
Luke surged closer again until his headlights swallowed my mirrors completely.
My phone started ringing through the Jeep speakers.
Luke.
I ignored it.
