Reed's face was expressionless as he drove with both hands on the wheel. I glanced back and saw that the car wasn’t only keeping up with us, but it was gaining on us.

"Shit," I breathed out.

"I told you I wasn't going to let him hurt you again and I meant it." Reed's voice was firm.

"This is crazy, Reed." My voice was shaky, and my stomach twisted when I glanced back at the speedometer and saw the car was now going over one hundred miles per hour.

Swallowing hard, I sat forward in my seat with my eyes glued to the side mirror. The car following us was directly behind us now. Then, in the next second, the car was gone. The move was so sudden that I hardly had time to realize what happened. I turned to look out the left side and saw the car speed up beside us. The two cars were now side by side, both of us going more than a hundred miles per hour.

"What are we going to do?" I screamed in panic.

"Please, Emily, just sit back and—"

Reed's voice was cut off by a loud crunch and a sudden force that threw my head against the window. I groaned in pain.

"Emily!" Reed shouted. "Emily, are you okay?" Reed asked. I could barely hear him over the ringing in my ears. Before I could answer him, another jolt sent my head right back into the window, and this time, I heard a crack. I wasn't sure if the cracking sound was my head or the window.

"The crazy son of a bitch is trying to run us off the road!" The panic in Reed's voice sent my heart into an uncontrollable, thundering beat. Reed was in danger again and it was because of me. If something happened to him, I would never forgive myself.

I rubbed my hand across the side of my head and winced when I hit the sensitive spot. The sticky wetness on my fingers told me I was bleeding.

The car jerked forward and the engine screeched as it was being pushed to its limit. I glanced over and saw the other car easily speed up next to us again.

"The asshole isn't going to give up, is he?" Reed shouted.

No, he'll never give up.

Another jolt hit us even harder this time, and I could feel the car move off the road and hit the gravel and dirt to the side.

Jake wouldn't stop until I was dead.

"Reed," I said, grabbing his hand. "I'm so sorry for getting you into this." I wasn't sure why I chose that moment to apologize, but I wanted to say it before it was too late. "I'm sorry."

"Emily, don't talk like—"

The next jolt hit us so hard that Reed couldn't keep control of the car. We drifted off the road and onto the gravel again. Reed jerked the car back onto the road, but at our high rate of speed, the car spun out of control and then everything after that happened so fast, it came in short, blurry flashes.

The car flew off the road and started to roll.

Flashes of the headlights hitting the trees and ground came in fast, sharp movements.

Sounds of crunching metal.

Glass bursting.

It didn't happen in slow motion. It actually happened so fast that I could hardly wrap my head around it.

Then, in what seemed like just a few seconds, everything was still. Everything was silent. Everything was black.

I wasn’t sure how long I was lost inside the darkness. There was no sense of time whatsoever. There was no sense of anything. I wasn’t sure how long I was lying there in that state of nothingness.

Sirens.

Shrill, ear-piercing ringing filled my ears and broke the silence in my mind, causing the darkness to fade away. My eyes opened; small white dots filled my vision. I tried to move my legs but couldn't. I shifted my right hand and felt a stabbing pain crawl up my arm and spread into my shoulder. Gritting my teeth, I moved my hand again and gripped the soft ground beneath it. Grass. My hand was gripping grass. Then it hit me. I was on the ground, not in the car. I could see the red-and-blue flashes in the distance, dancing along the trees above me. I now knew the small white dots that filled my vision were stars.

Fighting through the pain, I slowly lifted my head and saw a large, dark object about twenty feet in front of me. I focused on it, finally seeing that it was the car turned upside down.

"Reed." His name came out of my mouth, but it was no louder than a whisper. I sucked in a deep breath, hoping to find the strength to speak louder, but the only thing that came to me was a deep pain in my stomach.

"Reed." I pushed my voice out and then moaned as my head fell back toward the ground. The sirens were getting louder, closer. Car doors opened and slammed shut. Voices filled my ears. Strangers surrounded me.

The darkness blurred out their faces. A bright light flashed into my eyes and then I felt hands touching my head, my ribs, my legs, and my arms. I winced every time they hit a sensitive spot, which felt like every spot they touched.

"Can you tell me your name?" a man asked me.

Emily Fitzroy. Emily Anderson, the voice in my head answered, but the two names never left my lips. I couldn't find the strength to speak.

"Where are you hurting?" he asked.

Everywhere.

"Can you tell me what happened?"

Jake. It was Jake, the voice inside me screamed.

So many questions and I couldn't find the voice to answer any of them aloud. The only thing I wanted to do was see Reed. I wanted to see him and make sure he was okay. I felt myself being lifted onto something stiff but soft, and then I felt myself moving, like I was being carried. My eyes moved frantically, trying to find Reed, hoping to see that he was okay.

When I finally saw him, or a part of him, it seemed like all the pain I was experiencing moved to one single spot on my body—my chest. Reed's body was still dangling from the seatbelt in the upside-down car.

"Reed!" I shouted, finally finding my voice. I tried to sit up and reach out for him but found myself restrained.

"Ma'am, please lie down. You need to relax. We're taking good care of your friend. We need to make sure you're okay."

A sharp pain in my stomach caused me to wince and a throbbing in my head began. I could feel that something wasn't right with me. I kept my eyes focused on the car and watched as the paramedics and firefighters worked to get Reed out. My vision started to tunnel and I could feel the darkness closing in on me. I forced my eyes open, determined to make sure Reed was okay. He had to be okay.

I let my head fall to the side and watched as they pulled Reed's body out of the car and placed him on a gurney. My eyes fluttered. I could feel myself getting weaker. The darkness was coming soon. I wouldn't be able to fight it much longer.

Another sharp pain in my chest took my breath away and the throbbing in my head worsened. The voices of the paramedics filtered in and out. My eyes felt heavy, but I followed Reed until he was put in the ambulance, out of my sight. Tears spilled out of the corners of my eyes.

Please just let him be okay. Please.

His face was the last thing I saw before the darkness pulled me under.


JAKE

I WATCHED as the car swerved off the road. The red taillights grew fainter as the car flipped and bounced down the embankment.

Rico pulled the car over as my eyes remained focused on the car until it came to a halt in an upside down position.

“What do you want to do, boss?” Rico asked breathlessly from the front seat. I couldn’t think of what to do. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do.

“We should probably get out of here pretty quick, boss, or someone may see us.” I could hear the uneasiness in his voice. Even though, I knew what he said was true, I wasn’t ready to leave yet.

There was a good chance Emily was gone—dead—and I was still struggling with how I felt about that. There was a pull deep inside of me, wanting me to get out of the car, run down there and make sure she was all right. Then there was another part of me that didn’t care if she was dead. I was pretty sure I wanted her dead anyway. I would’ve killed her with my bare hands if she hadn’t gotten away from me earlier tonight.

She had betrayed me. She had left me and started a new life. She had caused me more pain than I’d ever felt in my life. I wanted to hurt her. I wanted her to feel pain. But now, as I stared down at the wreckage, I didn’t know if that was how I felt anymore. The past few months without her had been horrible. There were so many times when I didn’t want to go on anymore without her, but I always had the hope that I’d get her back one day. Now, if she was dead, I’d never get her back.

“We’ve gotta go, now,” Rico’s voice interrupted my thoughts again. “A car’s coming up behind us. He’s gonna see the wreck down there and call the cops.”

I didn’t respond, but I felt the car pull forward. My eyes stayed focused on the wreckage until it was out of sight.

We went back to our hotel in the city and I didn’t sleep a wink that night. Rico was on edge the entire drive back to New York and told me, I don’t know how many times, that we needed to get back to Vegas. After about an hour of trying to get me to respond, and me just ignoring him, he finally stopped. I just couldn’t think about leaving New York. Not like this. My whole purpose of coming here was to get Emily. It just didn’t seem right to leave without her.

My mind continued to flash back to the accident and I couldn’t help but wonder if she was dead or alive. When I gave Rico the order to run the car off the road, I was so angry with her that I wanted her dead. But now, I wish I could take it all back. I may have just killed the love of my life. The thought of her lying dead in a morgue somewhere made me sick to my stomach.