Poser (35 page)

Ivy

The second he pulled out the gun, I knew it was now or never.

This was it.

The only moment I would have to save my own life.

Braeden was here. He was trying to get to me, but B couldn’t save me.

Only I could do that.

Zach laughed when the Hellcat dropped behind him and the lane narrowed. Trees lined the roads, and up ahead stretched spacious fields with apple trees dotting the distance.

“Sorry, bitch,” he said and leveled the gun at me. “The arrival of your boyfriend means our time is cut short. It’s good news for you. One bullet to the head and it will all be over. Not near as fun as what I had planned, but sometimes we must improvise.”

Sick bastard.

“What are you going to do?” I asked.

“The second your dead body goes flying, lover boy will stop to save you. Then I’ll stop, and as he’s crying over your lifeless, bleeding body, I’ll shoot him too. I’ll be in Mexico before anyone even suspects it was me.”

“It’s a good plan,” I told him, even though it sucked. “There’s just one problem you didn’t think of.”

He frowned. “I thought of everything.”

I shook my head. “You forgot about me.”

On impulse, I grabbed the barrel of the gun and shoved it up in the air. He pulled the trigger, and the loud shot and the sound it made as it ripped through the roof made me scream.

We fought over the gun, the car swerving wildly on the road. But I didn’t stop. I kept fighting. I knew I was going to die, but at least this way I could take Zach with me.

At least this way, Braeden would still be alive.

“No!” Zach roared and wrenched his hand free of mine. He brought the gun back down and pointed it at me once more.

I reached out and grabbed the steering wheel, giving it a yank and veering the car right off the road.

5 minutes later…

Braeden

The time I felt the most helpless in my entire life was when I was sitting next to my mother’s hospital bed, watching her fight to live through the injuries she sustained from my father’s vicious temper.

Until now.

Nothing, and I mean
nothing
in this world, could compare to the sight of watching the car with my entire life in it swerving erratically all over the road, hearing a gunshot, and then watching the car turn sharply off to the side, hit a large stump, and flip over.

Three. Times.

My life flashed before me like I was the one dying, and every single image I saw was of her.

Ivy on top of me.

Ivy with desire in her eyes.

Ivy laughing.

Ivy dressing the damn dog in a pink tutu.

She was it. She was all I saw.

It seemed like it took forever for the car to stop rolling and finally lie still. Even after it landed, it still rocked back and forth a little, like the momentum it had gained from the speed at which Zach was driving would have catapulted farther.

That is if the tree it hit hadn’t gotten in its way.

I hit the brakes and was out of the car in seconds flat. Running through the brush, across the field, and finally into some trees, I screamed her name.

Please, God, don’t let her be dead.

Please. God.

If she is dead, just take me too.

When I got to the car, I skidded to a halt. The driver’s side was facing me. I could see Zach inside, held in by the seatbelt. His face was covered in blood, and I couldn’t tell if he was alive.

I didn’t care.

I scrambled around the car to the passenger side. All the windows were blown out, glass and debris everywhere.

“Ivy,” I cried. “Ivy, answer me!”

I dropped down on my stomach and dragged myself right up to the window, ignoring the stinging cuts of glass as I went.

She didn’t answer. She didn’t call out my name.

A sob ripped from my throat. “No!” I yelled and stuck my arm inside the window. I couldn’t see her, but I knew she had to be inside.

“No!” I roared again, lifting my face and shouting up at the sky.

Millions of stars blinked back at me, lighting up the night sky.

Tears blurred my vision as I felt around and slid in closer.

Something found my hand and latched on.

“Ivy!” My voice broke. Her hand was so small, but when I said her name, she squeezed my fingers.

“I’m coming, baby. Hang on! Don’t you die on me!”

The smell of gas reached my nose. It was pungent and unwelcome. The gas tank was punctured, and it was likely spewing gas out all over the field around this car.

I shoved my head inside and saw her.

The seatbelt kept her inside, but she was badly beat up and her face was covered in blood. Just seeing her like that scared the shit out of me. Her body was limp and twisted. I knew the second I unlatched the seatbelt, she’d crumple onto the roof.

I wouldn’t fit through the window and inside the mangled car. I couldn’t go in there and use my body as a shield for hers.

“Ivy can you hear me?” I asked.

She made a sound, and I laughed, but it was desperate. “Best sound I’ve ever heard,” I told her. “Listen to me, baby. We gotta get you out of there. I’m gonna unlatch the seatbelt and you’re going to fall a little. It’s probably going to hurt, and I’m real sorry about that.”

She made another sound. I wanted to believe it was her way of telling me to do it.

The scent of gas was getting stronger, and I was very afraid I was working on a limited clock. It took me a minute to reach the seatbelt latch, but the second I did, I pressed it. The entire car groaned when she fell. The sound of her body hitting made me sick.

I pressed forward, shimmying my entire torso inside the window and wrapping my arms around her hips. I couldn’t reach any farther, and it forced me to half drag her out.

It was a painstaking process because she felt like dead weight and I had to go backward through a broken window with debris littering the grass. When I got far enough out, I let her lie there and jumped to my feet. I reached down and lifted her the rest of the way and hefted her into my arms.

“Ivy!” I said, trying not to sound like I was completely panicking. “You’re out now. I got you. Everything’s going to be fine.”

She didn’t make a sound and her eyelids didn’t flutter.

I was very afraid the process of getting her out of the car had been too much.

I backed up from the wreck and, on my way, stepped in the growing puddle of gasoline. It was spraying everywhere, all over the ground and the car.

I ran away from the mess, cradling her as close as I could. She was so still. So bloody.

When I thought I was far enough away, I dropped to my knees and laid her on the ground. I pulled my shirt over my head and used it to press against a still-bleeding cut on her head. As I did, I looked for bullet wounds, afraid she’d been shot.

All I saw were injuries from the accident, no bullet holes.

“Brae…” She tried to say my name but couldn’t.

My chest heaved just hearing her say anything at all. “I’m here, baby. Thank God you’re alive. Everything’s okay now. I’m calling an ambulance. Stay with me, okay.”

“Always,” she whispered.

I yanked my phone out and called 9-1-1. When the responder came on the line, I told her where I was exactly and begged them to hurry. She asked for details, and I started to give them to her when the sound of Zach’s scream drew my attention.

Ivy whimpered. She must have heard it too.

“Shh, shh,” I said, leaning over her and trying to hold her close without moving her so much.

“Please hurry,” I said into the line. “We need an ambulance. And maybe a fire truck. The car’s leaking gas. I’m afraid it’s going to explode.”

Zach screamed again. “Help!”

I laid the phone next to Ivy and kissed her on the forehead. “I’m gonna be right back, sweetheart.”

“No,” she whimpered. “Stay safe.”

“I promise.”

I ran back to the car where Zach was struggling to get free. His seatbelt must have been tangled or jammed. When he saw me, his eyes turned desperate. “Braeden, help me. I can’t get out.”

I just stood there and stared. I watched him struggle for a few minutes. That dark place I always wrestled with?

I let it consume me.

Zach stopped and looked at me. “You’re not going to help me, are you?”

“No.”

“That’s murder.”

“Murder. Karma. Righting a wrong.” I shrugged. “Call it what you want. Whatever it is, it’s exactly what you deserve.”

He started struggling anew. Panic replacing all smugness on his face.

A small flame lit up from the rear of the car. I stared at it as it grew.

Zach peered out the window and started to beg. “Please help me. Please don’t let me die.”

“Hope you like hell, you son of a bitch.”

I turned around and walked away. He continued to beg, but it fell on deaf ears. A few steps later, the small flame lit into a great fire with a single whoosh. I picked up my pace and ran to Ivy. Just as I dropped and covered her body with mine, the car exploded.

Heat from the flames blew in our direction. I heard debris hitting the ground and the groaning of metal.

In the distance, I heard several sirens. I knew they were coming for us.

I hit END on the phone and pulled back just enough to look down at Ivy’s battered face.

Her eyes were open. “He’s dead, isn’t he?” she asked.

“Yes.”

She nodded. “I’m glad.”

“Me too.”

She didn’t ask if I had an opportunity to pull him out, though I was sure she probably knew. If she ever asked, I would tell her. I let him die.

Maybe that made me a murderer.

But I never said I wouldn’t kill to protect what was mine.

The most dangerous man in the world is one who had nothing but found everything.

That was me.

And in the end, I didn’t have to pose as anyone but myself. Because in the end, I was exactly who I was supposed to be.

An ambulance rolled to a stop at the side of the road. A police car and a fire truck followed right behind.

“You still with me, baby?” I said, pulling back to wave at the men.

She groaned.

I looked up at the stars and thanked them.