Page 9 of Scars Run Deep

Shit. I started at those thoughts and forced my eyes open against the will of my body to slip back into unconsciousness.

To fucking well heal.

To take a beat.

That wasn’t the way it worked in my world, being who I was, who I needed to be.

There was no reprieve.

No rest.

I opened my eyes all too slowly, my head swimming, making my vision blurry as fuck.

It took me a moment to take in the airbag I was currently smashed up against.

I hadn’t hit my head on the steering wheel then.

It had been the airbag.

That smoke… it was coming from the car and the deployment of the airbags.

It wasn’t just smoke either… the car was on fire, flames licking the hood, growing in intensity so much so that it had me wincing.

“Asher!”

It wasn’t the roar from earlier.

It was a scream this time.

Adrenaline thrummed through me as I managed to put names to the voices.

Jonah and Aurora.

“Fuck,” I grunted, wiping blood out of my face with the sleeve of my jacket.

I pushed back from the airbag and turned to my right.

Aurora wasn’t there.

I shot a look in the rearview mirror.

Jonah wasn’t in the car either.

What… what was happening?

How long had I even been out?

I remembered crashing into the guardrail of the bridge. They’d both been in the car then. I’d heard Jonah’s grunt, Aurora’s scream.

I strained harder to get a handle on things, to comprehend my surroundings.

The pouring rain and the darkness of the night really wasn’t helping.

Thuds and grunts, cries of pain… they all hit me like sensory overload.

I disengaged my seatbelt, then turned around, left, right, to the rear.

And that was when I saw them.

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