Page 109 of Wanted

“I’m fine,” I grit out, clenching so hard my jaw aches. “See you back home.”

Twenty-four. Twenty-five. Twenty-six.

Leaving my brothers in the shed, I run to Corjan’s SUV.

Outside the driver’s door, the numbers race through my head. I reach forty-two by the time I unlock the vehicle, but by seventy, I’m still standing outside.

I wipe a palm over my sweaty face, then clench and unclench my hands. Restless energy rushes through me like a raging river without a dam. My heart pumps so hard I fear I could actually have a heart attack.

Seventy-five.

God, just stop.

Seventy-six. Seventy-seven.

I manage to open the door and sit inside.

Eighty-three.

The key slides into the ignition, and the engine roars to life.

Eighty-nine.

The more I fight the numbers, the more they come. I’m wasting time. Frankie needs me, and I’m stuck in the middle of nowhere in a working vehicle counting like a kindergartener who just learned what number comes after twenty.

I dry-heave, sputtering against the breathlessness. Fighting the compulsion isn’t helping. It’s only slowing me down. My knuckles blanche on the steering wheel. I twist them and hit the gas.

Ninety-nine.

One hundred.

The first hundred feet feel like they might actually kill me. I shake so hard the vehicle jolts and stutters across the grass. Get it together, asshole. Frankie needs you.

Once I hit the highway, it’s pedal to the fucking ground.

One hundred sixty, one hundred sixty-one, one hundred sixty-two.

Was it really just this morning we left our blissful cocoon? We should have stayed in bed. I shouldn’t have left. I shouldn’t have—

A guttural sound claws from my throat, settling around me.

I twist my fingers, and sweat beads across my forehead.

“I’m coming, Frankie. Hang on, baby, I’m coming.”

Two hundred forty-seven, two hundred forty-eight, two hundred forty-nine, two hundred fifty.

I didn’t even get to tell her that I love her.

Just this morning, with Aiden joking and my family standing around us, I should have given her the words she so deserves to hear.

And now I might not get that chance.

Two hundred sixty-nine, two hundred seventy, two hundred seventy-one.

Twohundredseventytwotwohundredseventythreetwohundredseventyfourtwohundredseventyfivetwohundredseventysixtwohundredseventyseventwohundredseventyeighttwohundredseventyninetwohundredeighty.

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