Page 54 of Clap Back (Carter Brothers)

And, if my stepmother was going to actually listen to me for a change, who was I to waste an opportunity?

“I’m considering going to the media about all of this,” I said. “The lawyer actually suggested it. She said it’d be a good way to shine a spotlight on the actions of a ‘respectable police chief,’” I snapped.

“You wouldn’t dare.” She looked at me then, and her eyes were wide and wild.

Why were her pupils so dilated?

“Oh yes, I would,” I said. “I’m going to make sure that my face and bakery name is on every single news station in the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex.”

That comment was apparently the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“I should’ve never agreed to marry your father,” she hissed. “This is too much!”

“What are you talking about?” I asked. “Why would you have to agree to marry someone?”

She slowed to a stop, and I had the irrational thought that I should bail right here in the middle of the road, rain and all. I unbuckled my seatbelt, ready.

But before I could reach for the door handle, she slammed her foot on the gas pedal. “You’re not being a good daughter!”

“You’re fucking nuts.” I ordered, “Slow down and let me out of this car!”

She didn’t listen.

In fact, she only went faster.

Blocking him isn’t enough. I need to talk to his mom to explain, in detail, what he did.

—read text between Athena and Maven

AUDEN

Quaid’s words stayed with me throughout the entire shift. In fact, the longer the shift went on, the more I started feeling the same way.

At first, it was just a little niggling sensation in the back of my brain. That little inkling went from a faraway thought to a full on, in your face, imminent possibility.

Like the calm before a Texas storm, I waited with tingling nerves for the inevitable to happen.

Like Quaid suggested, I stayed close to my cruiser, too.

When a call came in for a medical emergency at a residence downtown, I reluctantly took the mic and responded I was en route.

Only, before I could get there, the road was obstructed by two white SUVs that had managed a head-on collision where not just one, but both ran the red light.

Cursing my luck, I radioed in about the accident and got out to check the occupants of both vehicles.

The one in the newer of the two SUVs with the functioning airbags was fine, albeit a bit shocked from the air bag deploying in her face.

After leaving her, I moved to the 80s model Suburban with worry filling my veins the closer I got. It took me all of two seconds to note that the driver was dead seeing as she was halfway through the windshield.

The passenger, however, wasn’t dead.

She was alive and moving, and it took me no time at all to recognize her.

Even with blood running down her face, and a nasty cut over her forehead, I’d know that beautiful face anywhere.

Stomach bottoming out, I hightailed it around the SUV’s bashed front end to move to her, using the mic on my shoulder to call in several busses.

Luckily, the window was down, allowing me to cup Maven’s face in my hands and provide C Spine support until help was here.

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