Page 86 of Second Chance Serenity

“The things I’ve done would land me in prison for the rest of my life. There would be no second chance for me. There is no second chance for me.”

“But there is. Everyone gets a second chance.”

“I’m not religious, so you can save that particular speech.”

“Liam—”

“That’s not my name. You don’t call me that anymore.”

“Then what is your name?” Keep him talking until you have a better plan. I try to run through my options. I could crash the car, but the highway out of town is notoriously quiet. It could be thirty minutes before someone finds us, and by then—who knows if he’ll let me live.

“Wesley,” he replies. “My name is Wesley. That’s what you’ll call me from now on.” He reaches over and strokes the side of my cheek. “You captivated me from the first time we met. So kind. So wholesome. You’ve never done anything bad in your life, have you?” Withdrawing his hand, he looks back out the window, though he keeps the firearm trained on me. “I was drawn to your goodness, Reyna. Because I think it might be able to hide my darkness.”

I could almost feel bad for him. Almost. “You shot my friend.”

“He was in the way.”

“Is that what you’re going to do to me? If I don’t listen to you?”

“No,” He appears genuinely horrified. “I would never hurt you, Reyna. You have to believe that.”

“But you let the others hurt me,” I tell him, my stomach churning. Bile rises in my throat as I consider all the things he could do to me if we arrive wherever we’re headed. “You didn’t warn me that they were coming.”

“I tried to protect you! I told Zeke you didn’t know anything! It would have been okay. We could have left sooner, but Michael got in the way.” He shakes his head. “He put you in danger.”

“Michael saved me.”

“Michael kept you from me. Because of that, I couldn’t warn you. Not without raising his suspicions.”

“Liam—”

“Wesley!” he interrupts.

“Wesley. We can do the right thing. Please. Put the gun away, and let’s go back to Hope Springs. We can meet with the sheriff, and you can tell him everything.”

“No. It’s too late.”

“What do you mean?”

“Zeke is going to send people to Hope Springs to kill you and that team that’s been protecting you.”

Gone is the nausea, replaced with bone-chilling fear. Lance. Eliza. Elijah. Andie. Jaxson. Silas and his daughter. Michael… Are they truly all at risk? “Please let me go back.” Tears blur my vision. “Please let me warn them.”

“I’ll let you make one call when we get to where we’re going,” he says. “If it’s not too late, then you can give them a heads up.”

A truck comes over the ridge overhead and hope burns inside of me. I could scream out the window. Wave. Do something that causes the driver to realize something is wrong. My gaze lands on the lever that turns on the high beams.

I glance over at Wesley, who’s staring out the window.

I inch my hand closer to the lever and pull it. Multiple times. Over and over again. And then they get closer, passing by and giving me a view of the driver.

Michael.

It’s only a heartbeat as he passes by me, but our gazes lock, and the moment he’s passed, I glance up in the rearview mirror as the truck brakes hard and spins back toward us.

“What did you do?” Wesley turns to look behind us. “You’re going to make me kill them. That’s what you’re going to do.”

I have a heartbeat to make a choice.

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