Page 244 of Ruin My Life
Nothing. Not even a ghost of that smartass smile.
The silence cuts deeper than any scream.
I clamp my hands on the wheel and floor it, the speedometer climbing well past the limit. I blow past stop signs, red lights, blind corners. I don't care. I don'thavetime to care.
Let them chase me. Let them try to pull me over. I’ll drive through every barricade between here and heaven if I have to.
Because all that matters isher.
Not the fire. Not the wreckage. Not the blood drying on my hands.
Just Brie.
Because I’m not losing her now.
Not after everything.
Not after Ijustfound her.
Chapter Forty-Four
Brie
“STAY WITH ME,BRIE.”
Damon’s voice slices through the fog.
“No more running, remember?”
No more running.
But I can’t stop. Iwantto. God, I want to—but it’s like trying to grip onto air. No matter how tight I hold on, something always rips me away. Makes me leave.
My fingers dig into the soaked gauze pressed to my stomach. It’s wet. Clinging. Cold instead of warm now that it’s saturated. Tremors rack through me beneath Damon’s coat, and I try to fight them—try to breathe. To stay.
I force my eyes open.
Snowy trees flicker past the window, but it’s all just movement. White and grey and black smudges. Like I’ve been pulled underwater and left to watch the world through a frozen lake.
I turn my head.
Damon.
His jaw is clenched so tight I’m afraid he’ll shatter one of his perfect teeth. His sleeves are shoved up, muscles bunched in his forearms. The tattoos along his arms look even more like smoke, flexing and rippling as he strangles the wheel. The flames inked across his knuckles pulse with rage. With fear.
“Talk to me,mi rosa,” he says. Begs. “Please.”
I try.
I open my mouth.
But the words don’t come.
My tongue feels foreign, too heavy to lift. My throat is raw and dry—like I’ve swallowed fistfuls of sand that are now scraping up and down my windpipe with every breath.
Another shiver. My teeth clatter like broken porcelain.
I’m so cold.
