Page 170 of Knot So Fast
"Auren! What's happening?" Lachlan's voice is sharp now, no longer calm, and I can hear other voices in the background—the rest of his pack.
The car on my right clips my rear bumper, sending me into a spin.
The world becomes a kaleidoscope of headlights and guardrails and the dark expanse of ocean beyond the coastal road.
I try to regain control, hearing the outcry of my name through the phone's speaker as I curse and brace for what's coming.
But then I see it—the gap in the guardrail ahead, growing larger as I slide toward it.
The drop beyond it that disappears into darkness.
They pull back, their job done, leaving me to hurtle toward the edge alone.
"No, no, no—" I wrench the wheel hard, feeling the tires lose their grip on the asphalt.
The Ferrari's traction control screams warnings at me, but physics doesn't care about advanced safety systems.
I go through the barrier.
Off a cliff.
The sensation of falling is nothing like I expected.
There's a moment—just one—where everything goes quiet. Where the engine noise fades and the wind stops howling and even my heartbeat seems to pause.
A moment of perfect, terrible silence as gravity takes hold and pulls me down toward the dark water below.
I take one last gasp of air, realizing I'm plummeting into the Mediterranean, and there's no way out.
No last-second save.
No miracle.
Just me and this beautiful, deadly machine falling together into the abyss.
My name is being called over and over through the phone's speaker, and there are other voices in the background—the others—his entire pack screaming my name like they can somehow will me back to safety.
But I know these last few seconds are everything.
All the time I have left to say what needs to be said.
"Ambush," I whisper, because he needs to know this wasn't an accident.
This was planned.
Calculated.
Someone wanted me gone.
Just as I'm seconds from hitting the dark plague of water below, traveling at a speed that will turn impact into obliteration, my final words spill out:
"God, I hate you... and love?—"
The water rises up to meet me, black and final as death itself.
I never finish.
THREE TIMES
