Page 102 of The Bratva's Christmas Bump
If Zoe can fight, then so can I. The baby inside me deserves a mother who fights.
I can’t tell how long I lay there before consciousness finally fully trickled back into my mind. Wounds from the crash turn numbin the cold as I drag my frozen hands across the ground and brace them. Limbs ache and joints twinge, and my head swims as I get onto my hands and knees, then up onto my unsteady feet, and survey the damage.
Despite the bright illumination of the headlights, it takes a few seconds for the car to come into view through the thickly falling snow. The car’saboveme, caught in some warped iron fencing that Vinnie crashed through when he lost control of the vehicle. Metal creaks and groans as the car sways dangerously. With each second, the weight of the vehicle pulls against the weakening railings, bringing the car closer to collapsing down into the underpass I’ve woken up in.
Around me, untouched snow sparkles in the headlights, and behind me is the hole my body carved out when I was flung through the windshield. It’s a miracle I’m even alive and cold tears spring into my eyes as both my hands caress my belly.
They come away sticky and warm. Glancing down, blood coats my palms, but just as panic crawls up my throat like venom, the open wound on my shoulder that’s sluggishly bleeding shows itself as the source of the blood. My relief is short-lived as I stumble backward and a wave of dizziness washes over me.
I have to get out of here.
Squinting up at the car, it’s empty, which means Vinnie is around here somewhere. With the car being out of reach, looking for my phone is pointless. Around me, dead trees loom out of the darkness and there’s a distant trickle of water somewhere to my left. Other than that, there’s silence. Pain swells from the back of my skull, clouding my thoughts as I try to recall where we were before we crashed.
“Walk,” I murmur to myself, and blood sweeps over my tongue. “Gotta walk.”
The miracle of surviving the crash threatens to be overshadowed by the biting cold that attacks my bare skin, exposed through my torn clothing. Vinnie didn’t give me a chance to grab my coat, so I trudge through the snow in just my leggings and ruined blouse.
“Hollie!” Vinnie’s voice roars out of somewhere in the darkness. I jump, nearly losing my balance. “Get back here, you fucking bitch!”
Run, Hollie, run!
Snow slips underfoot, my breath escapes in short, sharp pants, and the pain at the base of my skull swells like a ball is forming at the top of my spine. I ignore it all and I run, sprinting as fast as I can away from the wreckage. Feet pounding, arms swinging and joints screaming, I run as fast as I can.
And I don’t stop.
Tree roots hidden under the snow reach through the flakes to grab my ankles and trip me up, tree branches cut my skin and pull at my clothes as I run, and the snow falls thicker to blind me in an already impenetrable darkness, but I don’t stop running. I keep going even as pressure swells in my chest and forces even shorter gasps of air from me, as my gut twists and cramps and my body freezes.
Then I glimpse light.
Through the trees, an array of color welcomes me with warmth and light, and the soft hum of voices. We must be in the park, and whatever event is happening up there will save me. I just have to get there.
My heart pounds fiercely, thumping in my ears and threatening to burst with how hard I’m pushing myself, but it’s all background noise. I’m almost there, I’m almost?—
The thumping switches rhythm, refusing to match the pounding tremor in my chest. That noise isn’t my heart.
Vinnie crashes into my back with a yell and knocks us both to the ground. A scream tears from my throat, but it’s instantly muted by a mouthful of snow and pain radiates through my entire body, then a lance of fear that falling on my stomach could harm my baby.
“Where the fuck are you going?” Vinnie growls in my ear, forcing my face into the snow and then dragging my hair to one side so his lips rest against my ear. “Did you think I’d let you get away from me this easily? Did you really think I would lose my one chance to lure out that bastard? I don’t need you alive and I’m more than happy to lure him with your corpse if that’s how you’d prefer it!”
With my head to the side, the snow parts in our scuffle to give me a last glimpse of the light and color through the trees. From here, shadows move back and forth as regular people go about their evening. They’re all so close and yet so far away, unable to hear me and unable to help. I try to scream but I can’t get air into my lungs, so all that escapes me is a strangled cry.
Vinnie’s weight increases for a moment and when he tightens his fist in my hair, the pain at the base of my skull becomes blinding.
“On your feet, bitch,” he snarls, then something impossibly cold and sharp presses against my ribs. “Or I’ll burst your lung and watch you suffocate in the snow.”
What is that? A knife? Something worse?
I’m hauled to my feet and struggle to stay upright as the world spins and my knees buckle. Exhausted and pained, I meet Vinnie’s eyes when he forces me to face him.
“You’re insane,” I gasp as snow clings to my chin and cheek. “You really think you can get to him through me?”
The crash has reopened some of the wounds on Vinnie’s face from the snow globe I hit him with, and he holds himself to one side. Some of his ribs must be broken.
“It’s a matter of principle,” Vinnie growls, and the knife in his hand reflects the light. “He won’t be able to resist, and me?” He lunges at me, breathless. “I’m going to?—”
Then he’s gone.
Vinnie vanishes, and I blink slowly through the haze building around my eyes. One second he was in front of me, the next he’s just… gone? Did I die?
