Page 99 of These Rough Waters

There is just peace.

Forty-six

Ifollow behind the blacked-out Audi at a breakneck speed, almost losing control of the car on several occasions since Trevor was driving like an absolute maniac.

I slam my hand down on the horn, warning other drivers and pedestrians but then the Audi suddenly careens to the side, tires skidding over the water on the road.

“No!” I hear myself scream as I watch it make impact with a tree, the metal wrapping around it as if it were made of paper. Smoke bellows from the engine and the noise… fuck, the noise. Metal crunching, steam hissing, glass smashing… it echoes inside my head. And I can’t get there quick enough.

The cops are there before me since they’d been alerted of the reckless driving already, and I slam on my brakes, jumping out and rushing forward, her name roaring from my throat.

Someone grabs me, stopping me in my tracks.

“Sir! You have to stay back!” They order.

“Maya!”

“Sir!”

“She’s mine! She’s my – my,” I couldn’t get the words out between the sudden sobs. I lost her. It happened again. “MAYA!”

“Sir!”

“Please!” I beg, “She needs me.”

Sirens wail somewhere in the city, close and yet so far.

“Sir!” The cop bellows as I manage to get out of his grip and run towards my girl. I dodge several more officers but then I’m right there and I see her hair dangling from the open car door, see the blood splattered on what was left of the windshield. Her hand dangles lifelessly out of the car, blood dripping from her fingers.

And I break.

My knees hit the ground hard, “No, no, no, no.” I repeat, over and over again as if I could say it enough and change this outcome. “Maya. Please. I can’t do this again, I can’t lose you. Please.” The words ramble from my lips, falling on deaf ears. It was useless. She was gone. Taken from me.

“Driver deceased,” I hear a paramedic yell.

Someone touches Maya but I can’t focus on anything other than that blood that drips from her perfect fingers, can’t see anything other than those strands of hair as the wind teases them, blowing them as she lays there still.

“Maya.” I say her name.

“We have a pulse!” Someone yells.

My head snaps to the paramedic tending my girl as he orders his team around.

“She’s alive!?” I get to my feet.

“Who are you?”

“Her fiancé.” I lie, “Her name is Maya Hargrove.”

“Sir, step back, we’ve got to work. She has a pulse but it’s weak.”

“Save her,” I beg. “Please, save her.”

His eyes scan my face, seeing every single emotion I have to give plastered across my expression. I would give everything. Anything. My whole damn life.

“Please.”

He nods once.

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