Page 107 of Danger

The edges of the world blur, darkness closing in fast and merciless. The last thing I see is that note. Then everything goes black.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

danger

I should have tried harderto stop her. All it would’ve taken was a sentence. A few words said at the right time.

But I don’t say anything.

I stand there like a prick and let her look at me like I am exactly what I always thought—someone who ruins anything good.

Maybe she needed to see it. Maybe she needed an ending that didn’t leave room for hope.

So, when she stared at me through the windshield, eyes red and breaking, I let the silence do the damage. Rylee is still in my head, a constant reminder of what happened the last time I let myself believe I could have something good. So I let Winnie fill in the blanks. Let her walk away. Give her an easy out instead of the mess I’d drag her into if this kept going down the path it was on.

If she hurts now, she won’t hurt later.

She deserves this out.

Gravel spits under her tires as she pulls away like the ground can’t get her far enough from me fast enough.

“Winnie—” I yell, but she’s already too far.

My body locks up. I watch her taillights disappear down the road and tell myself this is for the best. That putting someone first sometimes looks like letting them go. That sometimes you have to hurt them to set them free.

“Fuck.” I run my hands through my hair.

I have to go after her.

I don’t even remember when I grabbed my keys.

I’m in my truck, tires biting into dirt as I tear after her. I’m going over one hundred. She shouldn’t even be driving in this direction. This close to Kennedy land, a quarter mile from their fence. She rounds the next bend, and for a second her brake lights flare. I see the swerve before I hear the tires.

Her car crests the bend ahead of me. Then it jerks.

Hard.

“What the fuck. No?—”

My stomach drops out completely.

Time stretches as I watch her lose control.

The impact is deafening.

Metal screams. Glass bursts. Her car slams into the tree with a sound that can’t be fucking real.

The world stops moving but my body doesn’t.

I don’t stop the truck, just abandon it. I’m running, boots pounding dirt, lungs burning, her name ripping out of my chest like a prayer I don’t deserve.

“Winnie!”

Her car is folded around the tree, steam hissing from the hood. The windshield is shattered. The driver’s side is crushed.

She’s not moving. Head slumped against the wheel, hair splayed out over the airbag. The door is crumpled inward, metal locking her in.

I try the handle, but it’s stuck solid. I back up, pull my shirt off, wrap it around my fist. There’s a hot wind building fromunder the hood, and the engine’s hissing, fluids pouring out. I catch the first hint of flame.