Samantha didn’t even have time to react.
Her face went pale as she screamed, “Oh no!”
A deafening crash shattered the silence.
Both drivers had slammed on their brakes with everything they had, but the momentum was too much. The two vehicles collided in a brutal crash.
Because of the angle of impact, the black sedan coming from the opposite direction tipped sideways and rolled onto its side.
For a second, none of us moved.
We just sat there, frozen.
Then, through the cracked windshield of the wreck, a woman emerged, her face covered in blood. She staggered toward us, barely able to stay on her feet.
Samantha finally snapped out of it. Her face had turned ghost-white.
She spun to me, panic rising in her voice as she kept repeating, “What do we do? What do we do?!”
Before anyone could even try to answer, the injured woman was already in our car.
She slapped her blood-slicked palm against the driver’s side window, yelling in desperation, “Please help! Someone’s still inside!”
I didn’t think twice.
“Unlock the door. Now. Let us out so we can help!” I shouted at Samantha.
Still trembling, she rolled down the window, and the doors popped open. We all piled out.
Kyle was the first one out, but instead of helping, he turned on the injured woman with that entitled, spoiled-kid snarl of his.
“Are you blind?! You saw us coming and didn’t even try to get out of the way?!”
He gestured toward the wreckage in fury as he added, “Now look what you’ve done! Do you have any idea how important today was for me?! You just ruined everything!”
The woman’s right arm hung at an awkward angle—probably broken—yet she didn’t flinch. Her voice trembled with panic as she pointed back at the car.
“Please… my mother-in-law. She’s still in there.”
That hit me like a shot to the chest.
I didn’t waste another second.
I ran over to the overturned sedan, crouched down, and peered through the busted window. Inside, an elderly woman was slumped in the backseat, unconscious. She was skin and bones, her face deathly pale, twisted in pain. The crushed frame had her pinned tight.
I dropped to the ground and carefully freed her, trying my best not to make the damage worse. She was trembling as I lay her down, her breathing shallow and weak. But even through the pain, she managed to whisper one word.
“Thank you.”
Then her eyes fluttered shut, and she slipped into semi-consciousness.
The bloodied woman rushed to my side and gave me a deep, desperate bow. “Thank you so much!”
Her voice cracked as she looked at me, pleading.
“Please… could you drive her to the hospital? She’s in critical condition, and I can’t drive like this. My arm’s broken…”
This was bad. If that old woman didn’t make it, we could all be held responsible.
I turned to Samantha without hesitation. “Help me get her into the car. We’ve gotta get her to the hospital—fast.”
But before Samantha could even move, Kyle stepped in between us, his face twisted in frustration.
“Are you outta your damn mind? Why should we take her to the hospital?”
He jabbed a finger at me, voice rising.
“If we do that, how the hell am I supposed to make it to the Great Plains Music Fest?! What about Sweetie’s autograph?!”
Then Kyle turned to Samantha, barking orders like he owned her. “Get in the car. Now. Head back to the exit. We’re already late.”
As he and Samantha started heading to the car, the injured woman suddenly stepped in front of her, blocking her way.
Her voice, once panicked, had become steady as she composed herself. “You can’t leave! My mother-in-law has serious internal injuries. If she doesn’t get help soon, she’ll die.”
Kyle didn’t even blink. His face darkened, and without a word, he shoved her hard.
She hit the ground with a dull thud.
“Your mother-in-law dying has nothing to do with me!” he snapped. “Get the hell out of the way before I really lose my patience!”
The woman paused for a second, then slowly pushed herself up with her uninjured arm. Blood dripped from the corner of her mouth, but her voice remained steady, and her eyes were as sharp as a blade.
“You idiots hit us while driving the wrong way on a highway. And now you’re yelling and shoving people around like you’re the victims?”
She straightened up, still trembling, but she stood her ground. Her eyes locked onto Kyle as she pointed at him with her shaking hand.
“You think I’m just some woman you can intimidate?”
Her tone dropped low. Steel-hard. “Let me tell you who I am. My husband is Dominic Graves.”
She let that sink in before continuing.
“He’s already on his way here. And when he finds out how you treated his wife and his mother…”
Her voice dipped to a near whisper, but it cut like a knife.
“You have no idea what he’ll do to you.”
The moment she said Dominic Graves of Ravenport, my heart skipped a beat.
That name was known in every shadowed alley, whispered in every corner of the city.
And now Kyle had shoved his wife and nearly killed his mother?
We weren’t just screwed.
We were dead men walking.
