Page 106 of Burn Falls

“I’ll figure it out when I get to Anchorage.”

“I’m not letting you go alone.”

I turned around and glared at him. “I didn’t think you would since you’ve been my bodyguard for almost two months.”

“Good. I’m glad we’re on the same page.”

I groaned and pushed the door open that led to the parking lot. The dark sky had opened up, and rain poured down. “Just get in the car, Athan!”

“Men are so stupid,” I grumbled to myself, going around a turn a little too fast. I wasn’t getting to Draven fast enough. As far as I knew, he would leave without Athan before his shift ended. I wasn’t taking any chances.

“We’re not men.”

“I know that!” I hissed. “Draven mentioned that little fact to me over the phone. Over the phone, Athan! He broke up with me over the phone.”

“You know why, right?”

I turned my head to look at him for a second. “Because of Mary?”

“Yes.”

“So, you’re saying that even if we get past this, I’ll always compete with a dead woman?”

“No, I’m not saying that at all.”

“Then what are you saying?” I took another turn, the tires squealing slightly.

“Slow down, Andretti.”

“Who?”

“Race car driver, Mario Andretti?”

I still had no clue.

“Forget it. Anyway, what I’m saying is that Draven may think he doesn’t love you, but all of this is because he does love you and that scares him because the last time he was in love, she ended up dead because of him.”

“So his plan is to die himself?”

“Yeah.”

“Fuck that, Athan!” I took another turn and there, in the middle of the road, was a family of deer. Before I could stop or hit them, I swerved the car and hit the guardrail. The car flipped into the air and then rolled down a hill, only to stop on its roof when we hit something large and hard. A shooting pain tore through my chest before everything went black.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

“Parker,” Elizabeth, the charge nurse on duty, stuck her head into the break room where I was chatting with Elena, one of my nurses. “LifeMed in route. Fractured right arm. ETA five minutes.”

Elena and I stood, and she went left while I went right to grab a blood bag to drink. As I was almost done with the bag, my phone started to vibrate in my pocket. I thought it would be Calla calling back to apologize for hanging up on me or to try to change my mind. Instead, it was Athan.

“Yes?” I clipped because he knew I was at work and hated to be bothered.

“It’s bad, man. Really bad!”

“What are you talking about?

“Calla and I got into an accident.”

I went rigid. “What?”