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CHAPTER SEVENTY

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Charlie Amor: Oh my god. What’s happened? Who is that?

Geoff Askew: That’s ? —

[silence]

Charlie: [clears throat] I apologize for the silence. We’ve had a crash. A massive crash. Vanessa Lennon’s car is off the track, and it is in flames.

Geoff: Red flags have been called on the race, and no news on the state of the driver. We will tell you as soon as we know more.

Charlie: It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a crash like that. If ever.

Terror sang in my chest and it wasn’t mine. For the longest heartbeat in the history of the world, it was all I could feel, and then it went blank.

The flash in my wing-mirror drew my eye. A fucking fireball rising into the air. “What was that?”

“I—” Glenn stopped. “Fuck.”

“Glenn. Was that Vanessa?”

I heard him swallow. “Yeah.”

There wasn’t even a conscious thought. I jerked the car off the track and let it skid. Let it fucking crash for all I cared. As soon as it wasn’t moving I jumped out and sprinted . My helmet hit the ground somewhere along the way.

Smoke poured upward from where she’d crashed, and I could still see the flames. The entire car was swallowed in them. The bond between us was nothing but blankness. It didn’t feel broken, but how would I know? How would I know ?

“ VANESSA!” I roared her name before I reached the car. Fuck, the heat was too much and I couldn’t even get near it. But I would try if I had to.

“Sir!”

An arm kept me from lunging into the fire. The safety car was there, people spraying down the flames. But they were so high and so hot. Dread seeped under my skin.

She would make it out. She had to. She had to .

The fire extinguishers barely made a dent. Our suits were made to handle fire, but this? I didn’t know how long she had. If the car burned like this, how long until it got worse and the engine blew?

Through the flames I saw her. Or her helmet.

Oh god. The car had cracked into pieces.

Fuck it. I wasn’t going to stand here and watch the love of my life burn alive. Shoving the man holding me back off me, I ran, ignoring the calls for me to stop.

The heat was almost unbearable even with the flames starting to abate under all the water and fire suppressant. There . “Vanessa.” Heat seared my throat and I closed my mouth. She was still strapped into the seat. Surrounded by flames but not on fire. Yet. They were damn close. Come on, baby .

I fought with the harness to get it off until it gave, pain reaching me from some place far away. I ignored it. Vanessa was in my arms now. I held her close and got us out of the flames together.

Fresh heat slammed into us from behind with a roar, knocking me to my knees, still holding her. I managed to keep her from hitting the ground.

Holy fuck. Did it just explode?

I laid her gently on the ground and pulled her helmet off. “Vanessa. Baby. Talk to me, baby.” The soft sound and feel of her breath made hot emotion flood my eyes. I took a ragged breath. She was alive.

I threw a hand up in the air with a thumbs up, knowing the cameras would see it. So everyone would know she was alive. Whether she was all right was a different question. “Vanessa?”

She looked almost peaceful there, unconscious.

“Let us through, sir.”

Paramedics swarmed around me, carefully supporting her head and lifting her onto a rolling stretcher for the ambulance that was now on the track. I hadn’t even heard the sirens through the sound of fire.

“She won’t wake up.”

“She hit the wall pretty hard,” one of the medics said without looking up. His fingers held her wrist. “But her pulse is good. Looks like we might have a broken bone or two. Let’s get her out of here.”

“Wait—”

The man fixed his gaze on me. “You and your pack can meet us at the hospital, but we have to go now.”

“Right.” I stepped back, unable to tear my gaze from Vanessa. Everything in me wanted to touch her. Hold her. Protect her from whatever was coming after her and I couldn’t fucking touch her without knowing if I was hurting her.

The only way I could watch them load her into the ambulance was to lock every muscle in my body and not move until after they drove away.

What did I do now?

“Mr. Daniels.” A female paramedic stood there, and I hadn’t noticed. There was a second car, a smaller safety vehicle. “Can you come with me so we can look at your hands?”

“My hands?”

One glance told me my gloves were burned. Some places looked… melted? The harness. The pain. I’d burned my hands. My gloves looked melted. It barely registered.

“I’m fine.”

“Afraid I can’t take that for an answer. We need to get you checked out, and if you come with me, you’ll get to her faster.”

That was what had me moving and climbing into the car. The echoes of the other guys were grim and determined. Holding everything back, much the same way I was. I swallowed. “Will she be all right?”

“She’s in good hands.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“Because I don’t have one for you. I think she’ll be fine, but I’m not with her and I can’t promise. But things looked good.”

For the first time I understood Gray’s fear. It wasn’t something I’d ever really thought about. Fear wasn’t a factor when I got into a car. It felt too natural for me to be afraid. If anything, I felt powerful and invincible whenever I drove.

But the fear I held now? For Vanessa? I couldn’t unfeel this. If it was anywhere close to what Gray felt every time either of us got into a car, I owed him an apology.

“Looks like you have some pretty nasty burns on your hands. But I’m going to let the hospital remove the gloves for you, just to make sure there’s no extra damage.”

“Okay.”

I didn’t have my phone. Didn’t have anything. I needed to know more. What had happened? Would she be all right? It felt like a giant hand wrapped around my chest and would keep squeezing until I knew that I didn’t lose the best thing that had ever happened to me.

They sat me on a gurney to take me into the hospital, even though I told them I was fine. “Where’s Vanessa?”

“Mr. Daniels, we have to make sure you’re okay from the fire. We’re going to check your lungs and the burns on your hands. Looks like you might have got a little seared on your face and neck, but it’s not bad.”

“I don’t give a shit about me.”

“We do?—”

“If you don’t tell me where my Omega is right this fucking second, we are going to have a problem.”

The doctor looked at me, eyes hard. “Your Omega is safe. She’s being taken care of right now, and from what I observed it looks like she’s in good shape. Now hold still and let us work you up. It will be faster. Otherwise, I will sedate you.”

I let my rage flow through my expression, but I kept myself still.

This was one of the doctors who was at every race. I recognized him. Not a local doctor. We didn’t speak every language of the countries we traveled to, so there were medical staff that traveled too. But it also meant I wasn’t about to take any bullshit from him.

“Don’t tell me she’s fucking fine when I just pulled her out of the burning wreckage of her car,” I snarled. “Where is she?”

“Mr. Daniels, you have severe burns on your hands and we need to treat them. I promise you that Miss Lennon is in good hands, and I will let you see her as soon as you’re looked after.”

“I don’t care?—”

“River?” Annika came around the corner, looking every bit as panicked as I felt.

“Annika. They won’t let me see her. Find her. Please.”

“The others are right behind me. I’ll find her.”

I hissed out a breath when the pain hit. The nurse looked up and apologized with her expression. Fuck. My hands weren’t in great shape. I recognized that. But I couldn’t care about anything when Vanessa wasn’t in my line of vision. The raw, unchained part of myself that was wholly Alpha was no longer rational. He believed that Vanessa was only safe if I could see her, and right now, I couldn’t fucking see her.

“Can you fix me up where she is?” I begged. “I need to be there. Please.”

The doctor shot me a look of sympathy before nodding behind me. A sharp prick in my neck made me jerk, and the world went unsteady. “What the fuck did you just give me?”

“It won’t last long and it won’t knock you out completely,” the doctor said. “Just let us take care of you, Mr. Daniels, then we’ll get you where you need to go.”

I was about to get up and prove to them that I was fine, find my Omega, and not take no for an answer, but my legs didn’t work. My arms either. My whole torso swayed, and the doctor caught me falling onto the bed. “Do it,” he said. “His hands need to be finished by the time this wears off.”

They drugged me.

Fuck.