Page 17 of The Night Firm

“No offense, but I highly doubt there’s anything you could possibly teach me,” he says and then he snaps up his newspaper and proceeds to ignore me again.

“How could I possibly find that offensive?” I ask, with a sharp dose of sarcasm before I turn away from him, folding my arms firmly across my chest to reinforce my point.

I press my lips together, biting my tongue to avoid saying something hot-headed and stupid to my new boss who already doesn’t like me. The boss I now have to live with.

What have I gotten myself into? I wonder, not for the first time and very likely not for the last.

The minutes tick by slowly, and the exhaustion of the last couple of days seeps into my bones. Just as I'm about to doze off, my flash buzzes in my head. My eyes blink open as my body slams forward. My seat belt tightens around my waist and chest, digging into my skin even through my clothes, pushing out all the breath in me.

And then my world is spinning. Spinning wildly, toppling end over end, crunching and slamming and crashing into itself.

Pain shoots through me, but I can't tell where on my body it specifically hurts. My nerves dance, lit up like current pouring through live wires. I feel everything until it becomes a kind of nothing.

When I can think clearly again, I findI'm hanging from my seatbelt, upside down in what’s left of the car, my head spinning and my breathing coming in short gasps.

There's a voice, but I can't find the face it belongs to.

He's saying my name.

"Eve. Eve, focus on me. Eve. Stay with me."

I blink. Something thick drips into my eyes, stinging. The face in question comes into focus, and though my mind is sluggish, and words and names come reluctantly, as if being dragged through tar, the visceral response of my body is instant. Warmth floods me, and I feel myself sinking into him, like into quicksand.

"Sebastian," I say with a raspy throat. "What happened?"

"We hit a deer. The limo flipped. I need to get you out of here. I'm going to unbuckle you, but I need you to hold onto me. Can you do that?"

I lick my parched lips and nod. His words sound like they're coming from underwater, but I think I understand.

He reaches for me, one hand wrapping behind my back, the other hand over my waist. "Are you ready?" he asks.

I nod, then mumble, “Yes.”

My heart quickens—in fear? anticipation?—as he unlatches the seatbelt. Gravity takes over and I fall unceremoniously into his arms. The removal of pressure causes blood to rush into my extremities, leading to pain.

A whole lot of pain.

I look down and see a metal rod sticking out of my right leg. "Holy shit!" I scream as my leg spasms.

I reach to pull the rod out, but Sebastian stops me.

"It's safer to leave it for now."

I’m fighting to breathe, my ribs aching with the effort to move oxygen through my body.

I bury my face in his chest, closing my eyes against whatever is happening outside his embrace. Fear pulses through me, tainting my body with the sour smell of it.

Everything slows, and there's an unearthly quiet outside for a moment before a loudwhumpcomes from somewhere behind us andheat begins penetrating the back seat, filling it with smoke.

For a moment I contemplate my own death, that this might be my last moment on earth. I find I'm not as scared as I always expected I would be. I will be with my parents and my brother. With my family.

But I don't die. Not now, anyways.

Sebastian holds me close to him, crouching in the ruined limo.

“I need you to trust me,” he says, his mouth pressed against my ear.

I nod.