Page 103 of Use Me

I didn’t respond.

Instead, I turned my head forward and waited for the light to turn green. When it did, I stepped on the gas. Corey did the same, but instead of slowly moving forward, he sped past me and then got in front of me in my lane. He slammed on his breaks, and I stopped hard, coming within inches of hitting him.

“What the fuck?” I shouted out of anger as we came to a dead stop.

Cars behind me started to honk, and cars in the left lane kept moving. I looked in the rearview mirror, looking for a break in the line of cars passing us so that I could go around Corey. Instead, out of the corner of my eye, I saw him get out of his car.

This was it.

This was the moment I’d waited my entire life for.

The moment I could finally stand up to the guy who thought I was a punching bag and not a human being.

Except as I stared at him as he walked toward my driver’s side door, I saw him reach behind his back, and then, for the second time in my entire life, I was staring down the barrel of a gun.

“You’ve got to be fucking shitting me!”

“I told you I’d stop you,” he spat.

My eyes stayed glued to the black hole. The one that at any moment could discharge the bullet that would end my life. How was this happening again? How the fuck was this my life? This time there would be no Ethan rushing in to save the day. I was alone and in my car.

“Put the gun down, Corey,” I yelled, not rolling down my window as though that could stop a bullet. I held up my hands in surrender and faintly recalled the cars behind me had stopped honking, and no cars were driving past us anymore. Everyone was probably scared he’d turn the gun on them. I was the only lucky one though.

“Shut up!” he bellowed. “I’m tired of your fucking mouth.”

“What are you talking about?”

“When you have Ashtyn next to you, you think you’re some big badass. Well, who has the upper-hand now?”

“Okay, man.” I was going to agree to anything while he was pointing a Glock at my face. “Just put the gun down, and we’ll talk.”

“You don’t get it. You’ve taken everything from me.”

“Ashtyn doesn’t want you back.”

“I don’t want her back either. I want you to pay for ruining my life!”

It happened in a blink of an eye. I didn’t see Corey fire the gun. What I did hear was my window breaking and then I felt a sharp, burning pain in my arm as I flinched. I grabbed my arm, trying to stop the sting, and the bleeding I assumed was coming from my shoulder and onto my shirt and coat. Then I watched, speechless as Corey ran back to his car and sped away.

I didn’t know what to do. I was alive. I was conscious, and I was in so much pain when I moved my arm slightly that I wanted to pass out. Still clutching my arm, I startled when a man ran up to my door and flung it open.

“Are you hit?”

“Yeah,” I breathed.

“Help is on the way.”

“We’re moving you to a private room in just a minute.” I blinked and realized the nurse on the computer was still talking to me.

I nodded and fell back asleep, no longer able to keep my eyes open.

When I woke again, I heard more voices.

“He’ll be in and out for a while until the anesthesia wears off.”

“I won’t be long.”

I opened my eyes to see Ashtyn talking to a nurse. “Cupcake,” I whispered gruffly.