ONE
VIOLETA ‘VI’ PEREZ
I blinked.Once, twice, three times.
I had no idea why, but for some reason, I couldn’t make sense of what I was looking at.
Of what had just happened.
I stared out the shattered windshield of my old SUV and let out a shaky breath.
“This cannot be happening,” I whispered to myself. I swallowed down fear and bile. Usually, Fridays were great. They were the days I looked forward to the most. The best. Easy. My fun days, so to speak.
But not this Friday. One thing had tumbled into another, creating an avalanche of an incredibly crappy day.Now, this?This was the cherry on top of a shit-tastic sundae.
“Hey!” a deep voice sounded, slightly muffled. I blinked and slowly turned my head, wincing in pain. I glanced out the window. Crap, that one was broken, too! “Hey,” the deep voice called again, and I tried to focus on the man coming closer.
Not that he could get that close.
Not when an electrical pole that had been struck by a truck had fallen on top of my car.Am I dead?I wondered as my visioncleared slightly, no longer as blurry due to being shaken up that badly. Nope, I was crying.Ugly crying.
The man mere feet away was beautiful. Had I’d actually died?
“Are you an angel?” I asked because the guy was way too good-looking to be a police officer in real life. He was hot enough to play one on TV, that was for sure.
I shut my eyes and breathed in, then exhaled slowly. Okay, it didn’t hurt to breathe. That was a good sign. I tried to get a better look at him through the shattered glass. Tall and brawny with close-cut dark hair and an even darker scruff covering his jaw. Almost like he’d been in a hurry this morning and didn’t have time to shave.Glad I wasn’t the only one who woke up late!
The navy-blue uniform didn’t hide the muscles that lay beneath. And he had two sleeves of tattoos that went from his short cuffs all the way to his wrist in an intricate design I couldn’t quite make out. I was too far to see what was drawn on his muscled forearms arms.Do angels have tattoos?
“What?” His lips twitched up, and I could have sworn there was a hint of not one but two dimples. Dimples that made him look even hotter. Not that I was able to appreciate it for long. He moved closer, but the wires hanging off the windshield of my old car sparked, and I yelled.
“Oh god!” My body felt like it was vibrating.
That’s when it all came tumbling back.
The high-speed pursuit. I’d witnessed when the big black truck flew past me, and not a second later, just when I’d approached the stop sign, I heard the loud BANG of the truck just in time for me to see the big wooden electrical post fall right on top of my car. The sound of metal crunching up still rang in my ears.
“Shit, stay where you are! It’s going to be okay,” the handsome cop reassured me. His eyes took in the situation.
“I’m not dead?” I asked as I looked at the front seat of my older sedan. The middle of the roof was sagging, and the glass in front of me was shattered.All the glass in my car seemed to be.
“No, beautiful. You’re not dead. You’re very, very alive. I’m gonna help stay you that way, okay?”Beautiful?Maybe I had a concussion, and I was hearing what I wanted to hear. How long had it been since someone had said something nice to me?
“Promise?” I asked with a cheesy smile that probably made me look like a crazy person who was flirting in a seriously inappropriate time! The wires snapped and popped, making me jump again. I squeaked with fear. So much for flirting and trying to lighten the situation.
Shit.My heart rate started to pick up speed, but my breathing was becoming shallow as I thought about my predicament. I was dizzy. Lightheaded. There was an electrical pole on top of my car. Live wires jumping and sparking.
Shit. I was going to get electrocuted.
Is this how I am going to die?
“Hey! Look at me again, beautiful,” the cop snapped me out of my dark thoughts. Even through the shattered glass, I could make out his eyes and the way they locked with mine. “I promise, princess. I’m going to get you out,” the handsome officer reassured me.
I didn’t know him.
This was probably what he was trained to do. Give hope to the hopeless.Shit.Tears burned behind my eyes, but somehow, I didn’t let them roll down my face. This couldn’t be how I died. Zapped by a stupid electric pole like some kind of bug! Nope, I wasn’t going to let my mind go down that path.
Instead, like some kind of horny lunatic, I chose to check out the hot cop. And my oh my, there was a lot to soak in. My gaze skated down his broad chest. I tried to read his name but couldn’t make out what it said. I lifted my hand and touchedthe bridge of my nose. My head was hurting. Pounding really. Something wet ran down the side of my face that was probably blood. If it was, I seriously needed to ignore it because blood made me woozy.
