We both grab the wheel, fighting for control.
“Stop it,” she sobs, pulling against me and slapping at my hands. “Let me go back!”
“Ican’tlose you,” I yell in her face.
The truck hits the shoulder, bucking and jolting us about the cab while sand blasts the windshield. We fishtail, hard, until we finally come to a grinding, bone-jarring stop in a cloud of dust and heartbreak.
The silence that follows is absolute.
Both of us are panting frantic breaths as we stare at each other.
Holy fucking shit!
Chapter Four
PHOENIX
We continue to stare at each other, trying to take in the fact that we could have died in that fucking chaos. I think about speaking, but choose to sit in the moment with her.
Still frantically breathing.
Still silent.
Until Clover tries to swallow down a broken inhale. But it’s no use, and the dam breaks. Her shoulders curl in, trembling under the weight of everything she’s been holding back, and the sound that comes out of her next is not just crying.
It’s grief.
It’s rage.
It’s utter, undeniable helplessness.
A gut-wrenching sob cuts through the cab like shrapnel, and I swear I feel it embed in my soul. So, I reach for her. Gently. Slowly. My hand finds her back, trembling beneath my touch, and I press my palm between her shoulder blades. A silent promise that I’m here.
“Clo…” I murmur, leaning in. “I’m sorry.”
She doesn’t pull away.
Not at first.
For a moment, she lets me hold her.
My arm slides around her shoulders, drawing her close. She folds into me like a house of cards collapsing. Her fingers slide up, clenching my shirt quietly, fragile in ways she’ll never admit.
I rest my cheek against her hair, my throat too tight to speak as we sit in the aftermath.
And then, a switch flips, and her body goes rigid. She shoves me back with both hands, jerking away from my hold as if I’veburned her, her face contorted with rage as she glares at me with the venom of a thousand snakes.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she snaps, voice raw from tears.
Furrowing my brows in confusion, I jerk my head back. “I-I’m trying to help—”
“You don’tgetto help,” she cries, wrenching the door open so fast it bangs against the hinges as she jumps out faster than lightning.
What the? “Clover—”
She storms off before I can finish, slamming the door behind her with enough force to shake the whole damn cab.
I sit here, stunned, the echo of that slam ringing louder than her sobs.
