Hadn’t she searched his lips for her salvation? Didn’t she need his stability? His unwavering devotion to anything and everything she had to offer? He was sure he felt her sigh as they knelt together at their shared discovery of their love for one another.
He drove watching the road with only a dazed view. The SUV headed toward a strip of road under construction, forcing four lanes to narrow tightly. With no shoulder on either side, Cole’s anguish mind registered but ground its teeth at the idea there was no room for error and he should reduce his speed.
Instead, his foot pressed harder on the accelerator. The SUV responded immediately. Anger and hurt surged so painfully in his chest, he couldn’t hold in the sobs. They tore his throat raw. The thick, unforgiving cement barrier separating his northbound traffic from the oncoming southbound flew by his driver’s side window in a beautiful blur.
Creed leaned down to caress her face with soft kisses, and as she awakened, she leaned up to accept his touches with kisses of her own.
His mind flashed to the countless times they’d exchanged smiles, laughs, unobtrusive touches over the last year. He only wanted to be worthy of her love, but he was never good enough.
The drab gray of the median became mesmerizing.
Cole found himself fixating on the cement barrier. It was thick, dull cement with a periodic seam, but he was traveling so fast, all details were lost in the blur. His eyes kept drifting from the road ahead, to the heartless, impassive median.
It was calling to him.
His final thought was of the way Meg sighed beautifully when she pressed her lips to Creed’s there in the dusky barn.
He yanked the steering wheel sharply to the left and directly into the cement median.
The sound of the SUV hitting the immovable cement would have been chiseled onto anyone’s mind.
Metal against median.
It screamed a deafening screech. The SUV flipped over the median and landed upside down, directly onto the path of oncoming traffic.
The driver of the eighteen-wheeler would later describe the events as unreal, as if he was watching a movie. He saw the white vehicle flip up and fly over the protective cement median. And when he heard his wheels screeching to an ineffective stop as it careened into the inverted vehicle, he knew there was no way to stop his rig and its heavy load from ramming the SUV. He watched helplessly as the car flipped over and over down into the ditch beside the four lane highway on that Texas road. Its final resting place was anything but as the car spun eerily upside down at the bottom of the ravine.
Cole’s body looked only like a wicked blood smear on the shattered windshield, still cracking and groaning under the effects of the accident. The black seat belt dangled uselessly above the crumpled and broken body of the boy with the green eyes.
Chapter 35 Bad News or Really Bad News?
“There’s something I need to tell you,” Creed began, eyes sweeping the room. Everyone was there except Cole. No one had seen him for a while and the SUV was gone, so the parents figured he was out running an errand. It was unusual that he hadn’t checked with anyone before leaving, and even stranger still that he’d left his cell phone sitting on the catch-all tray in the kitchen.
Looking intently at Creed, Meg focused on his emotions and sensed something momentous was about to be said and it had everything to do with her.
She swallowed hard and tried to brace herself, but the intensity of the secret was bringing about a cold clamminess that swept fast over her skin. The enormity of the unspoken secret pressed her chest hard enough to make her breathe only the shallowest of breaths.
He leaned forward, draping his thick elbows on his knees, letting his hands hang loose between and looked down gathering his thoughts. “Before, I mentioned that Williams had some sensitive material he was holding against me to force me to obey his orders.” He looked around the room to be sure the others acknowledged his reference before continuing. “Well, I don’t know how to say this.” He looked back up at Meg. Her eyes had never left him, but her body began to shiver with adrenaline. This was going to be bad.
He stood and walked across the room to sit beside her on one of the sprawling sofas. Though she didn’t see it herself, Meg could sense the room was feeling the tension building.
“What is it? Just say it?” Meg’s voice quivered.