Gabi squared her shoulders and started again. They rounded the second turn for the umpteenth time. When Solomon’s phone went off again, Gabi praised herself on ignoring the noise.
She didn’t even look when Solomon answered his phone. “I’m a little busy right now,” he told whoever called.
“What?”
Ease into the corner; let the wheel do the work.
Perfect. Not one cone off course.
“Oh, fuck.”
Gabi wanted to look toward the passenger seat but thought Solomon was testing her resolve to avoid distractions.
She smiled and kept driving.
“Stop the car!”
The S curve was next. Gabi kept going.
“Stop the car!” This time Solomon grabbed the wheel.
Gabi hit the brake, hard.
As soon as the car rolled to a stop, Solomon hit the button of her seat belt. “Get out.”
“What? What’s—”
“Get out!” He reached over, opened the door, and pushed.
She couldn’t move fast enough before Solomon was out of his side and dragging her from the car. He grasped her hand and ran. She had no choice but to move her feet or risk taking them both down.
“What’s going on?” The words no sooner fell from her lips than noise, heat, and an unknown force pushed her off her feet.
Solomon tucked her into his side as the ground rushed to meet them. Her left arm took the brunt of her fall and pain shot through her.
She couldn’t hear, but the flames coming from behind told her why.
Gabi shielded her eyes when the second explosion went off.
Solomon forced his face in front of hers, his lips were moving but all she heard was ringing.
The Aston blazed in flames.
Solomon placed a hand on her chin. His mouth moved in what she thought was a question. Are you OK?
She nodded even as she began to shake. I can’t hear. She felt vibration in her throat but couldn’t hear her own words.
Solomon pointed to his own ears and shook his head. He lifted his hand that still held his cell phone and said something into it before dropping it to his side.
One of the back tires blew and Gabi’s entire body shook.
Her life could have ended today.
Solomon reached around her and held on.
She let him.
The closed driving course belonged to the police department, making them first on the scene. Gabi knew her hearing loss wasn’t permanent when she heard the high pitch of the fire department sirens.
Dazed, she watched a dozen officials running around the otherwise empty lot. The orange cones close to the Aston melted in a surreal slow death. Someone lifted her arm and encased it in a bandage. She looked down, noticed blood for the first time. Adrenaline must have taken over, because she hadn’t felt a thing after her first kiss with the ground.
Shock, she realized on a level outside her consciousness.
People around her were speaking, but she couldn’t hear any of the softer sounds.
It wasn’t until a paramedic attempted to get her to stand that the adrenaline left her system.
Pain shot in her arm, her knee, and her head was on fire.
The medics lifted her onto the gurney and laid her down.
Solomon shook off the men at his side and stayed close. Watching life, and feeling the pain begin a series of explosions inside her without all the sound that came with it, offered a twist in her conscious.
Movement to her left had her twisting her head.
Hunter . . . his crisp suit slightly ruffled . . . why she thought of the condition of his clothing wouldn’t occur to her for hours, but his clothes stuck out. The frantic man under them, however, wasn’t something she recognized.
He pushed through the police at the scene, pointed her way, and rushed to her side.
Sound was muffled, a mix of sirens and low-pitched bass that made it impossible to hear single words.
Hunter was talking to her, but she couldn’t take in a single word.
He gripped her hand and turned his attention to the paramedic.
Hunter nodded a few times, then looked at her.
That’s when she saw it.
Emotion . . . raw, unscripted.
Unshed tears sat behind his eyes, desperation filled his face.
He climbed into the ambulance with her, spoke to someone behind him. When the door closed and what she could hear was nothing but the screech of a noisy emergency vehicle, she closed her eyes.
Hunter squeezed her hand.
She squeezed back.
Apparently patience was something Hunter was going to learn in the course of a week. He arrived in time to sit beside Gabi on the way to the hospital, but he couldn’t talk to her. The second she was unloaded from the back of the ambulance, the emergency room staff whisked her away.
Someone dragged him away to ask questions . . . most of which he couldn’t answer. Allergies to medications, previous medical conditions?
He didn’t know his wife at all.
It wasn’t long before Neil and Gwen arrived. Shortly after, Samantha ran in. When Judy arrived, she was on the phone with Gabi’s family.
Neil explained what he knew but didn’t elaborate.