Chapter 119

Gun fireand squealing tires erupted all around Dana but she only heard the sound of her own screaming as she lay on the ground watching Meredith's eyes close. She wanted to crawl to her, but each time she moved the world swayed with dizzying ferocity.

Dana forced herself to her knees only to retch violently. She tasted bile as her vision tunneled in and out. Bright orbs of light dancing to and fro, making the gruesome scene in front of her even more surreal.

Then Jake was there, his arms around her, pulling her into his lap. He had his phone to his ear, barking orders. "I repeat, two officers down. Three injured. Where are my buses?"

He rattled off codes and terms she didn't understand, all the while holding her in his arms. She looked up at his tear-streaked face, wondering if she was crying, too.

How could she not be?

All around her, bodies lay fallen and motionless.

Even Claire's.

Dana forced herself to look at the body of the girl she'd once loved. It was hunched against a bloodstained airbag of the police cruiser nearby. Dana gazed at her through the spiderweb of glass where a single bullet hole punctured the windshield.

Claire looked like a broken doll. But as Dana stared at her and felt nothing, she feared she was the one who'd truly been broken.

That's when she heard a snap, followed by the sorrowful whine of wood giving way. She looked up to see the tree Claire had crashed the cruiser into lumbering toward them in slow motion. She raised her arm, pointing toward it, begging Jake to look. He did. But she was too late. All she could do was close her eyes.