Chapter 8

Sebastian

It probably wasn'tsafe to talk on the phone while driving. Thanks to my Bluetooth, I was able to keep both hands on the wheel, but Newt's voice coming through the speaker still distracted me.

"Come on," Newt begged, his words trailing off into a high-pitched whine. "Just a little hint."

I chuckled under my breath as I pictured the pout that would be on his face right that moment. "No. You said you wanted to solve it yourself."

"But I didn't think it'd be this hard. My break is almost over and I'm no closer to beating this level than I was half an hour ago," he whined.

A week had passed since our first ‘date' and we'd played video games together almost every evening. We'd discovered that while I was better at puzzle solving, Newt was better at precision movements. When it came to things like platforming and speed-running, his nimble fingers somehow knew just what buttons to hit.

He absolutely crushed me at Mario Kart every time.

Of course, all of that was only online. Since our coffee shop date, we hadn't played together face-to-face again. Newt's two jobs kept him busy, so scheduling a time to meet was difficult, but I wasn't going to complain.

I had my own job as well. That was why I was driving home alone so late at night despite the rain pouring down. I needed to meet with someone who unfortunately wasn't available any other time and they'd kept me out until almost midnight.

"Okay, fine," I relented. "One hint."

Although Newt didn't say anything, I could hear him moving around as he celebrated his victory.

At first, I considered just telling him what he wanted to know, but listening to him gloat over an achievement he hadn't earned yet gave me a different idea.

"You have to breathe on yourself."

Silence rang over the line for a moment before Newt's voice exploded.

"What? That's not helpful at all. I have no idea what that means. Stop being cryptic and just tell me."

"You'll have plenty of time to think about it while you're working."

A beep interrupted our conversation, indicating that someone else was calling me. I recognized my brother's number immediately.

A knot of panic tightened my chest.

Why was Damien calling me?

He hated staying up late and should be in bed by now. Earlier, he'd gone out to investigate a possible lead on Jason Dahler's missing brother. The John Doe may not have been our man, but we had other leads to follow.

However, even if Damien had discovered something about Clay Dahler, there was no reason for him to call me. Anything he found could have waited until I got home.

"Newt, I need to hang up. My brother is calling. I'll talk to you later."

I almost didn't need the phone to hear him sigh. His resignation seemed to vibrate the very fabric of reality.

"Fine. I see how it is. Just hang up and leave me clueless."

My panic subsided for a moment in the wake of Newt's dramatics.

"I'll make it up to you on our date this weekend. Still on for that, right?"

"Of course. You're coming over to my place so we can play together in person. And you can meet my roommate, Frankie. You'll like him."

A distant voice could just be heard over the line. Newt exchanged a few words with the person, too far away from the phone's mic for me to hear what he said, then his voice returned.

"My break is over. I've got to go. If you want to make it up to me, then bring me one of those giant cookie-cakes."

"With MM's instead of chocolate chips?" I asked despite already knowing the answer.

"Yep." Even though I couldn't see his smile, I could practically hear the way his mouth curved around the words. "Only a week of dating and you already know me so well. I'm not sure if that means you're too smart, or I'm too simple. Hmm. You're probably just too smart. No one's ever accused me of being simple. Bye. Talk to you later."

Then he hung up.

With the touch of a button, I switched over the Bluetooth to pick up my brother's call.

"Damien? Is something wrong?"

My brother hated talking on the phone while driving. He was paranoid about causing an accident, and never called anyone when he knew they were in a car, even if they were just a passenger. This meant that whatever he needed to tell me must be important.

"Where are you right now?"

My face stayed passive as I focused on the road, but inside I cringed. Of all the questions Damien could have demanded, it had to be one I couldn't answer.

"I'm driving right now."

I would have just left it at that, but Damien knew me too well. He'd be able to sense the omission if I wasn't more specific.

Gritting my teeth, I gripped the steering wheel tighter.

"I had a date. We went out to the movies. The theaters nearby didn't have any show times that fit with Newt's schedule, so we had to go farther away. Should be home in about half an hour."

I'd lied to my brother exactly three times in my life.

The first was when I was a kid. I hadn't yet come to terms with my sexuality and invented a fake girlfriend to prove I was straight. Damien saw right through the lie and called me out, metaphorically prying me out of the closet with a crowbar.

The second time I lied to him was right after our parents were killed. I insisted I was fine when we both knew I was having nightmares. Damien pretended to accept the lie, but he always remained nearby when I slept.

The third time I lied to him was just a few months ago, when I accepted the case I was currently working on. I knew Damien would turn down the case if asked. He'd claim it was too big for us to handle. So, I never told him about it.

Did omission still count as a lie?

Technically, I never said anything that was untrue, but keeping secrets from him felt like lying, so it was added to the list.

Now I'd just lied to him a fourth time. It still hurt, but I must have been getting better at it because Damien accepted the lie without question.

"Right, that nurse you told me about. The one with the lizard name."

"Newts are amphibians," I automatically corrected him even as I fought the nausea building in my gut.

"Yeah, that guy. Look, I hate to ruin your night, but I need you to get home as soon as possible. I just got a weird message."

The rain started coming down harder and I turned up the windshield wipers. At night, water on the pavement made the road look like it had been encrusted with silver. It would have been beautiful, if not for the mix of guilt and dread cramping my stomach.

"Nothing is ruined. I was already on my way home. What do you mean you got a weird message?"

Damien started to say something, but I never heard him. My car suddenly lurched as it was struck from behind, causing the back wheels to spin over the wet asphalt.

"Fuck. What?"

I held tight to the wheel, struggling to get the car back under control. It swerved one way, then overcorrected and swerved the other. My heart pounded wildly in my chest, but there wasn't even time to think. My hands acted on instinct, keeping the wheel pointed in the direction I needed to go.

The car settled back in the center of the road, and I breathed for the first time in what felt like years.

For a moment, I considered pulling over to inspect the car and see what happened, but years of experience hiding from the mafia told me to keep driving. I pressed my foot down on the gas and sped up.

In my rearview mirror, I caught a glimpse of a car driving close behind me. I would have assumed they lost control in the rain and accidentally hit me, except their headlights were dark and they were tailing me too close to be an accident.

Whoever was sitting behind the wheel of the other car had hit me on purpose.

The other car—a black sedan that was almost invisible in the dark—lunged for my back bumper again.

"Fucking hell," I shouted as I swerved, just barely avoiding another collision.

In the back of my mind, I realized I could hear Damien's voice shouting at me through the still connected Bluetooth, but there was no time to answer him.

The black car sped up until it was right beside me, close enough for our wing mirrors to scrape against each other. Blackout windows blocked my view inside. The car may as well have been a ghost, emerging out of the darkness and driven by no one.

I slammed on the breaks, nearly hydroplaning on the wet road. The black car was taken by surprise and didn't stop as quickly. I turned the wheel and sped off down a side street, trying to put as much distance between me and my pursuer as possible.

The black car followed, always just a few feet behind.

"Sebastian. What the hell is going on?"

My brother's angry yelling finally registered in my brain, as he shouted frantically at me through the speaker.

"Someone just tried to run me off the road."

The black car was gaining. I pressed the accelerator all the way to the floor, but my car was old and was already pushing its top speed. It couldn't go any faster.

There was less traffic at night, but Baton Rouge was a big city. Its streets were never empty. I swerved around a tan station wagon without slowing down. My rear bumper nearly clipped them. I flinched but kept my hands on the wheel.

Damien was still shouting, loud enough to drown out the thundering rain.

"What do you mean someone tried to run you off the road? What're you doing? Get out of there."

"I'm trying." I grit my teeth as I swerved around another car, cutting into the oncoming lane to avoid a collision. "They're following me. I can't get rid of them."

"Hold on. I'm calling the police. Where are you?"

"I'm just outside of... shit."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw another dark vehicle appear beside me, headlights off and windows blacked out just like the first one. It seemed to come out of nowhere, boxing me in on one side while the first car continued to pursue me from behind.

I wasn't driving anywhere specific. Wasn't even paying attention to the road signs. My only instinct was to flee.

Then I noticed a bridge up ahead.

It shouldn't have taken me by surprise. Baton Rouge sat beside the Mississippi River, so there were plenty of lakes and rivers dotting the area. It was impossible to get anywhere without crossing a bridge at some point.

The bridge was relatively small, and the road merged so there was only one lane going in each direction. The car beside me knocked against my side while at the same time the first car slammed into me from behind. My car lurched to the side and bounced off the guardrail protecting the edge of the bridge.

A stabbing pain shot through my neck as my head whipped back and bounced against my seat. One of my hands slipped off the steering wheel. I desperately grabbed for it, trying to regain control, but it was too late.

One of the black cars slammed into me again. The door beside me bent inward with a screech of buckling metal. My car hit the guardrail again, breaking through the protective barrier.

For a moment, I felt weightless. My car hung in mid-air with me inside.

Then I hit the water with a shattering impact.

The river was too shallow to support the weight of my car. It slammed down nose first, crashing right into the bottom of the riverbed.

Pain erupted everywhere. I hung limply in my seatbelt, barely able to breathe through the shock.

The car stood on its front end for a moment, so I faced directly into the ground. The engine and hood had completely crumpled like it was mere tinfoil instead of steel.

As if in slow motion, the current of the river pushed against the car, tipping it to the side. It moved slowly at first, then all at once it toppled sideways.

The second smaller impact sent numbness spreading through my limbs, and my ears buzzed like a broken television. I may have blacked out for a moment, it was hard to tell, but I was brought back by the feeling of something cold running down my leg.

Water was leaking into the car and gradually filling the interior.

The car had landed on the driver's side, so my door pressed directly into the riverbed. The water wasn't deep, but it would be enough to drown me if I stayed trapped inside the twisted box of metal.

I needed to get out.

I blindly fumbled for the latch of my seatbelt one-handed. I don't remember finding it, but I must have, for a moment later I tried to climb up to the passenger's seat that hovered above me.

Pain, like fire burning my skin, raced up my right leg. Between the repeated blows from the other cars, then smashing into the ground, the front portion of my car had collapsed around my legs. My left leg was mostly fine, but pieces of jagged metal pierced through my right leg like the teeth of a monster.

Water continued to flow into the car. I needed to escape through the passenger door, but I was pinned.

"Fuck."

With shaking hands, I tugged at the metal piercing my flesh. All I did was smear blood around. The metal wouldn't budge.

"Goddamn it."

Adrenaline pumped through my veins, turning my vision red at the edges.

Or maybe that was blood leaking into my eyes. I definitely had several other injuries, but my leg was the biggest concern.

I needed something stronger than human hands to pry the metal jaws free.

My coat.

I always wore the same long black coat whenever the weather permitted. It was my favorite piece of clothing. Not only did it have a lot of pockets, but there were also bulletproof panels sewn into strategic places along the front.

My bloody fingers tore at the coat's inner lining to produce a piece of Kevlar about five inches long. I wedged the Kevlar panel between my flesh and the broken metal, using it like a lever to bend the metal away from my leg. There wasn't enough time to completely free myself. The water inside the car was already a foot deep.

I focused on the biggest pieces trapping me. Once those were out of the way, I took a deep breath and yanked my leg free.

I screamed. For a moment, I feared I'd torn my leg completely off. Yet, when I looked down it was still attached to my body. Broken and bleeding, but still there.

Thank fuck.

Using my arms and my uninjured leg, I pulled myself across the seats to the passenger door. That side of the car pointed up to the sky. I could see stars through the window.

It had stopped raining.

I yanked at the handle and shoved at the door with my shoulder until it opened. Dragging my broken leg behind me, I slid out the door on my belly and fell into the river.

Water rushed into my mouth and nose. I thrashed my arms in a poor imitation of swimming. Everything felt bitingly cold, except my leg, which burned white hot.

I couldn't even tell which way the riverbank was. Pushing back the pain and fear, I just picked a direction and started moving. The water was shallow enough that I could push my good leg against the bottom of the riverbed, helping to propel me forward through the current.

It may have been hours, or maybe just minutes, but eventually, I grabbed onto something solid. I dragged myself up onto the riverbed and collapsed into the mud, gasping, my chest heaving with each strangled, painful breath.

My vision faded in and out. No matter how desperately I tried to stay awake, my strength had run dry. My brain was shutting down whether I liked it or not.

Just before everything went black, a thought drifted through my mind.

Maybe this was my punishment for lying to my brother.