Page 52 of Forsaken

“Are we flying out tonight?”

“You are,” Mav said. “The pilots had to fly the plane to Rapid City to refuel, so we’ll meet them there.”

I barely heard the last part because I was still stuck on the first part of his sentence. “Wait, what do you mean? Aren’t you flying back to Seattle to get your motorcycle?”

“No.”

No, no, no!

It couldn’t be happening like this. I couldn’t be down to just a couple more hours with Mav. Pain flooded my chest and I tried to suck in a breath, but that only made the pain worse. “Stop the car,” I whispered since that was all I could manage to get out.

“What?”

“Stop the car!” I screamed, but it cost me precious oxygen and when Mav hit the brakes, I stumbled out of the car and immediately fell to my knees. And for the first time since I’d had my first panic attack when I was a teenager, I hoped like hell this one would actually kill me.

Chapter 21

Mav

I hadn’t even gotten the car in park before Eli opened the door and when I saw him fall to his knees, I fumbled with my own door. We were alone on the secluded stretch of road that ran north through the reservation. I had no idea where Ronan had hired the hearse from, but when we’d turned to head north out of town, they’d gone south.

“Eli,” I yelled as I hurried around the car. He was still on his knees and his face was stricken as he tried to draw in enough air to breathe. If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought he was having an asthma attack that was truly constricting his ability to breathe, rather than a psychosomatic symptom of the extreme stress he was experiencing.

That I had brought on.

“Eli, baby, look at me,” I ordered as I pulled him to his feet and leaned him back against the car. I grabbed him by the face to hold his attention and didn’t miss the way his hands closed tightly around my wrists.

“I need you to slow your breathing, okay?”

Eli managed a nod.

“Breathe with me,” I said as I took in a breath, waited several seconds before taking another one. It took several tries for Eli to match my breathing, but when he did, the death grip he had on my wrists eased, and his flushed skin began to return to normal. It was a good five minutes before he was breathing normally.

“Okay?” I asked as I stroked his cheek with my finger. But instead of answering me, he pushed my hands from his face and stepped past me.

“Eli-” I called as I began to follow him.

He didn’t respond, but he shook his head back and forth violently. When he showed no signs of slowing down, I hurried to catch up to him before he reached the longer grass because I knew that it wasn’t unusual for rattlesnakes to be lurking in the overgrown brush. As soon as my fingers wrapped around his arm, Eli turned on me and I was caught off guard when he used one of my own moves against me. Luckily he hadn’t put enough force behind the punch to truly break my nose as intended, but it hurt like a motherfucker. I was glad when he didn’t start walking away again, because I doubted I’d be able to catch him as quickly.

“You’re a fucking coward, Mav!” he screamed. “I get that you don’t want to be with me, but what about your friends?”

“They’re not-”

Eli threw another punch, but I managed to grab his fist before it made contact. “Do you have any idea what I’d give to have what you have?”

“You do,” I said as I eased Eli’s fist down to my chest. “With Dom-”

“No I don’t!” he shouted. “I fucked up any chance of being part of that family a long time ago.”

Eli settled and tugged his hand free. His eyes dropped to study his bruised fist.

“What does that mean?” I asked, but Eli shook his head.

“If it’s me who’s keeping you from going back, then don’t worry. I’m leaving Seattle as soon as I can get my stuff packed.”

I stilled at that. “What are you talking about?”

“It was a mistake to go back there.”

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