Page 43 of The Desperate Warrior

“I’m going,” she chimed. She took a couple of labored steps and then stopped, glancing back over her shoulder. “Oh, one more thing.”

He raised both eyebrows.

“Thanks for all that you’re doing.”

His expression softened. “You’re welcome.”

She was being burned alive.

Every nerve in her body sizzled with agony as fiery flames ate at her skin, searing muscle and bone. She tried to move—tried to pull free—but she was trapped.

Her mind grappled to make sense of what was happening.

One minute, she’d been sitting calmly at the red light, talking to Nikki. The next, her entire world exploded in a storm of glass and steel, a thousand shards slicing her skin like razors.

Tears slipped down her face as she twisted her head, trying to figure out what to do. Every inch of her body screamed in protest. Blood rushed hot and fast to her head.

She realized with a jolt that she was upside down.

Acrid smoke filled her nostrils. The bitter stench of gasoline stung her throat.

She had to get the door open. She had to escape.

She slammed her hand against it.

A jolt of white-hot pain ripped through her left shoulder. She cried out, clutching it instinctively.

Panic gnawed at her. How much time had passed? Seconds? Minutes? Hours?

Movement caught her eye. Through the cracked windshield, she saw someone coming towards her.

“Help,” she croaked, her voice barely a whisper. Her throat was so shredded that she could hardly make a sound.

She tried again, louder this time. “Help!”

The man kept coming, footstep after footstep, slow and deliberate.

Relief surged through her.

Until she saw it.

A flicker of metal.

Her heart nearly stopped.

He was holding a gun.

Terror exploded inside her, worse than the fire, worse than the pain. Was he the one who had hit her? Was he coming to finish what he started?

She opened her mouth to scream again—but it came out as a strangled sob.

The man’s shoes crunched on shattered glass.

She strained to lift her head, but she couldn’t see his face. Only his feet. Step. After. Step.

The car rocked violently as if some monstrous force had grabbed it and was shaking it apart. Metal groaned and screamed around her.

Another window shattered. A shower of glass rained down needles.

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