Page 116 of The Villain

“Athena!” I called to her, realizing the only way to reach her was by climbing on top of the hood. The driver’s door was pinned by the wall, and the passenger side was blocked by Wenner’s body.

I scrambled to the front, seeing flashing lights and familiar bikes appearing from around the fateful turn.

“I’m coming, Angel.” I climbed onto the hood, cursing myleft arm that was dislocated and fucking useless. “Athena.” I crouched at the windshield, the glass completely shattered from the accident and explosion.

“Dare!” Harm shouted and rushed toward me.

I ignored him, reaching for Athena’s wrist.

“Athena, please wake up,” I begged, feeling for her pulse.

The soft flutter at her wrist was both everything and not enough. Alive but not awake.

“I’m going to get you out of here,” I muttered. The broken glass cut into my shoulders and back as I squeezed through the windshield opening. I ripped the seat belt from its moorings and started to work my good arm under her torso.

“Jesus, Dare. You need?—”

“To get her out of here. I have to get her out.” I didn’t even look at my brother, but I heard him climbing on the hood.

“I’ve got you,” I murmured to Athena, hoping she could hear me.Praying.

A surge of pain broke through the adrenaline when I tried to lift her.

“Fuck,” I hissed, wishing like all hell my left arm was injured any other way. Broken, bleeding, or burned, it would’ve still moved.

“Dare, I need you to grab her waist,” Harm ordered, his tone like a whip the way it cracked me back to our unit days. And I obeyed. I always obeyed.

I moved my hand down her back while Harm grabbed underneath her shoulders.

“We lift on three,” he said, and I fisted as much of her jeans in my one hand as I could, seeing the blood run down my arm. “One. Two.Three?—”

I let outa roar, pulling with all my might. And then she was moving—gliding out of the car and up into my brother’s strong hold.

“Athena,” I murmured as soon as her weight was gone, each gasping breath like a hundred knives burying themselves in my lungs.

I didn’t feel the cut of the glass when I climbed back out of the car. I moved off the hood, everything underneath me moving like a buoy in the middle of the storm. Tipping. Turning. Swaying.

My feet landed on the ground, and I looked for her. She had to be okay. That was all I needed. I could survive every other injury thrown at me except losing her again.

“Dare!”Harm was yelling. “Look at me.”

My vision swam, but I aimed for the sound of his voice, and there, through the blur, I saw Athena’s blond hair and her red blouse in my brother’s arms, the flickering ambulance lights behind him.

Thank God.

“Save her…” was all I managed before the world went dark.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Athena

There was an itch on my nose. I sighed and reached to scratch it, except I couldn’t. Something was in my way. Something big and hard covered my finger and landed on the side of my nose instead of my finger. Something was attached to my hand, and I needed it off.

“Hey there, you have to keep that on,” a deep voice rumbled from the darkness.

Darius.He was the first thing I registered. He would always be the first thing I registered. But it was the second thing that made me suck air into the giant pit in my stomach.Darkness.

Not again.

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