“Just tell me that you’re in the front seat of that cop car and not the back.” She sounded like she was kidding, but I could hear genuine concern in her voice, which let me know she wanted some kind of real reassurance that things were under control. They were far from it but there was nothing she could do to help the situation from Colorado.

“I’m sitting shotgun. My dad’s a cop and we have a situation but we’re handling it. Chances are I’ll be able to hand Erikson over to you at the end of the day.”

She made a noise. “Hand him over alive, Church.”

That wasn’t a promise I could make. “I’ll be in touch.” I knew what was at stake here and there was no way I was going to be making a phone call to Dixie’s family telling them she hadn’t made it. I wasn’t going to let some lonely, crazy person take her from us. This was a war I was determined to win. I’d lost enough battles when it came to love and loss in my life.

I could hear the motor screaming over the noise of the sirens. I felt my heart drop and everything inside of me go still and on high alert.

“There’s a convoy of cop cars behind us. Where does he think he’s going to go?” I put a hand on the dash as the distance between me and my girl grew smaller and smaller in a dangerous way.

“I don’t think he’s thinking. Look at Dixie, she’s trying to tell him there’s nowhere for them to go.” Jules sounded tense as he bit the words out.

Her mouth was moving and her hands were curled around the steering wheel in a death grip. I could see the tear streaks on her face and I wanted to reach through space and time so I could wipe them away and tell her everything was going to be okay.

“You need to stop. He’s going to make her keep going. He has a finger on the trigger.” He was waving the gun around wildly and screaming at Dixie. She flinched but her eyes never left mine as the struggling sedan continued to thunder closer and closer.

“Think he’s got every intention of running into us whether we’re moving or not.” Jules started to slow the cruiser down but he was right. It was clear that he wasn’t going to let Dixie take her foot off the pedal. In fact, as the car slowed he jammed the gun so hard into the side of her temple that the action jerked her head to the side. I said her name even though she couldn’t hear me, but she must have seen it because her lips twitched.

She turned her head and looked at her captor. I couldn’t make out what she said but whatever it was it pissed the guy off. The gun waved around some more and then he held it in two hands as he pointed it right at her face.

I screamed her name again as she turned back to look at me. The sedan picked up speed again as her eyes locked on mine. Her lips moved slowly and deliberately. She mouthed the words I love you over and over again as my heart stopped and my soul tried to jump out of my body to stop her from doing whatever it was she was going to do. I couldn’t watch her sacrifice herself for me, even if that’s what she had been doing from the get-go.

“No!” I put my hands up and shook my head, but she kept repeating I love you and I heard it like she was yelling even though there was silence. The cruiser rolled into position horizontally across the road and I was out the door and on my feet running towards the oncoming car before the wheels stopped. I vaguely heard Jules yelling my name but all I could see was Dixie and her unfailing desire to save everyone but herself.

“I love you!” I screamed the words back at her but I had no clue if she heard or understood because the second the last word left my mouth she cranked the wheel as hard as she could to the side, which sent the quickly moving car careening wildly to the side of the road.

Traction was lost.

The overtaxed motor whirred.

Gravel and rocks kicked up and pelted me even though I didn’t feel them.

The front wheels hit the dip of the ditch and all it took was momentum and gravity to send the big machine end over end.

It felt like it flipped a thousand times. The sound of metal crunching and glass breaking was deafening. The smell of fuel and rubber burned my nose.

I was frozen to the spot in horror in the middle of the road as my worst nightmare played out before my eyes.

She’d called me a hero, and yet again I’d been unable to live up to the title. I couldn’t save her when she was so desperate to save me and everyone else she thought she could help. She was the one who was a hero and I almost hated her for it, but it was the fact I couldn’t not love her that finally had my feet moving as my body had no choice but to follow my heart towards the woman that owned every piece of it.

Dixie

I was flying.

Sure, the car had left the road in a symphony of screaming metal and noisy mechanical parts pushed past their limits, but that wasn’t why I was weightless and free, floating above everything bad happening in the front seat of the twisting, turning, flipping sedan. I was flying because Church loved me and he was ready to let me love him. Even if a second was all we got to have of that love, it was enough. The light had pushed back the dark and he was standing in the sun after lurking in the shadows for far too long. It was the only thing I wanted and he had shown up to give it to me, in case it was the last thing I ever laid my eyes on. My last vision would be one of love and courage. It would be one of bravery and acceptance. It would be my dream coming true.

I heard glass breaking all around me as I let go of the steering wheel and covered my face with both my hands. Joseph was still screaming next to me, calling me names, telling me he was going to kill me, yelling that after I was dead he was going to make it his mission to kill everyone I loved, but then there was a sickening crunch as metal made contact with the ground as we rolled over and over again. Joseph quit saying anything and I felt something sharp rip through my clothing and skin at my shoulder. It was my turn to scream as something below the dash broke loose and trapped my foot between the weight of it and the gas pedal.