Page 11 of Chasing the Other Woman

A headache begins to bloom behind my left eye.

“Do not push another half mile.”

“We’ve got visual.”

“You’ve got rain-wrapped rotation, and you’re about to lose your escape.”

Luci’s voice comes through, strained now. “Wind’s shifting.”

“Brooks,” I snap. “South. Now.”

The feed jolts as he turns the wheel.

For just a second, I feel relief so keenly that I’d swear the floor beneath me was lowering.

Then something slams into the side of the lead truck.

The sound through the headset is something I’ll never live long enough to forget. Metal screaming. Luci’s cry. Brooks swearing. The feed shows the camera tilting violently, the windshield nothing but gray rain and flying debris.

Then darkness.

“Lead? Brooks?”

Static.

“Hershel! Tell me you see something!”

“I’m trying, Sam,” Hershel barks. The usual humor is gone. “Visibility’s trash. But I saw debris hit them. They’re off the road.”

“Brooks, answer me. Please.”

Nothing.

“Brooks.”

I watch the radar as if it can pinpoint where my husband is now. As if it can show me a visual of his heart still beating.

“Hershel?”

“We’re pulling back around now,” he says. “Emergency services are en route.”

I’m standing with no recollection of when I stood.

“Brooks, if you can hear me, please answer.”

Nothing. Just static.

For a second, I’m in that truck two years ago. My body feels the pain, and I know, somehow I just know, that the baby’s gone. And I’m wondering if I am too. I can feel Brooks’s arms around me. I can hear his voice, but the pain is too much. I hear him saying my name over and over.

Stay with me, Sammy Girl. Just stay with me, okay?

I tear off the headset.

Tony grabs it in mid-air. “Sam.”

“Run command, Tony.”

“What?”