Page 6 of Knotted By the Triad

“Call me too,” Kena spoke up. “I’ll come with my swords.”

“Ooh,” I cooed. “Yeah, our swords. Those sword classes we took will finally pay off and give us a reason to use the swords we’d purchased. I can get my Michonne on.”

“I can’t risk losing my movie deal,” CiCi said. “So, my sword will remain sheathed. But I’ll bail you all out of jail after you get arrested.”

Our laughter filled the car. And for the first time in a long time, Bri didn’t have that air of sadness that seemed to cling to her every time I saw her. Tonight was supposed to be CiCi’s night, but now we had two things to celebrate.

CiCi was getting her movie, and Bri was finally getting rid of the asshole she should’ve left years ago. Tonight was a good night. Still smiling, I turned and looked out the passenger window.

That was when I saw the headlights. At first, my brain didn't understand what I was looking at. Two bright lights were coming toward us from the side, moving too fast. My smile disappeared.

“Kena,” I yelled.

She must have seen them at the same time.

“Oh, shit!” she shouted.

The SUV jerked hard. Bri screamed. Everything happened too fast after that. A horn blared. Tires screeched. Kena yanked the wheel, and my body slammed sideways before the seat belt snapped me back, digging into my chest.

Then something smashed into us. The sound was horrible. Metal crushed. Glass exploded. My head snapped sideways, and pain burst through me so violently that for a second, I couldn't breathe.

Someone was screaming. Maybe all of us were. The SUV spun, and I grabbed for Bri, but I couldn't tell where she was anymore. My ears rang so loudly that every other sound seemed far away.

“Bri!”

I didn't know if I'd actually screamed her name or only thought I had. Our car was still moving. Tilting. The world turned upside down, and my stomach dropped as the SUV rolled. Something warm ran down the side of my face.

My body dropped, my eyes landing on the floorboards. More glass shattered. And then everything stopped. For a few seconds, I couldn't move. But I knew that I was hanging upside down, and the seatbelt felt like it was cutting into my flesh. My chest hurt. My head hurt.

Hell, everything hurt.

“Kena?” I tried to shout, but my voice came out as a rasp. Nobody answered. “CiCi?”

Nothing. Panic pulsed through the pain. I tried to turn toward Bri, but my body wouldn't cooperate, and everything was blurry. How could this have happened? On tonight of all nights?

We were supposed to be going to dinner. We were supposed to celebrate. CiCi had a movie being made. The four of us best friends should have been laughing and drinking champagne until the wee hours of the morning.

Instead, I didn’t even know if my best friends, my sisters, were still alive. My eyelids grew heavy. The pain became too much to bear. My last thought was, Please be okay, Bri, Kena, and CiCi. And then my world went dark.

CHAPTER TWO

ZURI

When I opened my eyes again, I was hot.

Not warm. Burning hot! My skin felt like it was on fire. It also felt overly sensitive. And whatever I was wearing was heavy as hell, making the heat damn near suffocating. I tried to kick off what I assumed was a blanket, but my legs barely moved.

What the hell?

I blinked until my blurry vision cleared enough for me to see sheer red fabric hanging above my head. It draped from the top of an enormous bed, trimmed with gold embroidery. Tiny dragons twisted through clouds and flowers along the edges of the fabric.

This definitely wasn’t Kena’s SUV.

Memories of the accident rushed back. The headlights. Kena jerking the wheel. Bri screaming. The sound of metal crunching and glass shattering around us. Then... nothing. Only darkness and a mind-numbing silence. Now... this! Where was I? Better yet, where were my friends?

“Kena?” I called, but her name came out weak and slurred.

I tried to sit up, but my arms felt like they weighed a hundred pounds. That slight movement made the room tilt so badly that I dropped back against the pillows and squeezed my eyes shut. Yet, I was still spinning.