I’d seen a lot of car chases in my time, but most of them were on a big screen while I had my feet up and was busy chewing on a bowl of popcorn.

This, however, beat the whole fucking lot of them.

Alex manoeuvred my car through the streets like he’d done it a thousand times. His eyes were focused on the road. His arms were tense, and he barely made a damn sound when he breathed, even though he looked like a raging bull chasing down a red flag.

But me… I was a total mess and a ball of nerves. I held on to the oh shit handle above the passenger door with a death grip while Alex swung the vehicle around corners like it was gliding on ice. My other hand gripped onto the edge of my seat equally tight.

“Can you see him?” I eventually breathed out, releasing the air in my chest as my eyes scanned the road furiously.

“Not yet, but he went this way.”

“How do you know?”

“Trust me.”

“That would be a lot easier to do if you just gave me a clue here, Alex.”

His jaw twitched again. “He’s going to visit my mother.”

“Isn’t she…?”

“Dead?” he finished for me. “Thanks to us, yeah.”

“You?” I frowned. “What did you do?”

“Long story.” Alex’s hands tensed again as his foot hit the brake, he went down a gear and turned us around a tight left corner, sending me flying right and forcing every muscle I owned to work hard and pull me back in place.

“I guess we don’t have time for those right now,’ I squeaked before I fell back into a central position and looked at the hill we were climbing.

“Not today, Anderson. Maybe after we find him at the cemetery.”

“I can’t wait,” I tried to joke, but it came out as more of a strangled cry for help as Alex pressed the metal to the floor, forcing the engine to roar loudly, groaning under the strain of the demands we were making before it hit some kind of turbo mindset and forced my head back against the seat.

“Hamilton, take it easy. I don’t want to end…”

“He’s there!” Alex cried, cutting me off.

I squinted to see, trying to look past a red car that was in front of us, and I finally spotted the BMW all over the road just ahead.

“Jesus Christ, he’s going to kill someone.” My fingers curled around the handle above me that little bit tighter as the reality of the chase officially hit me.

“It sounds like he already has killed someone. He was driving that car that night. He killed that poor woman. He just got away with it.” Alex’s head looked left and right as we came to a T-junction. Thankfully, the road was clear, allowing him to pull out and get a safe enough view of what was ahead so he could overtake the red car.

“Fuck, Alex. This is serious shit. What the hell are you going to do?”

“As soon as I get hold of him, I’m beating a fucking confession out of him and hauling his arse to the nearest police station. Then I’m going to testify against him. Not for the sick and twisted things he did to me. I don’t care about that. I want him locked up because he took an innocent little boy’s mother away from him and feels no goddamn remorse for it.”

“I’m with you, buddy. Whatever you need me to do to fix this, I’m right here.”

Alex gave me the briefest of glances like he had to see that I’d actually spoken those words because hearing them wasn’t enough.

I got it. From enemies that wanted to kill each other over a woman to brothers who were willing to die together to do what was right.

Although dying hadn’t occurred to me up until that point.

Not until I felt Alex’s foot touch the brake a little too hard, sending my head flying forward and my heart stopping for a missing beat too long. The red brake lights of his father’s car went off and on as he approached an upcoming roundabout, but they were off more than on like he couldn’t quite get his foot on the pedal hard enough.

“Shit,” I called out.

“Brake, Dad,” Alex cried out. The roundabout was getting closer as we tore down the road towards it.

The lights flashed red.

Then went off.

Red. Off. Red. Off.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit.”

Nicholas’ car started to skid all over the road, twisting left and right, but not slowing down as he flew towards the roundabout way too fast.

Goosebumps broke out everywhere and time seemed to stand painfully still as I watched the car lose control and speed up towards the roundabout that would surely kill him if he hit the small wall surrounding it.

I held my breath.

Alex growled, his foot slamming on the brake too hard again, forcing us to jerk forward and the back end of the car to swerve all over the road.

But he was gone. Alex was gone. His eyes were wide as he watched the front end of his father’s car hit the roundabout before it spun in the road in a terrifying circle, the smoke from the wheels causing a cloud of blindness to come towards us.

It only took two seconds of blurred surroundings for us to lose sight of everything, and in that two seconds, a lot had changed. Horns were beeping. Tyres were screeching. I swear, I heard people screaming, but we couldn’t see anything through the smoke in front of us.

Not until it was too late.

Our car was still moving forward when, through the haze of the accident, came a van that had swerved to avoid Nicholas’ car… and it was heading straight for us with no place else to go.

We didn’t have time.

The huge van looked like it could crush us without being scratched, and my whole life flashed before my eyes the moment it collided with our front end, skimming the front light of the passenger side, sending us hurtling into our own maddening, uncontrollable spin like we were on skates, not wheels.

Alex’s head smacked against his window with frightening force, the sound of glass cracking like a gunshot in my ears as the tyres screeched their torturous roar all around us.

It’s amazing what you remember when you think you’re about to die.

It’s amazing how things seem clear, like an angel is above you, slowing down the length of a second to give you more time to save yourself.

Alex’s hands had gone limp around the wheel, and his eyes were closed, his body lifeless.

My head snapped to one side, a sharp pain shooting down my neck and into the base of my back as I tried to reach over and grab the wheel for myself, trying to save the car from the direction of the street lamppost that was hurtling towards us.

But I was too late, and as it got closer, all I could do was close my eyes, tense my body, and pray that we survived this. That he survived it. And hope that Natalie would know I did everything I could to save him…

Because for once in his life, the guy deserved to be safe.

The impact was brutal when it happened. The whole car shook and rocked, the sounds of bending metal, burned out tyres and two hearts breaking taking over everything before my senses began to go into safe mode and we finally came to a stop.

I was frozen, numb, and too afraid to take in the disaster I was caught in for fear of what might meet me when I took a breath.

The distinctive sound of hissing seeped through the car and shattered glass continued to drip down on us, landing in my lap, on my hands, and in my hair.

When I dared to open my eyes, I was strained against my seatbelt, leaning against Alex who was unconscious, asleep, gone. I coughed and spluttered, feeling the air around me getting increasingly thin as I tried to call to him.

“A-Al…” I coughed again. “Alex,” I croaked.

It fucking hurt to move.

He didn’t respond.

I creased my eyes together and growled, willing some hidden strength to appear that would save the day and the man beside me, but when I looked up again, all I saw was my friend… cold… lifeless... blood pouring out of his head.

Everything in my body felt tight. Everything felt like it had become detached from me. It was all there. I just couldn’t work it. Nothing wanted to move in case it broke beyond repair.

My seatbelt had kept me safe enough for now, and as the hiss of smoke started to bellow out of the bonnet even louder, I tried to focus on where we were. Alex’s head was pressed against a cold, metal lamppost, and the glass from the windows had been knocked out on impact.

It had rained over his shirt, covering him in a blanket of sharp, tiny, destruction.

I wanted to clear it all off him in case he woke up. I wanted to do something that would make a difference. I needed to move the hand of mine that was wedged between the seat and the handbrake, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t do anything, and when I turned to look out of the passenger side window to see if there was anybody nearby who could help us, I had to crease my eyes together to focus on what was speeding towards me through the smoke.

That’s when I heard more screeching tyres.

More screaming.

Another terrified face flying towards me.

And that’s when my life flashed before my eyes, and all the faces of all the people I’d ever loved came to say their goodbyes.

The very last thing I remembered seeing before I felt the crush of the car’s weight against my legs was Danni’s face. The excruciating agony was only there for a split second before I got whisked up in a hurricane of emptiness. The darkness carried me high and wrapped me up in its embrace.

Then her face appeared from nowhere. A soft smile, kind eyes, and soothing whispers.

She was there with me.

She took my pain away. She held me in her arms and pulled me close. She made me smile, despite the fear, as she sang me to sleep.

Danni, the girl who couldn’t sing, sang me to sleep.