Just as I was gathering my helmet and stretching my body, preparing myself for the next few hours of riding, Eagle’s phone began to ring. He snatched it out of his pocket, checking the caller ID with a confused frown.

I stopped walking, Leo, who was in step beside him pulling up as well and looking over his shoulder. “It’s Jake,” Eagle told him with a serious look.

I couldn’t see Leo’s face, but I noticed his shoulders stiffen. “They’re meant to be in a blackout right now,” Leo replied, fishing around in his pocket for his own phone.

“You go on without us,” Eagle said. “We’ll catch up.” He flicked the answer button and held it to his ear. I could see the worry on his face, and his eyes met mine for a brief second, making my heart leap into my throat before he turned away.

Leo walked over to me, his mind apparently lost elsewhere. I reached out and touched his arm, his body jerked in surprise, confirming my suspicions. “Is everything okay?” I asked, wrapping my arms around myself, thrown off by Eagle’s concern.

Leo noted the way I was looking over at Eagle’s retreating form with concern and let out a heavy sigh. “I’m not sure, it’s his brother.” His answer did nothing but confuse me even more, and when he realized this, he continued to elaborate. “Our little brothers are both deployed together as part of a special op’s team. We weren’t meant to hear from them for another few weeks, which either means the operation was completed early… or something bad happened.”

My stomach twisted at his words and I held my breath.

That didn’t sound good.

“I want to wait around, but I’m the one who planned the route, so I’m riding up front with Op,” he said, looking between me and Eagle who was sitting on a bench outside the diner with his elbows braced on his knees. “Can you tell him to let me know ASAP if something is wrong? I’ll tell Hadley to keep hold of my phone. Eagle knows the way. Just look out for him, okay?”

I nodded quickly. “Of course.”

The rest of the club had already mounted their bikes and motors were beginning to roar to life around us. Leo jogged over and leaped on his beast with one easy swoop, Hadley gracefully climbing on the back. I didn’t miss the gentle squeeze she gave him, obviously feeling the emotions racing through his mind. He talked to her over his shoulder, and her head bobbed in understanding before Leo started his bike and rolled slowly forward to meet Op.

I watched as they all moved out of the parking lot and onto the desolate road, the loud roar that almost deafened me as they took off, slowly turned into a low hum as they rode into the distance without us.

Looking over to Eagle, and seeing him in the same position, I decided to make myself comfortable and boosted myself up onto the brick wall that separated the parking lot and diner from the surrounding farmland.

Bumfuck nowhere all right.

The clouds had settled in since we rode in less than forty minutes ago, they were bright and fluffy, the sun behind them managing to break through in a few weak spots, shining sharp beams of light downward from the heavens.

They had no rhyme or reason, just random and beautiful events that happened naturally. I’d spent the last few years studying science, mostly chemistry, but I would read basically everything, and anything that I could get my hands on that explained the natural phenomena that the world around us produced.

Science was not allowed within the Colony.

Hell no.

They would never let their people think that nature produced these events and they were not signs from a higher being, it was complete blasphemy. And that was why I fell so hard in love with science because it reminded me I wasn’t crazy, that I wasn’t going to be damned for walking away from a place they claimed would raise them up to heaven. Yet, the place itself was so much like the depths of hell.

Science reminded me that I’d done the right thing, and it made the hole in my heart a little smaller, and the guilt that I felt deep in my gut just that little more bearable.

I had no hatred toward religion or people’s beliefs. I’d met Christians since I left the Colony who were beautiful and kind people, who never forced their views on you or made you feel like you were any less for not feeling the way they did. What I despised with all my soul, were the lies and the way the Colony used them to control their people and strike fear into the hearts of good men, women, and children who just wanted to know there was going to be someplace beautiful waiting for them when they died.

The crunch of stones underfoot alerted me to Eagle’s approach. I stayed sitting on the concrete wall, waiting for his lead, wondering if he would want to talk about what happened before we got on the road.

I guess I probably should have known better.

“Can we get the fuck out of here already?” Eagle snapped, throwing my helmet with force and hitting me directly in the stomach, forcing the air from my lungs for a second. I held on tightly to the offending object, squeezing my eyes tightly shut to try and block out the pain for those few seconds until it finally subsided. I took a few deep breaths before jumping down to the ground, refusing to look at Eagle when I knew I still had tears glistening in my eyes.

He cleared his throat. “You all right?” Not an apology, more like my pain was an inconvenience.

“Fine,” I growled through my teeth, still refusing to look at him as I jammed the helmet on my head and did up the strap. While I could have gladly gone the next four hours without speaking to the fucking moody bastard, I had told Leo that I’d relay his message. Given his brother could be hurt, I couldn’t say nothing. “Leo said to call him if it was something important.”

“His brother will call him, it’s not urgent,” he replied as he tightened his helmet and started the bike, effectively ending the conversation. I could tell even though he said it wasn’t urgent, that it was still important, or at least had affected him. His body was hard and rigid, and when I climbed on the back and wrapped myself around him, he didn’t freak out, and his breathing didn’t change like it had the time before.

He could just be getting used to me being there, or whatever had happened, was playing on his mind so much that everything else was a blur. Eagle pulled out of the diner parking lot like the hounds of hell were snapping at our heels. I squeaked and gripped on tighter, hiding my face behind his shoulders until I felt my heart settle back into my chest.

I was trying not to curse the fucking bastard out in my head, reminding myself that he was obviously going through a hard time and that something had happened. During stressful times, people could be fucking assholes. I just wished I wasn’t the one he was taking it out on. I didn’t deserve that shit, and I was just starting to crack his shell, see the guy beneath the cold, hard exterior.

Now though, the walls were back up and stronger than before.

We were a good forty-five minutes behind the group, and I knew we probably wouldn’t catch them now before they got into Dallas. I realized though, that Eagle was going to give it his best shot as he flew down the empty road to the middle of nowhere, occasionally riding through towns that ranged from—blink and you’ll miss it, to damn, how did I never know this place was here.

Just as we hightailed it out of one more town with a main street and not much else, I took a peek over Eagle’s shoulder, hoping maybe we would get lucky and catch the group so he could slow down a little and I could sit back rather than clutching onto his waist for dear life.

Just as I looked up, I found myself forced forward, Eagle pressing back against me as he tried to hold the bike steady while he raced down the gears in an effort to stop. The bike swerved slightly, and I held on tighter as he managed to keep dragging our speed down without slamming on the breaks and throwing us off the front or forcing the bike onto its side.

I swear all I felt was a whoosh of air skim past my leg and a blur of blue, then I was struck, it felt almost as though someone punched me in the forehead. The force threw my head back, but lucky for me, the helmet protected me from the impact of the flying object.

We came to a jolting stop at the edge of the asphalt, the hum of the motor filling the empty air around us.

But not for long.

The sound of screeching tires came next, then one noise I’ll never forget—the sound of metal being folded and bent as if it were paper and the ground was making origami out of it.

“Get off!” Eagle said urgently as he switched off the motor and his fingers scrambled with the helmet strap. It took me less than a second to send his order from my ears, through my brain and then my body, but it felt like forever that I just sat there, not knowing how to make myself move.

I clambered off the back, my hands fumbling with my own helmet and my feet struggling to keep the rest of my body upright. I tripped twice on the rough road before I managed to keep myself upright.

My helmet hung from my hands and Eagle rushed over the second he got the bike on its stand. His gloved hands gripped my face as he forced me to look up at him. “Are you okay?” he asked, his words rushed.

I nodded. “Something hit my helmet—”

“My wing mirror,” he answered, his hand lingering on my face a little too long, before turning and sprinting down the road. “Call 911!” he called back over his shoulder. I was confused for a second. Everything was happening so quickly. My eyes followed Eagle as he ran over the road, leaping over a broken fence post and moving toward…

A car.

Sky blue.

Its roof caved in.

A mangled piece of metal.

My brain finally put the pieces together as another car slowed to a stop beside me. An older man rolled down his window, his eyes wide. “Is everything okay?” he asked, looking between me and the destroyed vehicle that Eagle was currently trying to smash the driver’s side window out of.

“Call 911!” I demanded, my body finally feeling the adrenaline rush that you got from near death experiences. I turned and raced toward the paddock, leaping over mounds of grass and tripping in the gouges that the car had left in the soft ground.

The window finally gave way and Eagle reached in, pulling the button lock of the older style car and wrenching the door open. A limp hand fell out of the vehicle, and I gasped as he leaned over the woman and unbelted her before lifting up her body and carrying her from the car.

There was blood, not much, but enough to make me realize this was extremely serious. I followed as he rushed her to the side of the road where there were now three cars stopped and at least five people standing around. The man who had stopped first was still on his cell phone relaying information to someone on the other line.

Eagle lay the young woman on the ground and bent over her, listening for a breath before pressing his fingers against her neck and closing his eyes, searching for a pulse. I saw the tension ease instantly. “Pulse is strong,” he announced, resting back on his knees.

An elderly woman rushed over and placed a quilt over the girl who I now realized looked too young to be much more than a teen.

“It’s smoking!” another man suddenly yelled, pointing at the car in horror. My eyes followed instinctually, and I swore I felt my heart leap into my throat as I realized that from this angle, I could see the sign in the back window of the car.

Baby on board.

“There’s a baby,” I shouted, spinning on my heel, searching for Eagle. He’d gotten to his feet and was now behind me, his hand reaching out as if he’d been searching for me. He wasn’t moving though, his face was pale and his eyes fixated on the wreck, wide and full of panic. I reached out and grabbed his arm, tugging on it hard, trying to bring his attention to me. “There could be a baby in there,” I yelled, trying to drag his mind from this trance he was in.

No luck.

He was frozen, his breathing shallow and I swore he wasn’t even blinking.

He looked completely haunted.

I cursed, turning my body and sprinting toward the smoking car. I had no idea where the smoke was coming from, but I had yet to see flames.

Maybe it’s just steam.

Maybe the car won’t explode while I’m trying to rescue the child that I have no idea whether it exists or not.

I pulled on the door handle to the backseat, it wouldn’t budge. Leaning forward, I cupped my hands around my eyes and pressed them against the window, attempting to see inside. I wasn’t about to climb in through the driver’s side and get myself stuck when it could be nothing.

The people at the roadside screamed at me to get away from the car, but I didn’t care. If there was a baby in there, I wasn’t about to let that child burn to death while I stood back and watched.

My eyes caught the baby toys first, soft toys, things that you hang for them to reach out for and play with. Then I saw the bottles on the floor, obviously thrown around by the car as it had rolled, milk spilled and dripping.

Movement.

“Shit!” I cursed, not wasting a single second more. Throwing myself into the driver’s seat, I urgently twisted my body through the center of the front seats, the space small and cramped. I took in a deep breath and choked on the smoky air that had begun to enter the vehicle, but I pushed my body forward, landing with a thump on the back seat and knocking my eye against the handle of the baby capsule.

Tears welled up, and I looked down to find the most beautiful green eyes staring back up at me. She wasn’t crying, just staring at me with a mixture of surprise and fear. She didn’t look to be injured, not a scratch or bruise on her precious skin. I fiddled with the clip of the belt but it was stuck, it wouldn’t let me press the button down to release the safety harness that she was in. I could tell that it was an older car seat, it looked worn and ragged, and I could even see the way the belt was frayed in places. No way in hell a baby should be riding in this thing. Car seats had expiry dates for a reason.

I continued to press down as hard as I could on the button, but nothing would get it to unclick. There must have been something jammed underneath it. I tugged at the belts, coughing and trying to cover my mouth. I could feel my body temperature heating up and sweat beading on my brow as I struggled with the seatbelt and panic began to set in.

What if I couldn’t get her out?

Did I walk away and leave this precious innocent life in here while I escaped?

Tears pooled as I yanked harder. “Please!” I screamed. “Come undone, please!” The little girl’s bottom lip poked out as she tried to hold back tears. Her tiny whimpers made me cry harder, tears streaming down my face, my lungs crying out for fresh air. “I’m sorry, baby, I don’t know—”

“Damn it, Sky!” Eagle cursed as he leaped into the car and leaned over the front seat, pocket knife in his hand. “Sorry baby girl,” he said tenderly as he tugged on the strap and made enough room to stick the knife through. He sawed back and forth a few times, and then the strap just seemed to disintegrate and come apart.

I didn’t wait for him to do the other, managing to maneuver the baby out the one side as she now kicked and screamed, and coughed on the thick dirty air that almost filled half the car.

“Give her to me, and get the fuck out,” Eagle ordered, holding out his arms. I didn’t think twice, I threw the child at him, and he pushed himself back out the driver’s door while I squeezed back through the gap, not even bothering to find my footing, but instead just pulling myself out using my hands.

Rolling out the door, I scampered on my hands and knees across the grass and to the roadside, where I rolled onto my back and inhaled the fresh air. It was cold and beautiful, but it also made me cough so much that I ended up moving to the side and vomiting up the cheeseburger and fries from lunch.

There was a hand on my back as I expelled the food from my stomach, acid scorching my throat, noting that I’d probably inhaled a shit load more smoke than I realized.

The beautiful sound of sirens filled the hazy air around us, followed by a symphony of heavy pounding boots against the asphalt, gruff men throwing orders around, people collectively crying and sighing in relief and the spray of foam from heavy hoses.

They drenched the car, as they attempted to put out the fire that had begun to rage and take over the motor just as I’d dived out the door. I couldn’t move, my body ached in places I never knew could even feel pain, and my lungs felt like someone had filled them with tar.

Even with vomit a foot from my face in the grass, I couldn’t find the energy to lift my head or turn my body away from the foul smell, just content to lay there and know that everyone was okay and that at the moment I could breathe.

A few minutes later, a soft shushing sound and some gentle pressure against my back were enough to pique my curiosity. I looked over my shoulder to see Eagle sitting on the grass beside me, his hand rubbing up and down my spine as he rocked the baby in his arms back and forth. She was so tiny that she fit right in the crook of his elbow, her tiny little diaper-clad butt sitting in his palm.

An EMT was crouched beside him, carefully checking Eagle’s vitals, then the baby’s. He carefully placed an oxygen mask on the baby’s face, and made sure she was breathing properly before making a beeline for me. “I’m sorry,” I told the young man whose badge read, Toby. “I puked, don’t stand in it.” My voice sounded like I’d smoked three packs of cigarettes a day for the last twenty years. It was scratchy and raw, and it still hurt every time I breathed in.

Toby just grinned. “Don’t you worry, I’ve dealt with much worse. As long as you aren’t puking on me, we’re good.”

“I make no promises,” I told him honestly, knowing that the coughing was still coming in waves and making me dry heave. He laughed but continued his work, asking me questions and checking me out thoroughly.

I looked up at Eagle as I lay on my back with Toby taking my blood pressure, administering oxygen and writing a whole lot of shit down on some chart.

“Don’t you ever do that to me again,” Eagle said, wiping his forehead and leaving a black smudge. His eyes moved to me from the baby in his arms, who he’d refused to let go of yet, even though now he knew she was doing much better and the mother was conscious.

“Do what?” I asked through the oxygen mask, closing my eyes and wishing the sun would go away so I could get some sleep. Now the adrenaline was wearing off, I was suddenly fucking exhausted.

Eagle reached out, his fingers brushed across my face, flicking away the stray hairs that lingered there too long, but that I’d been too lazy to reach up and move myself. “Dive into a fucking burning vehicle without telling me,” he said, his voice quiet and soft.

Did I not tell him that I was going to go and rescue the child that I had no idea was in the car? I guess not. Not that I think he would have noticed, given he was staring at the wreck of that car like it held the answers to the universe.

“You were out of it,” I told him, blinking against the sunlight before I focused in on his face again. “You wouldn’t have heard me.”

“Like fuck I wouldn’t have,” he growled, his body freezing when the baby in his arms stirred a little. When she buried in closer to his side, he hit me with a hard glare. “Everything was fine, you were beside me. I heard you say there was a baby. I was telling myself to go…” he shook his head, seeming frustrated with the way he’d clammed up out there. “It wasn’t until some guy shoved my shoulder and said you were fucking inside that car that I moved.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I murmured, groaning as I pulled myself into a sitting position.

“You’ve breathed in quite a bit of smoke, so your throat will be sore for a few days,” Toby said, interrupting as he packed up his gear. “But your lungs sound okay and the rest of your vitals are good. I would recommend going to hospital to be checked out, and then resting at least for today—”

“Can I skip the hospital and just do the resting part? We’re meant to be traveling to Dallas,” I stated.

Toby shook his head. “With what the two of you have been through, I would definitely recommend getting checked out. But if you don’t want to go to hospital then you need to get some sleep and travel tomorrow. Make sure you’re at least near a hospital, so if your lungs worsen during the night you can get the help you need. The last thing we want to do is see this happen again a few miles down the road because you fall asleep behind the wheel. Or worse, have breathing problems and you are nowhere near medical help.”

“Is that what happened to her?” I asked, my mouth falling open.

Toby gave me a sad smile and nodded. “She’s a new mom, the baby is only a few weeks old. Doesn’t sound like she has much family around. Been doing it all on her own. She fell asleep, almost killed the both of them and you two.”

My heart hurt for that woman. Not because of what had happened, but because she was struggling so much and had no one around to help her.

“Excuse me, sir,” an older woman police officer said as they knelt down beside Eagle. “She’s awake now, and the ambulance driver would like to get her and the baby to the hospital.”

I could see Eagle’s reluctance to give up the sleeping infant in his arms. Finally, he looked over at me. “I just want to see for myself she’s okay,” Eagle said, pushing to his feet, the officer beside him rising too. He looked at her. “That okay?”

She nodded. “Of course.”

“Don’t go anywhere,” Eagle ordered, narrowing his eyes at me as if I was going to dive into another burning vehicle while he was gone.

I waved him off. “I’m fine, I’ll see if I can get a hold of Leo. He said Hadley would have his phone on her.” We’d now been sitting in that field for what was close to an hour. We’d given our statements to the police, albeit through an oxygen mask in my case. Now that we’d generally calmed and I felt better, the oxygen had been removed and I was having one final health check by the EMT before they left. And with Toby recommending rest, it sounded like we would head to a motel for the night.

Before Eagle walked away, he turned back to me and crouched at my side, his hand cupping my cheek. He pressed his forehead against mine and the both of us closed our eyes. “Don’t do that to me again,” he whispered, his voice so serious and filled with emotion, that I didn’t dare joke about how he’d already said that.

“Okay,” I whispered back, my voice hitching.

Then he brushed his lips against mine and backed away, still cradling that life in his arms.

A life we’d saved.