the glass. “Mr. Amity! Are you a father now?” Click. Flash. Click. Flash.
Tucker quickly reversed, maneuvering carefully so as not to hit the guy at the side of the car, and managed to pull around their vehicle.
Nick, who was in the passenger seat, advised me to get down, so I bent over Joanie’s car seat, my hands latched onto either side. Looking behind us, I could see the two men already back in their car, giving chase again.
“It’s okay,” Sean said as he put a hand to my back. “Tucker’s got this. You got this, Tucker?” Sean asked, his voice tight.
“Yes, sir.”
“Nick, get on the phone with the police department. These guys are going to get someone killed.”
Nick did as instructed.
“Is it always like this?” My voice shook as I asked.
“No,” he said, keeping one hand on my back and placing the other on Joanie’s carrier. “They’re not usually this stupid. But Tucker is good. He’ll lose them.”
And he would have. If it had only been them, we would have been fine. But another car pulled out from a side street, forcing Tucker to swerve before he was able to get the car back under control. The idiots came right up alongside us, their cameras sticking out their window, yelling questions, grinning as if they were having the time of their lives, as if it was all good fun. Tucker was looking over at them, trying to wave them off, and didn’t see yet another car pull purposely out in front of us.
“What are they doing?!” Sean yelled.
Tucker slammed on the brakes, but we were going too fast. We were going to hit their little sedan, so instead he swerved to avoid a collision with them. My eyes were wide, a scream on my lips as the brick building beside us rushed up to meet the front corner of the SUV. My head slammed into the window beside me. And that was all.
♪♫♪
My head hurt and there was a ringing in my ears. Joanie was crying and Sean was yelling. It made my head hurt more. I reached up to cradle it, but my forehead was slick with blood. Someone said my name and told me to stay still. They were touching my neck and then something stiff was fitted around it—a collar to keep my neck in place. My mind was a little slow processing everything. They shone a light in my eyes. Things went fuzzy again and I had the vague sense of being moved as someone desperately clutched at my hand. “You’ll be okay,” Sean’s voice whispered in my ear. “I’m going to make this okay.”
Eventually I realized I was riding in an ambulance. I couldn’t hear Joanie anymore. Where was my baby? I forced my eyes open and only saw two paramedics hovering above me.
“Sean?” I asked, but they didn’t seem to hear me. There was something covering my mouth, muffling my voice. I tried to turn my head and look around, but my neck was in a brace. Where was Sean? Where was Joanie? The cars…they had pulled right in front of us. How stupid and reckless! If those leeches hurt my baby…
My throat tightened as fear for Joanie overwhelmed me. My two-week-old had just been in a car accident that had won me a trip to the ER. A beeping monitor pounded in my ears and one of the paramedics hovered above me. “Libby?” he said, his voice calm, but firm.
I focused on him.
“We’ve got you, okay?”
“My baby?” I said through the oxygen mask.
“Your baby is fine. Your friend has her and will meet us at the hospital.”
Tears of relief ran down my temples.
When we got to the hospital, there was a whispered conversation about my connection with Sean before I was wheeled into a room with a door that closed. I’d always had a definite love/hate relationship with the special treatment that Sean’s fame afforded him—and now me—but at the moment I was simply grateful. I couldn’t handle any more gawking. I kept asking where Joanie was, but the answer was always the same. My friend was bringing her. “What friend?” I kept demanding.
The nurse I was interrogating shook her head. “I don’t know. I wasn’t told a name.”
“Is it Sean? Where is he?”
“I don’t know, but you were the only one brought in by ambulance, so that’s a good thing.”
So then, was Joanie with Sean? Or did Nick have her? Tucker? Who?
I tried to trust that what they said was true, that