breathing was wrong. Nurse Russo, halfway to the door, swung back around. Concerned eyes glossed over him as she darted for the machine. By the time she made it there, the heart rate monitor followed suit, acting erratic.
Blinking rapidly, Dante felt the building tears. He tried to suck it up. He didn't want to cry. He wouldn't let himself do it. He'd survived torture without cracking. He couldn't have this be what broke him. He was stronger than that.
Anger surged through his veins to the point that fighting was impossible. His body shook as the machines screamed, his chest on fire when he started hyperventilating.
It was like sucking through a straw with a hole in it, getting nothing.
"Dante?" Primo called out. "What's happening?"
"You need to leave, Mr. Galante!" the nurse shouted at him.
"Dante?" he said, ignoring her. "It's going to be okay, son."
"Get out!" she barked as the glass door slid open, others rushing into the room. They surrounded Dante, and he wasn't sure if his father listened to the woman's order, because all at once, the world blurred.
The haze swaddled him, numbing him, dulling the burn and sweeping him away.
"They're sedating you," Nurse Russo whispered, gazing down at him. "Just until you stop fighting the ventilator."
The trip went much smoother once Matty and Genna had a car with air conditioning. Music from the radio filled the silence as Genna relaxed in the passenger seat, watching the world fly by outside the tinted window.
South Carolina
Georgia
Alabama
Mississippi
They traveled through the south, driving for hours before stopping to get a motel for the night. Bright and early the next morning, they would hit the road again, never looking back, never staying more than a few hours in one location. It was steady, even a bit tedious, the constant traveling with no destination, with nowhere to be, making the days all blur together.
"Are we heading west?" Genna asked, glancing up from the map in her lap to the road before them, spotting the sign declaring they were going west. "Never mind."
Matty chuckled, looking at her. Sunshine streamed through the car windows, making him squint. He had bought himself a pair of sunglasses back in North Carolina, but they'd disappeared somewhere between Mississippi and Louisiana, along with Genna's flip-flops and all of her hair ties.
It was hard to keep up with things when they were constantly on the move.
Genna scanned the map, locating the highway right outside of Paris, Texas. They'd been driving for about two hours, crossing over from Arkansas, but she was already growing tired of being in the car. Queasiness stirred in the pit of her stomach that she tried to ignore, but her morning sickness was starting to really kick in.
Just breathing nauseated her.
What she wouldn't give for a nice bubble bath and a nap long enough to put her in the Guiness Book of World Records. The motel they'd stayed in the night before had been a run down piece of shit, the bathroom grungy and the bed uncomfortable.
"Why?" Matty asked. "You want to go a different direction?"
"No, I was just…" She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, warding off a flare of sickness. "I was just wondering."
Genna reopened her eyes, seeing the scenery fly by the side window. Big mistake. Dizziness blurred her vision, bile burning her throat. She barely had enough time to smack Matty's arm in warning, making the car swerve, before she reached for the door handle. "Gonna be—"
Sick.
Matty slammed the brakes, the car screeching to a stop along the side of the highway as she flung the passenger door open and leaned out, purging everything from her stomach. He put the car in park, turning on the hazard lights, the tick-tick-ticking grating Genna's frazzled nerves.
Matty rubbed her back as he whispered, "It's going to be okay."
Laughing dryly, she relaxed back in the seat once the sickness passed. "Talk about déjà vu."
They'd done that before, her hanging out of a car and puking her guts out while he tried to pacify her. Hadn't worked before, and it wasn't working then.
Could we be more cliché?
Matty slipped his arm around her and pulled her to him, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. Her eyes closed as she took a moment to savor his embrace, knowing just a moment was all they had to spare, but it was a moment interrupted way too fast when Matty tensed. "Shit."
Genna opened her eyes, catching a reflection in the side mirror, red and blue lights flashing behind