Dark Secret - Avelyn Paige Page 0,48
dashboard as I do the only thing I can. I pray to a God who’s never given me any hope before to not take them away from me. Not before I have the chance to tell them both how much I love them.
The van coasts in the air when GP hits a hill too fast, but he keeps it under control. The van, and everyone else inside of it, lands with a thud when we make contact with the ground again.
“Fuck, man,” someone groans from the back. “I think you gave me a concussion.”
“Ain’t my fault you don’t wear your seatbelt.”
“There aren’t any seatbelts back here, asshole.”
Twat Knot’s head pops up from between the two seats with his finger extended. “Look.”
In the distance, two large objects come into view, smoke pouring out of them both. My eyes don’t move. The two objects turn into two different vans lying on their sides. Fuck. We found them.
GP comes to a skidding stop, and I’m out of the van before anyone else. My feet pound the pavement beneath me when I come up on the first van. I jump up on the passenger side and rip open the door. There, in the driver’s seat, sits Shelby. She’s alive.
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m trapped.” Her voice is calm, but hoarse. “I tried to stop him, but wrecked us instead.”
“I’m going to get you out of here, baby.” I turn back to look at my brothers rushing up behind me. “Stone! GP! Give me a hand. We gotta flip this van. Shelby’s trapped.”
“No,” Shelby croaks. “Hayden first. Go check on Hayden.”
“Not until I get you out, baby. I’m not leaving you,” I argue back.
Stone shoves in next to me and takes in the scene. “We’re going to need a winch to get this pulled over. I think we can rig something up.”
“Do it!” I holler.
“We’re going to get you out. Hang in there, Shel.”
“You need to go check on Hayden, please!”
My mind and my heart go to war with each other. I want to be here with Shelby, but I need to be with Hayden too. I glance over at the other van. No one’s stirring inside or outside of it. Karma’s screaming and yanking at the van door as smoke begins to pour more heavily out of it.
“Go,” GP mutters, shoving me aside, while Stone drags a chain from our van. “We got your girl. Go get your daughter and Lindsey.”
“Go, Wyatt,” she pleads. “She needs you.”
I look at her one more time before leaping from the side of the toppled van and toward the other one. Karma pulls hard on the door, but it doesn’t budge. I grab hold of it, and together, we pull and yank, and finally force it open partway, smoke pouring out from the opening. Karma squeezes his large body into the space and disappears from view. Within seconds, a girl is shoved toward me from inside. I catch her, dragging her out onto the ground, but it’s not Hayden or Lindsey.
Come on, Hayden. Please be okay.
A second form pushes out of the van. This time it’s Lindsey, coughing and choking on the smoke as she comes through. Reaching out for her, I help steady her down to the ground and lead her over to the grassy side of the road, far away from the smoke.
“My daughter?” I ask. “Is she...?”
Lindsey coughs hard and shakes her head, but Karma’s voice calls out over the commotion.
“Hash! I got her!”
I bolt back to the van just as Karma emerges through the hole. He reaches down, tugging and pulling until the last girl is hoisted out. Her head is turned away from me, but I hear her gasping for air as Karma tends to her. When she finally turns, our eyes connect, and my heart flutters back to life.
It’s Hayden. My daughter is alive.
“Come on, kiddo. Let’s get you down,” Karma offers. She leans over the edge on her butt, sliding down into my open arms. Her eyes instantly lock onto mine as I hold her small little body in my arms. Of all the moments I’ve imagined holding my own child for the first time, I’d imagined them as an infant, not a teenager. But holding her now takes all those regrets and firsts I’d missed far from my mind. This moment—our first moment—is the single best moment of my life. So many things could have gone wrong today, but here she is.
“Hayden?” She’s really here—my daughter. “You okay? Any broken bones? Cuts?”
“No,”