a long, low howl of pain, my whole being electrified with the need to get Levi and Molly out of that car.
There’s almost no traffic and I’m hitting sixty, but the big-ass truck doesn’t hydroplane like my old Accord. Gauging where I am by the stores I recognize, I have a few more lights before the turnoff to Molly’s house.
I run a yellow light, then another, then whip over to the right to take the next turn, weaving through some residential streets just as I see a white sedan cross in front of me, heading back to Route 1.
Is that him? I follow, just about to flash my brights frantically when I see him turn again. What the—
Oh, God. Of course. Levi thinks I’m Jarvis in the black pickup. He thinks I’m following him.
He’ll never stop for me!
I whip to the left, taking a side street, praying he’s headed back to Route 1. Each thump of the windshield wipers matches my heart, slamming against my ribs, ready to explode.
“Levi!” I scream into the night, my voice echoing in the truck.
I barrel onto Route 1, rolling down the right lane, squinting into the night, when I see him approaching the intersection. I have to beat him. I have to stop him.
I’m flooring it, sweating, grunting, bracing to beat him there, and I have him. I’m going to do it. I get to the middle of the intersection and slam on the brakes, somehow stopping the truck as the BMW keeps coming faster and faster.
He’s going to hit me!
I push the window button and lower the passenger side down so he can see who is driving, screaming his name, willing him to stop. All I can see is the two white headlights bearing down on me, coming closer and closer. I squeeze my eyes shut and brace for impact, hearing the screech of brakes and horns and preparing for the jolt … that doesn’t happen.
I open my eyes to see Levi stick his head out the driver’s window, rain drenching him. “Kenzie! What the hell are you doing?”
“Get out!” I holler, throwing my door open. “Get out of the car! Both of you!”
He climbs out just as I reach him, spitting water out of my mouth. “Get Molly out, too! The car’s going to explode!”
We both run to the passenger side, where Molly is passed out. I yank the door open and he scoops her up in his arms.
“Hurry!” I scream. “Get away from the car! Away!”
Together, we bolt across the street, Levi carrying Molly and jumping over a guardrail and rolling to the grass just as the night lights up and rocks with the power of a deafening explosion.
Levi is on top of us, his body pressing Molly’s into mine as the sound and heat roll our way. I manage to open my eyes and peer through his elbow and over Molly’s head, looking straight at a set of golden arches next to the road.
For a moment, I can’t breathe or think or do anything except embrace the reality that I am alive.
And so are my two closest friends.
CHAPTER XXXIV
The graveyard where Conner is buried sits on the side of a hill overlooking the farmland of western Pennsylvania. The trees have shed almost all their leaves now, but a rare late-autumn sun warms my face as I climb out of my car and stand by the door.
“You want company?” Levi asks from the passenger seat.
I look at him, then glance at Molly in the back. “Do you guys mind giving me a few moments alone?”
“Not at all,” she assures me. “We’re here for moral support.”
I give her a grateful smile and reach to give Levi’s hand a squeeze. “I’ll just be a minute.”
But it takes longer than that to meander through the cemetery, pausing to glance at names and dates, fighting that sense of injustice because almost all of those birth-to-death dates span many, many years.
But not Conner’s. He didn’t even make two decades.
I reach his grave and know instantly that Mom and Dad have been here recently. Since we learned the truth about Conner’s death, they’ve been up here a lot. Together.
I eye their work, noticing the plot is neat, the flowers fresh, and the last leaves from a nearby maple have all been raked away.
If headstones are supposed to represent a person’s life and character, then we really missed the mark on this one. Unlike Conner, his grave is unassuming, with a tiny stone flat in the ground. It