Halina didn’t respond, which was fine with Mitch. He wasn’t ready to talk business. His hurt, betrayal, and anger had been stewing for days and had finally boiled over.
He pounded the steering wheel. “Goddammit, Halina. Everything was a lie, wasn’t it? Everything between us.”
When she still didn’t answer, he shot her a glare. But her gaze had gone completely distant, her brow was drawn in concern, and her rhythmic stroking of Dex’s fur had stopped.
“At least have the decency to tell the truth about it now. You owe me that much. Halina.”
She sat up, darting frightened looks out the windows. Dex whined as if sensing her distress.
“What’s wrong now?” he asked, exasperated he couldn’t even get enough info to begin to put that short period of his life—one that had defined who he’d become—behind him once and for all.
She shook her head slowly, as if her mind were still somewhere else. Then she gasped and stiffened. Her eyes went wide and her body shuddered as if something inside her had broken.
She slammed a hand against her chest, fisted the other in Dex’s collar.
“Mitch, pull off the freeway.” Her words came breathless and raspy, barely audible.
“Are you sick?” He scanned her, looking for a problem. She was too young, too fit for a heart attack. She’d stopped bleeding. She wasn’t throwing up, wasn’t writhing in pain—
“No. No. Now.” Her voice grew stronger with conviction. “Pull off the freeway, now. Right here.” She hauled Dex closer with one arm and pointed frantically to the exit Mitch was about to pass with the other. “Here, Mitch, here.”
“Jesus,” he muttered while checking his mirrors, hitting the brakes and swerving to make the exit. He took the ramp, glancing back at the freeway. “What the hell is—”
His words cut off as a gray Chevy SUV darted along the fast lane. Within a fraction of a second, the vehicle cut across three lanes of traffic to make the next exit. Then events slowed to half time in front of Mitch’s eyes.
The SUV swerved in front of a big rig, one that had been traveling just ahead of their car in the next lane. The rig braked hard and skidded. The cab jerked, turning ninety degrees to the trailer. The trailer skidded sideways, across all four lanes of traffic, slamming into vehicles while other vehicles swerved and braked, unable to stop in time and crashing into the trailer. Smoke and dust exploded into the air. Metal screeched. Glass shattered. Then crunch, crash, squeal. And it started all over again.
Mitch skidded to a stop on the side of the ramp. He stared in horror at the catastrophe. Cars continued to skid along the asphalt, hit, and ricochet off each other. He grabbed his phone and pushed the driver’s door open. He was dialing emergency when he remembered Halina.
“Nine-one-one operator.” A woman’s voice sounded in Mitch’s ear as he turned and searched for Halina through the windshield. “What’s the nature of your emergency?”
She was curled around the shepherd and even from where he stood Mitch could see her shaking. His mind shot back to the moment before the crash and Halina’s strange reaction. Then clicked with everything he’d experienced with the team of firefighters and their paranormal abilities. An eerie, heavy foreboding crept through him.
“Hello?” the operator prompted. “Are you calling to report an emergency?”
“Uh, yeah.” He turned back to the freeway, stunned once again at the devastation. “Car accident on interstate ninety, headed East. Just past the Mercer exit. Jackknifed big rig and, shit, at least a dozen cars. Bad. Really bad.”
Like he-and-Halina-nearly-died bad.
He was having a hard time catching his breath, he shook like he’d been drinking double espresso shots all day, and his gut burned icy hot. He turned away from the spectacle to check on Halina. She hadn’t moved, her arms clutching Dex.
When he finished the call, he took a minute to get himself settled before he approached the passenger’s side. But how did he settle himself after the realization that Halina could very well have a paranormal power? A power much like those of the others who’d been exposed to the warehouse chemicals.
Mitch’s mind ran in circles—present to past, then working itself back to the present again—until his head throbbed. He couldn’t make sense of this without information from Halina.
He took a deep breath of cold air, gave thanks for his life and Halina’s, and opened the car door. Dex’s gaze, which had already been focused on Mitch through the glass, grew sharp. His big body tensed in the front seat next to Halina and his throat rumbled with an if-you-touch-her-I’ll-chew-your-arm-off message.
Halina’s hand fisted and released in his multicolored fur, massaging the muscles of Dex’s shoulder. “Priyatel’, Dex.”
Her voice sounded a lot like his six-year-old niece’s when she emerged from a nightmare and clung to Mitch, shaking. He wouldn’t have been human if her distress hadn’t pulled at his heart. The dog’s growl instantly transitioned to a half whine, half yowl, a sound that made it seem as if he were trying to tell Mitch something, like, “Help her.”
He crouched beside the door and laid a hand on her knee. “Halina, what just happened?”
She shook her head against Dex. “Please, Mitch, just get me to the storage unit.”
Frustration balled at the center of his chest. “You’ll tell me when we get there?”
“I’m not . . .” Her voice was muffled against Dex’s neck. “I don’t know what just happened.”
Mitch slid his fingers into Dex’s fur and over Halina’s hand, squeezing. “You need to talk to me, Hali. We almost just died. As in dead. Gone. Forever. No second chances. Do you want to die without telling me the truth? Do you want me to die believing what I believe?”
She lifted her face and met Mitch’s gaze through a tangle of black hair that had long since fallen out of her bun, her eyes vivid and wet. “I . . . don’t know what I want anymore.”
He pushed to his feet, shut the door, and turned away from the car. Hands on hips, he wandered toward the trunk swearing under his breath. Then rubbed both hands over his face and scraped his fingers through his hair.
It didn’t matter what she wanted, because she was going to do what he wanted her to do. This wasn’t the way he’d wanted it to go. He’d hoped she’d cooperate. If he was honest, he’d hoped for more—he’d hoped for closure. But he’d do what he had to do to keep everyone safe and finally end this.
Halina could waste the opportunity if she wanted, but Mitch used it to remind himself that life was short. And he hadn’t come this far only to let her stab him again when he wasn’t looking.
Inside the car, Mitch had a harder time separating the emotions that surfaced as soon as her scent hit his nose. Her ability to completely ignore him as if he didn’t exist helped. He navigated back onto the highway, wondering how long she’d had abilities, what they were exactly, and whether or not she even realized she had them.
The scientifically oriented Halina Mitch had known would have completely shunned the mere possibility. And forcing her to face it would have been like inviting a hurricane into a mobile home park. Then again, he could have read the situation all wrong. He’d certainly read everything else about this situation wrong.