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Chapter Fifteen

Leah

Istanbul

"You’re going too fast!" I screamed Why did I even bother? He never listened tome a side-eye as we approached the curve "I want to see how the new tires hold"

"Stop! I kno this ends Please don’t!"

But he didn’t slow

I closed ainst the sound of the tires on the pavement, and my body detached from the motion of the car, but uardrail and plummeted

The scream I heard was my own but not

I blessedly missed the fall, even the impact e hit the first tree As I opened my eyes, htmare always started

I turnedfrom his abdomen where part of the tree that braced us skewered him I knehat I had to do--what I always had to do when I found e to do the first time

I didn’t need to try my door handle to know that it was jammed, or turn in my seat to know I couldn’tthe balance of the car

Maybe if I’d realized that it wouldn’t work, that I’d have to crawl over Brian’s body, I would have spared le, blood dripping from his dead, opaque eyes and ruined mouth, and I screamed, raw and painfully

"You knohat you have to do," he rasped

And I did The nightmare never ended until I actually did it

"Leah!" he yelled…but it sounded all wrong

"Leah, baby, it’s okay" His voice broke through the nightful of air, lurching forward and farther into Paxton’s ar and secure, while I buriedhis heartbeat with ainst his naked chest