Chapter 428

Chapter 428:

Grayson made a split-second decision. Isolde caught a glimpse of him through her shattered side window — his face a mask of grim determination. He yanked his steering wheel hard to the right.

The Escalade cut directly in front of her sedan, turning broadside.

Isolde’s car slammed into the side of the SUV.

The airbags deployed instantly. White powder filled the cabin. The world went silent, then white.

𝗟a𝗍𝖾𝘀𝘵 𝗰hа𝗽𝗍е𝘳𝘀 𝘰ո 𝗀𝗮ln𝘰𝘃𝗲𝗅𝗌.𝘤𝗈𝗆

The tangled wreck slid another fifty feet, grinding against the asphalt, before slamming into the rock face of the mountain and coming to a violent halt.

Isolde sat stunned, her ears ringing. The smell of burnt rubber and chemical dust choked her throat. She coughed, waving her hand to clear the air.

“Belle?” Isolde rasped.

Belle was slumped in the passenger seat, whimpering. A small cut on her forehead was bleeding freely, but she was moving. She was alive.

Isolde unbuckled her seatbelt — her hands shaking, not from fear, but from the crash of adrenaline leaving her system — and kicked her door open. It groaned but gave way.

She stumbled out into the pouring rain. The cold water hit her face and sharpened her senses.

She looked at the wreck.

Her sedan was crushed against the rock face. But Grayson’s SUV was teetering on the edge of the road, its rear wheels hanging over the abyss. The guardrail was gone.

“Grayson,” Isolde whispered.

She sprinted toward the SUV. The vehicle groaned and shifted, sending gravel cascading into the ravine below.

She reached the driver’s side. The door was crushed inward, jammed tight. Through the spiderwebbed glass, she saw Grayson slumped over the steering wheel, blood running down his temple.

“Grayson!” Isolde yelled, banging on the glass. “Wake up!”

He didn’t move.

She grabbed the door handle and pulled with everything she had. It didn’t budge. She braced her foot against the fender and pulled again, screaming with the effort.

The metal screeched and popped open.

Grayson groaned. His eyelids fluttered. He lifted his head slowly, his eyes unfocused, then found her face and blinked, trying to clear his vision.

“Belle,” Grayson croaked, his voice wet and weak. “Her status… is she safe?”

Isolde felt as though she had been slapped. He hadn’t asked if she was okay. He hadn’t asked about the woman he had just pinned against a mountain. Belle was his first thought, his only thought.

Her heart turned to ice.

“She’s fine,” Isolde said, her voice devoid of emotion. “She has a scratch.”

The SUV lurched and slid another inch toward the edge.

“Get out,” Isolde ordered. “Now.”

Grayson tried to move and let out a sharp cry of pain.

“My hand,” he gasped.

Isolde looked down. His right hand was trapped between the steering column and the crushed dashboard, the angle deeply unnatural.

“Don’t pull,” Isolde said quickly.

She leaned into the unstable vehicle, grabbed the plastic panel of the dashboard, and ripped it upward with a strength she didn’t know she possessed.

“On three,” she said. “One. Two. Three!”

Grayson yanked his hand free with a guttural roar of agony.

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