[CONTENT TEMPLATE HERE]
Chapter 868:
Easton tackled her. He wrapped his body around hers and drove them both down onto the concrete steps of the restaurant, shielding her head with his arms.
The transport van struck a thick steel streetlight pole. The pole snapped. The van’s momentum carried it up and over, and it rolled onto its side with a sickening crunch of collapsing metal, coming to rest in the center of the intersection.
The Escalade absorbed the brutal counter-force. The entire front engine block crumpled inward. The hood buckled and flew off, exposing the engine as it began vomiting thick black smoke and hissing fluids onto the street.
June lay on the cold concrete. Her ears rang with a high-pitched whine. Her chest heaved, struggling to pull air in.
She pushed Easton’s arm off her back and scrambled to her feet. She didn’t notice her snapped heel. She didn’t feel the sting of concrete on her knee. Her eyes locked onto the smoking wreck of the Escalade.
Her heart stopped.
“Marcus!” The scream tore from her lungs, raw and desperate.
She ran toward the wreck, limping on her uneven feet, and threw herself against the driver’s door. The metal was scalding. She grabbed the handle and pulled with everything she had. The door was warped into its frame. It didn’t move.
She slammed her fists against the shattered window.
𝘠ou𝘳 dа𝗂𝗹𝗒 𝖽𝗼s𝖾 o𝘧 𝗇𝘰𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗌 𝗼𝘯 ѕ.c𝗈𝗆
“Marcus! Open the door p>
Through the cracked glass and the deflating airbag, she saw him. The steering column had collapsed inward, pinning his chest against the seat. His head was slumped forward, a deep gash above his brow soaking the white fabric crimson.
At the sound of her voice, Marcus slowly lifted his head.
His face was pale, covered in blood and dust. He found her through the broken glass. His chest hitched as he tried to breathe. A thin stream of blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
Despite everything, the corners of his mouth moved into a faint, exhausted smile.
“Boss,” Marcus wheezed, his voice a wet whisper barely audible over the hissing engine. “You’re safe p>
The sight of that smile broke something open in June.
Tears flooded her face. “No — Marcus, stay awake! Look at me! Don’t close your eyes!” She struck the glass again, her knuckles splitting.
Easton reached her from behind. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back from the dangerously hot metal. “June — the paramedics are coming. You can’t get him out. Stop p>
She struggled against him, still reaching for the door.
A crash of breaking glass from the overturned transport van cut through the noise.
Alycia kicked the remaining shards of the windshield out with her boots and dragged herself onto the asphalt. Her jumpsuit was torn and blood-soaked, her left arm hanging at an unnatural angle. She looked up and found June standing there — unharmed, tears streaming down her face.
Alycia’s expression twisted into something that barely resembled a human face.
“Why won’t you die?!” she shrieked, her voice bouncing off the surrounding buildings. “Why does everyone keep taking a bullet for you p>