It rushed up, and I tightened every muscle.

“Hold on,” I shouted.

It slammed into our ass, and liquid heat coursed down every one of my limbs as I tried to outrun them.

I looked to Winter. “We’re almost there.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but the car rammed us again, and we all lurched in our seats.

“Motherfucker!” I growled.

They slammed into us again. I took the wheel with both hands trying to keep it steady.

And again.

Winter started panting in short, shallow breaths, scared with an arm around Will’s neck and one on the dash.

They hit us again.

“Hold on,” I told them.

The bridge appeared ahead, and I charged dead ahead, racing onto it and seeing Anderson’s headlights chase us again.

The dark river loomed still and black underneath us, spreading far to the left and right as my tires bumped over the slabs of concrete underneath.

Anderson sped up, hit us again, but before I had a chance to recover, he shot around and slammed into my side.

“Goddammit!” I bellowed.

I lost the wheel, the car went spinning, and I slammed on the brakes, and then… He was there—his headlights charging right for us.

Will yelled, wrapping his arms around Winter’s head, and we crashed through the railing, the back tires falling over the side of the bridge as Anderson’s SUV tipped both right tires over the side, as well. Winter screamed as the car wobbled.

There was only a moment, my eyes locked on Winter’s face, and then both cars started to slide. I reached for her, took her hand, and pulled her into my arms, locking her in as we both went over the side, free falling into the river.

Holy fuck!

The car crashed down, my neck snapped back, and the whole world tilted on its side as my head swam.

What the hell?

I heard Winter calling me.

“Damon?” she cried, touching my face. “D…Damon, wake up. Wake up!”

I squeezed my eyes shut, lifting up my head and rotating the ache out of my neck before opening them again.

Did I get knocked out? Shit.

Winter sat on my lap, nearly nose to nose, crying but kissing me as soon as she felt me move.

I grunted, rubbing my neck as I looked over to see Will yanking on his handle and throwing his body into the door.

It took a moment to register what had just happened, but then I looked up, out the front windshield and saw what was all around us.

The fucking river. Jesus.

“You okay?” I asked Winter.

“Yeah.”

I looked around, seeing the car flooding as water poured in from the vents and under the dash, the car already half deep.

Fuck.

The river rushed over the hood as the car sank nose first, and I looked out the window, seeing no signs of life from Anderson’s car. It floated upside down, slowly sinking, as well.

Winter jumped off me, and I pulled my handle, following Will and slamming all my weight into the door. The cloudy water rushed, starting to cover the windows and pour in, and I yanked again and again and again, but the fucking door wouldn’t open.

I climbed out of my seat, trying the back doors and kicking the windows. Winter moved from door to door, feeling her way and trying the windows, pushing the buttons, while Will took the baseball bat and threw it into the glass.

“Just calm down a sec!” I yelled at him.

We were under water now. If he broke the glass, water would rush in fast, and we needed a minute.

I pushed against the back door so hard my muscles burned.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck… Think.

Goddammit.

My knees shook as I made my way back up front, sloshing through the icy water and picking up Winter who was chest deep and shivering.

I breathed over her lips, trying to warm her any way I could. “There’s like six hundred pounds of pressure on the windows and doors, right now,” I told her. “Once the pressure equalizes, we’ll open the doors.”

“When…when…” she stammered, shaking. “When does it equalize?”

The water chilled my bones. “When the car…fills up…with water.”

“If it fills up with water, we can’t breathe!” Will yelled, climbing out of his seat, his clothes and hair drenched. “We don’t want it to fill up!”

He stumbled, catching himself as his head turned right and left, manically searching for a way out.

“Damon, man…” He stood, almost hyperventilating as the water rose to our chests, slowly consuming the car. “We gotta…we gotta get out of here. I can’t… I can’t…”

He started feeling the roof and searching, looking everywhere for anything he could find, gasping in short breaths.

I turned from Winter, gripping his face in my hands. “Just breathe,” I told him. “Trust me. We’re getting out of here.”

He met my eyes, starting to break down as his chin trembled. “Please, don’t…” he begged. “Please don’t leave me.”

I clenched my jaw, shame washing me all over again at what I let Trevor do to him. How I left him.

How I would never have lived with it if anything had happened to him that night.

I held the back of his neck and planted my forehead to his. “I never did,” I promised.

I turned to Winter, took her hand and wrapped it around my belt.

“You don’t let go,” I ordered.

She shook, so scared, and her eyes watering. The car whined with the weight of the water filling it as we sank into the depths of the river, and I held her up, so she could breathe as long as possible.

“Tell me you love me,” she whispered. “Say it.”

I looked down at her, fucking done with this rotten luck. We weren’t dying. I wasn’t telling her that shit like I wouldn’t have a chance to tell her later. She could fucking wait.

I held her close, nose to nose. “Someday,” I taunted, forcing a smile into my voice.

She let out a little laugh through her sob, and I wanted so badly to have her back on that motorcycle like the night I promised to show her red someday. Even when I was lying to her like I was that night, it was better than this.

She gripped my belt, my heart pounded in my chest, and Will and Winter gasped around me as we sucked up the last of the air in the car. I pushed us up, farther and farther, getting the last breaths we could as Will caught a mouthful of water, coughed and sputtered, and then we were under, and he was thrashing.

Shit.

I didn’t waste time. With Winter holding my belt, I moved to one of the rear doors and pushed, but it still wasn’t budging. I fondled the lock, making sure it wasn’t secured, and threw my weight into the door as best I could.

Winter held on, calm, but I could hear Will fighting in the water, because he didn’t get a lungful before we went under, and I didn’t know why the fucking door wasn’t opening. It was supposed to open.

Come on.

My hands shook so badly, and I was losing it. They were going to fucking die, because of me. Again.

Please.

I pushed at the door.

Please. Please, Please.

And then I pushed…

And it floated open like magic.

I went dizzy for a moment, wondering if it really just did that.

Oh, fucking yes. Thank God.

I dove out into the river, pulling Winter and reaching inside and grabbing Will.

He kicked his legs, swimming out and fighting for the surface, and I followed, taking Winter’s hand off my belt but not letting go as we swam.

We all popped up to the surface, hitting the air and coughing, sputtering, and gasping for breath. The cold water stabbed like needles in my skin, but I couldn’t feel my wound at least. One pain at a time.

We needed to get out of this water. I looked around for Anderson and his partner, but there was no one. Nothing else on the surface of the river. He was under.

He was gone.

Good fucking riddance.

“Can you swim?” I asked Winter. She’d been in the pool with Will, but it wasn’t deep.

“Yeah,” she choked out. “I’ll follow you.”

I turned on my non-injured side and did the side-stroke toward the river bank, watching her behind me to make sure she could follow my sound and movement in the water.

Will swam next to me, the current pulling us, but we made good strides, and I started to feel the ground under me. My fucking body was done.

We reached the river floor, crawling out of the water and onto the bank, breathing hard and relief washing over me as I collapsed.

“Fuck, we did it,” I breathed out.

Winter grabbed my leg, pulling herself up.

“We can’t stay here,” she said, her voice shaking. “We need to… get somewhere warm.”

I rolled over, groaning at all the aches and pains, and I needed ten-thousand things right now, but I was so fucking happy they were here and we made it. Raising my head and looking up, I saw a single light through the trees and knew…

Just fucking knew.

St. Killian’s.

Damon

Present

We stumbled toward the church, freezing and covered in dirt as Will crawled up a ravine, and I followed with Winter in tow.

Jesus, it was fucking freezing.

There was no telling if my father knew we had Michael and Winter back or if anyone was on our tail, but we had to get inside and get warm.

Our breath clouded in the air as the wet clothes molded to our skin, but I stayed charged.

We were almost there.

Will hung his head, looking ready to collapse, but it was like he was possessed, almost as if he was trying to get away from something as he crawled and scurried.

But instead of running for St. Killian’s, Will veered down what looked almost like a cave.

I peered closely through the dark, seeing an alcove in the earth under a tree. Like a tunnel.

What was that?

Following him, I stopped behind him and held Winter close as she shivered uncontrollably and watched him punch in a code.

The door opened, and we slipped inside.

Will kept going, ripping off his sweatshirt and T-shirt and dropping them along the hallway, and I pulled the door closed again, taking Winter’s hand.