Chapter 234

Ella

The sight of Logan’s car through the rear window made my heart sing. So he hadn’t wandered into the explosive-filled garage. He was alive, and he was coming for me.

But the trouble was far from over.

The desert landscape blurred past as Devon continued to speed recklessly through the darkness, his words a constant drone in my ear. “You’ll understand soon, Ella,” he said. “I’m saving you from this hell. You’ll be better off with me than with him. I promise.”

I swallowed. His voice was unnerving, filled with a conviction that chilled me to the bone.

“Devon, you don’t want to do this,” I said. “I’m safer at home, with my family. I don’t want to go with you.”

“No, no, no,” he insisted, pushing the car even faster somehow. “It’s not like that. You’ll like it with me, I know you will.”

“Devon—”

The car swerved again, sending me sliding across the seat. My pen knife was long gone by now, likely lodged somewhere beneath Devon’s seat. My wolf was still groggy and weak after her last burst of energy, and my head throbbed and ached where I had hit it.

All I could do was keep clinging to the edges of my seat, my heart hammering in my chest, as I prayed for Logan to catch up. But when I glanced through the rear window once again, he hadn’t gotten much closer.

Distance seemed so distorted out here where everything was flat and desolate. Even though Logan had surpassed the police car with its whirling blue and red lights, there was still some distance to go; and Devon was nowhere even close to slowing down.

“I was just following orders at first,” Devon explained as he continued to drive. “But then I got to know you, Ella. I saw how kind you were, how driven and utterly beautiful you were. I can’t just let you go. It would be like feeding you to the wolves.”

The car swerved dangerously, kicking up clouds of sand as Devon pushed it to its limits. Every sharp turn, every near-miss with a rock or a cactus, sent a jolt of fear through me. It felt like we were just moments away from a deadly crash.

“What are you saying?” I managed through the lump in my throat.

“Those people can never escape from their true natures,” he said, his voice rising over the din of the engine. “But I can. I’m not like them. I can get you far away, make sure you never need to deal with the mafia again.”

As I glanced at Devon in the rearview mirror, I saw a wildness in his eyes that I hadn’t noticed before tonight. He was not the person I had thought I knew; he was reckless, delusional, desperate.

His grip on the steering wheel was like a vice, and he seemed to be utterly oblivious to the risks he was taking.

“Devon, please just let me go,” I begged, taking another glance out the rear window to see that Logan was finally inching closer. “Please, I meant what I said earlier; I can keep you safe. From Marina and Harry, from the mafia, even from the police if that’s what you want.”

But Devon just scoffed. “Ella, you don’t get it,” he continued, his voice sounding even more desperate by the second. “I’ve been watching over you, making sure you’re safe. No one cares about you like I do. I don’t need you to save me; I need to save you.”

I felt bile rise in my throat. His words were twisted, his intentions far from noble no matter what he seemed to think. He was a stalker, a predator masquerading as a protector. The thought that I had once considered him something of a friend filled me with disgust.

The landscape outside turned more treacherous, the ground uneven and full of pitfalls. Devon navigated the terrain with a recklessness that was terrifying. He was taking more and more risks, each one more dangerous than the last.

All the while, Logan edged closer. I could see his silhouette through the windshield now, determined and full of rage.

But we weren’t out of the woods yet. My heart lurched as I turned back around to see what looked like a steep dropoff up ahead.

A cliff.

The closer Logan came, though, the more my wolf stirred inside of me, her strength slowly returning thanks to our mate’s presence. “Ella, we need to do something,” she growled. “He’s going to get us all killed!”

My wolf was right. Devon whipped the car around, but Logan was veering around us now, pinning us between the cliff and his car. Devon’s car lurched, and the sound of metal scraping against metal filled my ears.

Logan was trying to get Devon to surrender. But Devon was too desperate to stop; if he couldn’t have me, then no one could.

We were going to fly off of this cliff and die.

I couldn’t just lay here and let that happen. My wolf surged again, and I wasted no time. Gathering the remnants of my strength in conjunction with hers, I waited for the right moment. Devon was so focused on driving, so consumed by his delusions, that he didn’t notice me shift in my seat, inching closer to him.

And then, as the car lurched dangerously close to the edge of the cliff thanks to Logan ramming into us, Devon momentarily lost control and I finally saw my chance.

In one swift movement, I lunged at Devon, my hands reaching for the steering wheel. He shouted in surprise, trying to fend me off, but my wolf’s strength was surging through my every fiber now, filling me with the primal fury that I had been waiting for.

I punched him hard in the face, feeling a satisfying crunch under my fist. Devon’s grip on the wheel loosened, and I yanked it towards me, the car swerving wildly.

Devon tried to regain control, but I was relentless. I leaped into his lap and slammed my foot down, hitting the brakes with all my might.

The car skidded in the sand, throwing up a storm of dust and debris. There was a whirlwind of sound and shrapnel, of the world tilting beneath me.

But then everything went silent. The car slammed to a halt mere inches before it went over the cliff. When the dust settled, all I could see was a dark void in front of me; a steep dropoff of nothingness. A certain death.

And yet, I was alive. We all were.

Without a moment’s hesitation, I shoved Devon out of the driver’s seat and onto the sandy ground. He lay there, dazed and disoriented, but I couldn’t contain my rage. The feeling of his face under my fist suddenly seemed all too compelling.

“You betrayed me, Devon!” I screamed, my fists raining blows onto his face, each punch a satisfying squelch of flesh and cartilage and bone. “You lied to me! You used me!”

He didn’t fight back, just lay there, taking the blows. But I didn’t stop. I wailed on him until he stopped moving, and I didn’t stop then. I didn’t even stop when my knuckles went numb and when blood splattered onto my face. Each punch was for me, for my sister, for Logan, for the hell I had been through, for the betrayal of someone who had made me trust him.

But then, amidst the chaos, I heard a voice calling my name. “Ella!”

I paused, my fists still raised, and looked up. There, running toward me, was Logan.

“Logan.”

His hands reached out and pulled me to my feet before I could come to my senses.