“What?” My head shot back, following his gaze, and there, in a beat-up old truck, was none other than Bo, staring at us wide-eyed when he realized what we were doing.

“He was probably here to check up on his safety net. Get in now!” Without care, he picked Esther up, all but throwing her into the back, her body slumping over toward the window.

I didn’t even have time to close the door behind us when he pulled out of the lot as quickly as possible.

“You fuckers!” Bo honked his horn, speeding right up to us and smashing into the bumper of the car.

“Amelia, keep your head down!” Austin screamed at me, and I did, leaning right next to my mother.

“FUCKIN’ SHITS!” I heard before he blasted the horn again…and again…and again.

“Agh!” I gripped the seat when Bo once again rear-ended us.

“Idiot! The goddamn moron is going to expose all of us!” Austin looked over at me, the car accelerating forward.

“How long is he going to follow us for?” I yelled as Austin turned the corner sharply, the honking fading then disappearing. He didn’t answer. As we headed toward the park, the light thankfully changed from red to green.

“He’s gone?” I sat up.

“Amelia, down!” Austin screamed, and all I saw was the front of the car speeding right toward us. He tried, but there was no getting away from it. My whole body jerked forward, my heading hitting the back of his seat, the glass shattering all around us as the car spun out, the tires screeching until we hit a tree.

Silence. Which didn’t seem right. There should be noise. I heard everything one moment, and in the next, everything was silent.

Reaching up, I winced at the blood on the side of my head. The silence slowly changed into ringing.

“Amelia.”

“Amelia!”

I looked to the front, but he wasn’t there. Austin wasn’t there.

Austin?

“Amelia!!”

There he was, to the left of me, already out of the car, his face covered in blood. “Amelia, I can’t get you out from your side. You need to climb through.”

Why?

When I looked, I saw nothing but the brown tree bark we had collided with, the car almost bent around it. The only thing blocking me from it was the air bag.

“Amelia, can you move?”

I didn’t think about it until I tried to. My whole side was numb. I couldn’t feel anything, and panic started to kick in.

“Austin, I can’t move. I can’t feel anything!”

“Amelia, grab my arm.”

“Austin!”

“Grab my arm!” He reached in, over my mother’s body, pulling at me. Bits of glass dug into and cut my arms as he pulled me out, cradling me. “I got you. You’re okay. You’re okay,” he kept repeating as he rushed away from the car, laying me on the grass. The sky is so blue.

“I’ll be right back. We’ll finish this right now, okay. You’re okay.”

I didn’t know what he meant, and I still couldn’t move any part of my body but my head, and when I looked, he was rushing back to the car.

He reached into the window like he was trying to get someone else as dark smoke poured out of the front of the hood. What?

Esther. He was pretending to get Esther!

Fire!

“Austin!” I screamed when what looked like a small spark set the whole car in flames, and rolls of black smoke, my vision kept blurring.

“You really are a pain in my fuckin’ ass.” Blocking my view was none other than Bo himself. “How about we go on a little trip?”

No. Please no!

NOAH!

Noah

What the hell?

Sitting up, I tried to ignore the chill that went up my spine and the hair on my arms standing up.

“Are you alright?” Dalila asked.

“Yes, sorry, what was your question?” I tried again to focus.

“I asked how you felt when you saw that video of your father, not only involved with millions of dollars’ worth of drugs, but also a shootout with police?” she repeated, and I knew she had been dying to get on this topic for the last forty minutes.

“Honestly, when I saw it, I didn’t connect to it. I didn’t feel anything but sadness for the police officers who had gotten hurt and a sense of pride in the city for getting that many drugs out of circulation.”

“When you say you didn’t connect to it—”

“I mean what I have been trying to explain to you—nothing. When it comes to Frank, I don’t see him as my father. I don’t see him as anything but a pitiful human being who has only ever cared about how he can use people to benefit himself. So when media repeatedly refers to him as ... father of former child star and actor Noah Sloan, for the sole purpose of boosting ratings, I get frustrated. I’m not a prop. I’m my own human being.”

“I understand that, but he is your father, and you can’t escape that—”

“Dalila, there is no perfect family. So imagine if you or anyone else was judged not based on their own actions but that of another grown adult. I cannot control Frank’s actions. I wish I could. I wish he was a better human being. But I can’t and he isn’t. That isn’t my fault. I refuse to let him define who I am at this present moment. I refuse to accept the responsibility of atoning for another man’s sins. If you or anyone else wants to insult me or drag my name through the mud, do so, but do so for my own actions, not Frank’s. I hope he is caught soon and when he is, there will be no support from me.”

“Before I—”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Sloan,” Daniel rushed to the patio, interrupting her right in the middle of taping me.

“Who is that?” Dalila snapped, pointing to him. “Excuse me, we are—”

“Mr. Sloan. It’s an emergency—it’s Amelia.”

That feeling. The fear. It all rushed back, and I was up pulling off the microphone as I moved toward him.

“What’s going on?” I asked as he ushered me through the suite, and one by one, I noticed people start checking their phones. “Daniel!” I yelled when we got in to the hall, now running toward the elevators.

“There was an accident. There are videos of Austin pulling her from the car, but then Bo took her.”

“He took her?” I repeated as he pushed the lobby button several more times.

“Kidnapped her. He kidnapped her, sir.”

Why? Why? It was like he punched me. All the air in my lungs vanished, my throat went dry, and I could feel my heart racing far too quickly. Why couldn’t I ever protect her? Why was I always dragging her down? Why didn’t I just walk away?

Loving me was the worst thing that ever happened to her. She always got hurt because of me!

“Ugh!” No. Not now! I held my own hand, breathing slowly. In and out. In and out. I could not break down here. Not now. Not when she was just out there without anyone.

“Sir?”

Pushing myself off the wall, I stood straighter. “I’m good.”

“The media is—”

“I don’t care. What happened to Austin?”

“From what I’ve heard and the video, Austin rushed back to get Ms. London, Amelia’s mother, from the car when it went up in flames—”

“What? Esther? He went to get Esther from the car?”

He nodded, not understanding how that should not have been possible.

“He got Amelia out first, and then went to get her mother, but the car went up in smoke and fire sparked. He’s been rushed to the hospital. He’s badly burned.”

“That’s where we’re going.” Something didn’t make sense. If Esther’s body was in the car, that means they—both Austin and Amelia—went to get her themselves.

“Mr. Sloan!”

“Noah!”

“Is your own father holding your girlfriend for ransom, Sloan?”

“Noah, have you heard from either your father or brother?”

They were like a swarm, their damn cameras and microphones in my face. Daniel had to actually push more than a few of them as he made way for us to get out.

“Noah, is this just an act to help your father escape?” I paused right before the door and turned to him, his microphone pushed closer to my mouth. I grabbed it out of his hands and pulled him out from the crowd right into my fist. His whole head turned, and they all backed up, allowing his fucking body to fall on to the ground.