I listened as Fang cursed and called for his men.
“This fucking glass,” he shouted. “Did you see anybody?” he asked the other guy in the car.
“No, sir, not until they were shooting at us,” the goon answered.
“How the fuck did they sneak up on us?” Fang yelled.
“I don’t know. It looked like they didn’t have their lights on,” the guy said.
“Hey, are you okay back there?” The body shifted above me as Fang checked to see if he was alright. He wasn’t. I could have told Fang that, but I was trying to hide.
“I think it’s just us, boss,” the other guy said again.
“Where’s Sasha? Did she get thrown out of the car?”
Their conversation sounded so normal and casual against the silence of the night outside. The gunshots had ceased. Everything had come to a complete stop. It was as if the Overlords who had ambushed us had left us here on the side of the road, convinced we were dead. I wasn’t okay with that. I wanted to be rescued. I wanted to be reunited with Cole so I could apologize for everything and start trying to make things right between us.
“No, sir, I think she’s still inside,” the other guy said. I could feel the front passenger seat moving against my back. A light came on, probably the flashlight app on one of their phones.
I closed my eyes and held my breath as the bright white light filled the car. I figured if I held very still underneath the dead man lying above me, they wouldn’t see me.
“I see you,” Fang said, laughing dryly. “Sasha,” he called me.
I kept my eyes closed and sat as still as I could. If he did see me, maybe I could convince him I was dead. He wasn’t buying it.
“Sasha, look at me,” he said. His tone told me he wasn’t going to give me the opportunity to be dead. Even if he had been calling out to my corpse, I probably would have answered his commanding tone.
I looked up from underneath the body.
It looked like Fang’s goon was holding the phone so Fang could see me. Fang reached down and slid the other guy off of me so he could see me plainly. I didn’t stand a chance now. I had nowhere to go, and Fang knew I was mostly okay.
“I’m coming back for you,” he croaked. “Don’t go anywhere, Sasha. We still have business to finish. Remember, this is your fault. If you hadn’t slept with Cole and betrayed me, none of this would have happened. All the blood that has been shed today is on you.”
I tried not to laugh, because the only response I could think of was to say that some of it really was on me. At least my sense of humor was still intact. If nothing else, that was enough to let me know I was okay.
“I figured you’d have something smart to say for yourself,” Fang continued. “I’m even more disappointed in you now, Sasha.”
I heard his seatbelt unbuckle as he started to climb out of the car.
“Come on,” he called back to his passenger.
“What about the girl?” he asked as he unbuckled and climbed up behind Fang.
“We’ll come back to get her. She’s not going anywhere,” he called from outside.
With both men gone, the light was gone, too. Soon, my eyes adjusted to the moonlight spilling into the car from the open windows facing the sky. I could see enough to see the seats riddled with glass that sparkled in the moonlight. The scene was eerily calm and beautiful. Without the weight of the dead man bearing down on me, I was able to finally catch my breath.
I still couldn’t do much about moving around. With my wrists tied, it was surprisingly hard to grab ahold of anything and use my upper body strength to pull myself up. My ankles being bound made it difficult to stand. I was in trouble if I couldn’t get out of the car before Fang came back, but if they weren’t alone outside, I figured I had a little more time to figure out how to make my body work for me in my current condition.
Then it hit me. I could use the glass. There were shards of glass all over the car. If I could just get one and run it across the rope and tape around my wrists, I could cut myself free, as long as I didn’t cut myself too terribly in the process.
Alas, that was easier said than done. I couldn’t seem to find a piece large enough for me to hold it right. I kept dropping them at my feet. Luckily, I still had shoes on. I could hear the glass crunching beneath me with every step.
“Come on,” I said to the empty car. “There’s got to be something I can use.” I looked around frantically, trying to find something I could use to scrape my ropes and tape so that I could free myself, but all the glass was small, and in my panic, my eyes were losing sight of the details. It was as if the car was growing darker, as if the light was fading from the moon.