Shattered Bonds: Book Seven of Wicked Play Read Free

to highlight his strong profile. He had an elegant nose tempered by a square jaw and a high forehead beneath hair that had just enough curl to defy the styled cut.
Would the soft curls wrap around my fingers if I touched them?
    Right. She closed her eyes and released a slow breath. That train of thought would get her nowhere.
    The light was changing to green when she looked up, trying to think of something to talk about besides the youth center. They’d exhausted that topic on the drive to the ice arena. What else did she know about the man?
    “So what kind of law do you practice?” she asked.
    “Corporate and small business. Contracts mostly.”
    That might have been the longest sentence he’d said to her. “What does that—Oh my God!” she exclaimed as a dark green pickup blasted into the intersection. The truck smashed into the side of the SUV to the tune of a metal-bending crash that rocked the interior of Noah’s car.
    Noah slammed on the brakes. Her hands flew up to brace herself as she jerked forward only to be jolted back by the seat belt. Despite that, her focus remained on the scene unfolding before her. It was like watching a slow-motion camera on hyper-speed.
    The collision propelled the SUV sideways through the intersection with a continued peal of tires and smoke that seemed to accelerate instead of slow. Horns blared, other vehicles swerved to avoid them, car parts exploded into the air and there was nothing she could do.
    Her breath caught when the vehicle carrying her friends buckled around a light pole on the other side of the street. The truck was embedded into the near side, the front end collapsed halfway to the cab, sandwiching the big SUV into half its original width.
    Smoke simmered up from the wreckage, the windows were all smashed or cracked and one taillight flashed in an odd pattern as the world came to a halt.
    “Fuck.” Noah’s sharp curse penetrated the sudden silence, but the awful wrench of metal crunching against metal continued to ring in her ears.
    “Oh my God,” she whispered again, disbelief warring with reality. Slowly, she processed the small things. Her heart raced, her shoulder hurt, her hands shook and her brain couldn’t seem to accept what she’d just witnessed.
    A gust of cold air hit her face, and she turned to see Noah’s door hanging open. The man sprinted across the street, phone in hand. Rock and Carter were right behind him by the time he reached the accident.
    Rock’s shouts echoed through the night as he peered into the damaged windows and started giving orders. The men scoured the SUV, indistinct calls going between them. Carter jerked at the back hatch, unable to get it open, and Rock disappeared behind the far side of the vehicle.
    Liv sucked in a breath that filled her with the stench of gasoline, antifreeze and burned rubber. Even from a distance, the crash looked deadly. A visible smear of blood around a spider-web crack in the back window of the SUV had bile rising in her throat. An unnecessary warning of what they would find inside.
    She winced at the twinge in her neck when she turned to unclip her seat belt. It didn’t compare to the thunder of fear and dread that clenched her heart. With another wavering inhale, Liv shoved her door open and vaulted into the night to help.

Chapter Two
    “Over here!”
    “Back up. Let ’em through!”
    “Hurry!”
    The piercing ring of a siren squealed through the air to join the ongoing choir, and cut off the frantic calls before it faded into the distance. An abundance of blue and red lights peppered the cold night with their universal signal for trouble under the blinding spotlights erected around the crash site.
    “This way!”
    “I need the clamps!”
    Chaos surged around Noah as he crouched next to a semiconscious Deklan, who was laid out on a backboard on the edge of the scene. The stench of blood, gas and coolant clouded the area and rode tandem with shouts from the firemen and the medical-filled