Chapter 21
TWENTY-ONE
ALEX
As part of my training, I’d been taught to control and master my own fear, overriding physiological responses to do what needed to be done. But absolutely nothing could have prepared me for the bone-deep terror of hearing Ciara’s scream. The sound of tearing metal wrenched my chest straight open, exposing the heart I’d tried so desperately to guard, and I shouted into the phone, as if by will alone I could reach out to catch her. But my terror was met with only silence.
Shut it down, Conroy. Just get to her.
Viciously, I shifted gears, pushing my 4x4 to its absolute limit of speed. It groaned as I took curves too fast, and tires barked as I drifted into turns. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered now but getting to her.
I knew Callum and Finn would be right behind me. I hadn’t stopped to explain a damned thing as I’d raced out of the office like the hounds of hell were on my heels. They wouldn’t need an explanation. They’d heard enough to understand the instructions I’d been giving her. They knew something was desperately wrong, and they’d come.
Someone had run her off the bleeding road, and that changed everything. Drummond was an entitled son of a bitch, but he wasn’t a killer. Which meant I’d been wrong. I’d miscalculated. It was happening all over again. And this time—this time, I wouldn’t survive it.
It took an absolute eternity to reach the bridge over the gorge. A thin trail of smoke curled up from somewhere out of sight, down by the river. I couldn’t think about what that smoke meant. Not now. Not yet.
On the far side, I spotted a farm truck pulled to the side of the road. A man stood at the side of it, just inside the open door. Friend or foe? He lifted both arms to wave me down. Probably friend, then. A bystander who’d happened by just after the crash. The perpetrator wouldn’t have stuck around.
I screeched to a halt on the opposite side of the road and hurled myself out of the driver’s seat. My legs didn’t want to hold me, and it felt as if every cell in my body was vibrating with fear and desperate hope.
The man moved out of the way to reveal another pale figure on the seat. An impossible figure with long, dark hair and blood streaking down her face. She was wrapped in a coat that was many sizes too big, and those big, beautiful blue eyes fixed on me. Alive.
“Ciara.” Her name ripped from my throat on something that was halfway to a sob as relief and gratitude all but took me to my knees.
I closed the distance between us, only stopping myself at the very last moment from hauling her into my arms and crushing her to me. That might hurt her further. I had no idea what other injuries she’d sustained in the accident.
But I needed to touch her. Needed to reassure myself that she was here and not some desperate hallucination. With one trembling hand, I gently brushed her cheek. The one thing I could be reasonably sure wasn’t damaged.
It was as if that touch unfroze her.
She tumbled off the seat, straight into my arms, wrapping her own around me tight enough that I was assured she definitely wasn’t paralyzed. Very, very carefully, I held her close, burying my face in her hair and sending up prayers of thanks to every deity I could think of. She was alive. She’d survived.
Swallowing down the emotion that wanted to fell me, I choked out, “Where are you hurt?”
“I don’t know. My head? Mostly I’m fine. I’m just shaken up.”
She trembled so hard it shook us both. Adrenaline was probably masking other injuries, and no doubt she’d have a multitude of bruises and other aches that would make themselves known later. But it could have been so much worse.
I finally managed to look past the truck to where she’d gone over. The car had clearly rolled a few times before finally coming to rest semi-upright against a cluster of boulders that had been the only thing that stopped her from tumbling straight into the gorge.
My blood turned to ice.
She’d come so close to dying. And it was all my fault.
Lock it down. She needs you to stay calm.
My control was tenuous at best, but I’d do what had to be done for Ciara.
Finn and Callum were down by the car. I hadn’t even known they’d arrived. Even if they didn’t know the why, I knew they’d check for the things I’d want to check. The things I wouldn’t have a chance to check, once emergency services came and removed the car. There was a remote possibility the brakes could have gone out on their own. But that combined with someone deliberately running her off the road? That was something else. Something I’d have to deal with.
Shoving that aside, I pulled back only far enough to look down into Ciara’s face, automatically checking her eyes. Both dilated with shock, but responding to light stimuli. That was good.
“You need to see a doctor.”
“Emergency services are on the way. I called them from my mobile.”
I turned toward the man who’d stopped, taking him in for the first time. He was older, with a shock of gray hair and a weathered face that likely hid his true age.
I extended a hand. “I’m indebted to you, sir.”
“Och, I didnae do anything but help the lass up the hill. She was already halfway out of the car by the time I got here.”
“Still. Thank you, Hugh. My mum will certainly be sending loads of baked goods to you and Flora.”
Of course, Ciara knew him. She knew practically everyone. Even in her Edinburgh neighborhood back in university. It had been one of the things that had intrigued me about her. That easy networking she seemed to do everywhere she went.
“Not necessary, but appreciated all the same.”
The wail of sirens sounded in the distance, and with them time snapped back into focus.
There’d be questions from the police. Hopefully, a medical evaluation by paramedics here on the scene before she got taken to the hospital for a more thorough series of scans to ensure there was no internal bleeding or other damage we couldn’t see.
And then… then I’d have to reassess the situation through this new lens. Backtrack and figure out what else I’d missed before anyone else became a casualty in this war no one knew I was the target of.