1. Theo #2
I could feel the woman finally break through the haze. No doubt, her son’s pleas drove her to coherency. “It’s okay, baby. Mommy is right here. We just had a little accident. It’s okay.”
“O-kay.” He drew it out on this little cry, though his fear was tempered by her voice.
The woman shifted to peer at the older woman in the passenger seat who looked to be maybe in her early seventies. Just as confused as the driver, her gray hair sticking up all over the place as she tried to process what had happened.
“Are you okay, Nelly?” The words heaved from the driver.
The older woman inhaled a steadying breath.
“I think so. Might have scared the pants off me, but it doesn’t feel like any of these old bones are out of sorts any more than they normally are.”
The driver nodded, then started to fumble around to unbuckle.
“Think you should stay right there until we get someone out here to check you all out,” I warned.
“I’m fine,” she wheezed, ignoring my instruction.
“You have a nasty gash.”
“I said I’m fine.”
Before I could convince her otherwise, she was on her knees, turning around, and crawling through the narrow gap between the seats.
My guts clenched in uncontrollable greed as the dome light overhead illuminated the striking contours of her face.
Fuck me.
This woman was stunning.
The kind of exquisite that could cut through every roughed layer of a hardened man.
Crack him wide open and make him believe there might be a chance of beautiful things.
Too bad I had the propensity of destroying the beautiful.
That didn’t seem to sway the urge at all because my fingers itched to reach out and explore.
Wanting to drag them through her long hair that was so white it was nearly the color of the snow.
Trace them along a face that was a painting of perfection. Defined but soft on the edges.
Cheeks flushed from the adrenaline.
Lips plump and pink.
But maybe what was really stealing my breath was her fierce determination as she fought her way to her son.
Blood gushing from that cut and tenacity dripping from her veins.
Made her look like some kind of battle-torn angel.
Or maybe it was just my own adrenaline thundering through my being that was distorting my nerve endings. Sending my reaction sideways and slanting in a direction it shouldn’t go.
A trauma response.
Only I’d seen so much blood and gore in my life that I knew fuckin’ better than that.
I was nothing but a gluttonous fuck.
Wanting to devour the good and lay it to waste.
“Mommy is right here, baby.”
The second she set her knees on the seat next to him, the kid instantly stopped crying.
“Hi, Mommy.” Through his tears, he grinned this beaming smile, and she choked out a relieved laugh.
“Hi, baby,” she whispered. Her delicate hands started running over every exposed inch of his body.
His little arms and legs.
Over his head and chest and shoulders.
Searching for any injury.
“You’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay,” she mumbled like maybe she was trying to convince herself.
“I okay. We go crash?”
“Yeah, just a little crash, but we’re okay. Everyone’s okay.”
“Mommy got owie ?” He pointed at the cut on her head. His eyes that were the same color as hers were wide with innocent worry.
“It’s just a tiny bump. It doesn’t even hurt.”
Doubted that claim was actually legit. About an inch of flesh was busted open, and a steady stream of blood oozed from it.
“I’m going to grab the first aid kit and get an ambulance out here to check everyone out. Pretty sure your car isn’t going anywhere.”
Her attention flashed up to me when I said it.
A different kind of panic lit her gorgeous features. Could tell she wanted to argue, but then she was looking back at her son, torn by something I couldn’t make out.
“Okay,” she finally agreed, and I ducked out of the car and ran for my truck. I threw open the back door and dug out the kit from where I kept it stashed, then I nabbed my phone from the console and thumbed into the screen at the same time as I went running back for the car.
Fuck.
No service.
Guts twisting, I kept moving before I popped my head back through the rear passenger door.
“There’s no service. We’re pretty deep in the woods and the storm is likely adding to it.
I can probably get it about five miles up the road.
Think we need to move you all into my truck.
It’s warm and I can get you into town quickly. ”
Didn’t love the idea of moving the kid, or any of them for that matter.
My only solace was he seemed unharmed.
“I thought you said you could get service five minutes up the road?”
I let go of a heavy exhale. “I said probably, but I’m not a hundred percent. Besides, I’m not sure how long it would take an ambulance to get out here in this storm. Might be best for me to drive you the whole way.”
A war went down in the middle of the woman.
This fiery hot protection that I could feel brimming from her flesh as she stared me down like she could see every sin I’d ever committed.
Thank fuck she couldn’t.
Otherwise, she’d have them all running out into the woods, figuring surviving the storm would be a whole lot safer than surviving me.
“Not going to hurt you. None of you. My name’s Theo. Theo Mallin.” The promise grated up my throat.
Disbelief shook her head. “And I’m just supposed to take your word for it?”
The older woman in the front seat shifted around and peered into the back. “We don’t have a lot of other options, Pipes, unless you want to sit out here and freeze to death, and that doesn’t sound like a real fun way to go to me.”
Good. At least she was in my corner. Seeing things rationally.
I turned back to the woman who was looking at me with so much distrust it was a wonder I didn’t turn to ash.
But apparently, it was too fuckin’ cold for fires because that flame burning from her was petering out.
She breathed out a frustrated sigh. “Fine. But know I will claw you to pieces if you even look at any of us wrong.”
Couldn’t stop the rough chuckle that rolled up my throat while something in my chest was clutching in a fist.
This woman was ferocious.
“Noted, Pipes .”
She sent me a scowl.
I ignored how much I liked it, and I angled my head toward my truck. “Come on. Let’s get you out of this storm.”