Chapter 27 #2
She lay limp in my arms and I was forced to back away as a roof truss fell across our path. Fuck that. Backing away, I took off running, jumping over the wood and out of the barn.
“Get the horses,” I choked out, stumbling forward until I was free of the danger. As I eased her down, I pressed my fingers against the pulse on the side of her neck.
Barely any movement. I was enraged.
And terrified.
Oh, God. She had to be okay.
“Is she alright?” Rock said as he crouched near me.
“She’s barely breathing.” I positioned her head back, pinching her nose and opening her mouth. “Come on, honey. Stay with me. Stay with me.” As I gave her mouth to mouth, I sensed the horses being brought to safety one by one.
I waited, studying her then repeating the action.
“Come on. Baby. Please.”
I tried once more, my mind a complete blur.
Everyone around me was holding their breath.
When she coughed, I threw my head back, roaring to the heavens.
There were people everywhere, one emergency vehicle pulling up after another.
“You did it, buddy. You saved her,” Rock said, clapping me on the shoulder.
Her slight movement was encouraging.
“Grace.”
She finally opened her eyes, reaching for me. “I knew…” Coughing, her entire body convulsed.
“Don’t talk. The ambulance just pulled up.” I brushed my fingers across her cheek, still fighting the rage.
“I knew… You’d come. He said… You were dead.”
“Jenson?” Even with Aimee, I’d never felt this enraged.
“Yes. But you’re here. I knew it. I… love you.” Her voice was so small, so broken that the fury only continued to increase.
“I love you, baby.” I pulled her closer, rocking her for a few seconds.
“I’m okay. I’m okay.”
Easing back, I slipped hair from her face. “Yes, you are. One fine-looking woman.”
She tried to laugh, her coughing getting worse. She needed oxygen.
“We’ll take her from here, sir. Don’t worry. She’ll be in good hands,” an EMT said.
“The horses,” she muttered.
“They’re safe. They’re safe.” I rose to my feet, giving the EMT a dirty look before heading toward the ambulance. “You’re going to be okay.”
I eased her down onto the gurney and as soon as I did, I noticed a flash from a distance.
“I’ll be right back, Grace. Promise.” I moved toward the area where I’d seen a flash. My instinct kicked in once again and I knew what I’d just seen. In three long strides, I picked up my hatchet from the ground, taking off running.
“Where the hell are you going?” Axe yelled.
“To catch a monster.” I rushed through the woods, realizing quickly after that I was being followed. I didn’t care. No one was going to stop me from ending this right now.
I burst through the trees, concentrating on what I was doing.
The fucker wasn’t fast enough, his obvious voyeurism a problem.
I zigged and zagged, anticipating his moves. Cutting him off.
While he managed to make it to the access road, I was right behind.
The chase continued, people screaming from behind me. Sirens everywhere. The stench of smoke keeping the air musty.
Dogs were barking. Chickens cackling.
But in my mind, there was utter silence.
Except for the hard thudding of my heart, the one I’d given to Grace.
With a primal yell, I lunged forward, knocking the bastard to the ground. Given the slight slope of the terrain, we rolled, but I never lost my hold on his neck. As soon as we stopped moving, the last light coming in through the trees allowed me to see that he was fucking laughing.
He’d almost killed the woman I loved and had murdered several people and the bastard was laughing.
“You motherfucker.”
I raised the hatchet, prepared to send the monster to his maker.
“Don’t do it, Viper. Don’t. Think of Grace.”
The voice and the man were too close, a beam of light now shining across the scene. I snapped my head in Axe’s direction, snarling as I did.
“He deserves to die,” I snarled.
“Yeah, he does, but you’re not that man. Not any longer. You have Grace. If you do this, you could never see her again. Not as a free man.” He inched closer while Rock and Raptor, Denver and three others flanked his sides.
“I am that man.”
“No,” Raptor snapped. “You are a hero and my friend.”
“Mine too,” Firestarter threw in.
Other mimicked him as the smokejumpers surrounded me.
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think.
But Grace’s face was right there, her sweet smile everything I needed.
Yet the fucker kept laughing, not bothering to try to beg for his life. He just didn’t care.
I raised the weapon even higher, gasping for air as pain from the past and what she’d been forced to go through razing my system. I didn’t care about what happened to me. I just…
“No, Viper. Axe is right. Grace needs you,” Rock said. “We need you on the team. The police are here. Let them handle this. Let him spend the rest of his miserable life in prison where he belongs while you remain a free man.”
As I closed my eyes, a flash of images was pitched in front of me. Memories I didn’t want of my beautiful sister, guilt and rage almost overshadowing everything else.
Yet I couldn’t do it. And why? Because I loved Grace too much. Because I needed her.
I needed us.
So maybe I did the unthinkable and something I would regret later, but I let Mike go, rising to my feet and backing away. But I tossed the hatchet, the blade coming within an inch of the monster’s face and plunging into a tree.
“Fuck me,” Axe said from behind me. “Remind me never to get on your bad side.”
As several police officers swarmed the scene, I was pulled backward, my team surrounding me on both sides.
“Come on,” Axe said after the son of a bitch was dragged to his feet. “Grace is asking for you.”
This time, I walked away. I walked away knowing that the system might not work the way I wanted, but the guys were right.
I had everything to live for.
Everything a man could want.