Chapter 8
Rain hammered the roof of the car with relentless force, each drop striking in sharp bursts. For a few seconds after the impact, Bianca sat perfectly still, her ears ringing and her hands locked around the steering wheel. What had just happened?
The world tilted at an awkward angle around her.
The front of the vehicle had sunk into the muddy ditch, and the passenger side rested against a mangled tree.
The windshield had cracked into a jagged web, and rain pushed through the broken glass in thin streams that slid across the dashboard and dripped onto her jeans.
The air inside the vehicle smelled like wet earth and an overheated engine. She blinked several times and forced herself to breathe. Was she hurt? Her brain was still functioning, so that was good.
She flexed her fingers, testing them one by one. They worked. Her hands trembled but responded when she rolled them. Next she shifted her shoulders. A dull ache spread across her chest where the seatbelt had caught her, but nothing sharp enough to worry her.
Her left knee throbbed when she tried to move it. She hissed softly and pushed back against the seat, waiting for the pain to settle.
Oh, it felt angry. Not broken, she hoped, but definitely swelling.
Outside the storm roared across the open pasture.
Wind drove rain sideways across the road, flattening the grass and sending muddy water running along the ditch in quick streams. Every few seconds lightning split the sky open and turned the landscape stark white before plunging it back into darkness.
She tried to remember what to do in this situation. Wasn’t she supposed to stay with the car until help arrived? Or was that just in blizzards? She could smell gas, maybe? What if the vehicle exploded?
No. That was silly. She’d been watching too many of her own movies. She swallowed and reached for the door handle. The latch clicked, but the door didn’t move. She frowned and pushed harder, bracing her shoulder against the frame. The metal groaned but refused to open more than half an inch.
The crash had twisted the door. Oh, crap. She didn’t want to be stuck in this thing. She reached across the center console and grabbed the passenger handle, biting her lip when her knee protested.
That door wouldn’t open. She managed to get her window down before she turned off the engine. If she could just free her knee, she could climb out that way.
How had she managed to both hit a freaking tree and sink in a muddy ditch?
Tears pricked the back of her eyes, and she batted them back. This wasn’t a big deal. Not really. She could survive this. Her phone lay somewhere in her bag. She dug through it with unsteady fingers until she found the familiar rectangle. The screen lit the interior in a faint blue glow.
No signal.
Of course there wasn’t.
The ranch roads outside Mineral Lake had barely any service on a clear day. In the middle of a thunderstorm, she might as well have been on the moon.
For the first time, unease pushed panic away inside her.
She set the phone in her lap and stared out through the broken windshield.
Rain streamed across the glass in crooked lines.
Beyond it the road curved away into darkness, empty except for the scattered fence posts she’d knocked loose when she left the gravel.
Thunder cracked so loudly the sound vibrated through the frame of the car.
Bianca jumped. Okay. She could handle this. She reached down and unlatched her seatbelt. When she tried to shift sideways toward the passenger seat, the dashboard pressed harder into her knee. Pain clashed through her.
The steering column had shoved inward during the crash. She sucked in a breath and tried again, twisting carefully. The movement earned her another flash of pain and no additional space.
She plopped back against the seat and stared up through the fractured glass at the storm above her. So much for wanting a damn adventure. Right now, she wanted a painkiller and a glass of wine. Not necessarily in that order.
A faint glow appeared on the road. Was that another lightning strike? No. The soft light steadied and grew brighter, moving toward her.
Headlights.
Relief hit her so fast it made her dizzy.
The vehicle slowed as it approached the broken fence line. Its beams swept across the ditch and illuminated the crumpled car. A moment later the engine cut off and a door slammed somewhere in the rain.
“Bianca?”
She recognized Adam’s voice immediately.
“I’m here,” she shouted back.
When he reached the driver’s side window, he leaned down, rain pouring from the brim of his hat and running along the sharp lines of his jaw. His eyes moved quickly over the scene, taking in the smashed fence, the tilted SUV, and Bianca trapped behind the wheel. “You hurt?” he asked finally.
“I don’t think so,” she said, though the adrenaline still rattled through her. “Um, how’d you know this was my car?”
Adam tried the door handle. The metal groaned under the pressure but refused to open.
“It’s a rental, and I know you went out to see the Willoughby’s.
” He stepped back and looked along the side of the vehicle, rain sliding down his jacket in dark streams. “You’re wedged against the tree,” he said. “Frame’s twisted.”
“I know.”
He tried the door again, this time bracing his shoulder against the frame and pushing with his full weight.
The hinges screeched but didn’t give. Mud sucked loudly beneath his boots as he stepped away.
Moving out of sight, he crouched beside the front tire, and then returned. “Okay,” he said after a moment.
“Okay what?”
“I’m getting you out of there.” He jogged back toward his truck without another word.
She watched as he opened his tailgate and pulled out a heavy tow chain. The metal links clattered together as he dragged them through the rain. The guy moved quickly despite the mud, looping the chain around the warped door frame before carrying the other end back to his truck.
Bianca blinked at him through the rain slashing inside her window. “Please tell me you know what you’re doing,” she called.
He flashed her a quick grin that disappeared just as quickly. “Mostly.” A minute later the truck engine roared to life. The chain tightened.
For a moment nothing happened. Then metal screamed. The door jerked outward with a violent snap that echoed across the ditch. Adam cut the engine immediately and ran back toward her to yank the door the rest of the way open. He reached inside. “There we go.”
Cold rain blasted into the cab, soaking both of them instantly. Bianca exhaled in relief. “Thank you. I thought I’d have to spend the rest of my life in this stupid seat.”
“That would be a shame.” Water dripped from the rim of his hat onto the steering wheel. He paused when he saw the awkward position of her leg beneath the steering column. “Can you move it?”
She tried carefully. “Yes, but it feels swollen.”
“All right.” He pushed the column out of the way with one hand.
Man, he was strong. Not superhero strong, but with muscled-cowboy strength.
He slid one arm behind her shoulders and another beneath her knees before she could protest. With a smooth motion he lifted her from the driver’s seat and stepped back into the rain.
She ducked her head against his chest, shutting her eyes against the blistering wind. Lightning flashed again, illuminating the wreck behind them and the twisted fence posts scattered across the field.
He opened the passenger door of his pickup and set Bianca gently onto the seat. Warm air from the heater washed over her chilled skin.
She dropped back against the headrest and let out a long breath.
He closed the door and walked around the front of the truck. When he climbed into the driver’s seat he studied her carefully. “You sure you’re okay?”
“I think so.” She looked down at her pounding knee. “Um, thank you for the rescue.” She was soaked through, her knee hurt, and still, a soft warmth filtered through her. He’d gotten the door open, freed her knee, and carried her to safety like a guy at the end of a rom-com.
Adam turned up the heat. “No problem. I was hurrying home to get ready for our date.”
She blinked.
“Well,” she said after a moment, “this is certainly memorable.”
He glanced at her sideways, a hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Yeah,” he said. “I’d say the evening took a turn. Let’s go check you out, darlin.’”
Adam kept both hands on the wheel, but his attention stayed split between the road, the storm, and Bianca. Her scent was warm and sweet, like heated honey.
The wipers fought a losing battle against the rain. Each sweep cleared a narrow view and then the windshield blurred over again, water sluicing sideways in sheets. Lightning flashed often enough that the pasture alternated between darkness and harsh brightness.
He’d lost his breath when he saw her rental car sinking in that ditch.
Bianca sat slumped in his passenger seat, her wet hair dripping onto the collar of the spare jacket he’d thrown over her shoulders. She looked small in his truck, even fragile.
The woman was made for paved roads and city lights. Not darkness and danger from the land all around her. He glanced over again. “You dizzy?”
Bianca blinked and then looked at him. “No. Just wet.”
“That’s fixable.”
A faint, shaky breath of a laugh left her. “So is my car?”
He snorted. “That rental’s going to need prayer and new front end. I’ll have our local mechanic come out and pick it up once the storm passes.” He eased the truck around a curve, tires biting into the slick dirt. His ranch road was up ahead, a narrow turnoff hidden behind a stand of cottonwoods.
The ranch wasn’t big. Not compared to the spreads around here. He had enough pasture to run cattle with his friends, alongside the bar income. The space suited him.
Bianca shifted in the seat as the truck bumped along the rutted lane. “Where are we going?”
“My place.”
Her brows rose. “Um, I don’t know.”
He breathed out. “That’s fair. I’d like to give you dry clothes, check out your knee, and then hand over a warmed brandy.
If all is well and you don’t have to see the doctor, I’d like to talk about this movie situation.
However, if you want me to take you to town right now, I will.
” He didn’t want to scare her, and she was smart to be wary of any man she didn’t know.
Her shoulders rolled. “I’m fine going to your place.”
Amusement caught him. “No way in hell am I allowing a film crew anywhere near my home, pretty Bianca. So don’t be scouting the place. Also, I won’t hurt you or even make a move. But if you want me to take you to Mrs. Shiller’s, or even the doctor’s place, I will in a second.”
She chuckled and held her hands out to the heat. “What about your offer of a no strings attached affair while I’m in town?”
He liked her directness. It was actually very cute. “I’ve saved your life. Now you owe me total devotion for at least a decade. Maybe two.”
She laughed full out. “You didn’t save my life. I would’ve gotten out of that wreck somehow.”
That was probably true. “Fair enough. The offer for an affair is hereby rescinded.” It was fun teasing with her.
Her head jerked his way. “You’re rescinding?”
“Yeah,” he drawled. “You’re too much trouble. I like my affairs simple and stress-free. You just tried to kill one of my Cottonwoods and blew apart my very nice fence. You’re stress…full.”
Her shoulders moved with her laugh, but strain still showed along her eyes. Crashing had probably been frightening.
The driveway opened into the yard, and his headlights swept across the front of the house. The ranch house sat low and wide with a deep porch running the length of it, built from weathered timber that had gone silver over the years. Rain hammered the metal roof hard enough to echo across the yard.
Beyond the house the cottonwoods bent in the wind, their branches rattling together. The creek that cut through the back pasture had swollen with the storm, and even over the rain he could hear the steady rush of water moving through the rocks.
He parked close to the porch steps and killed the engine.
For a moment the silence in the cab felt heavy, broken only by the rain pounding the roof and the ticking of the cooling engine. Bianca looked at the house through the windshield. “I love your house.”
“Thanks. You’re not filming here.” He grinned and reached across her to grab his hat off the dash before opening his door. The rain hit him like a slap, cold and immediate. He moved around the front of the truck, boots sinking into the mud, and opened Bianca’s door to gently lift her out.
“I can walk,” she replied, her body already curling against his chest.
He stepped away from the truck with her in his arms. “Let’s just make sure you haven’t done any damage.”
The porch boards creaked under his boots. He kicked the screen door open and shouldered the main door wide with his elbow. Warm air rushed out to meet them, carrying the faint smell of wood and coffee and the leather of his couch.
He stepped inside and kicked the door shut behind them, moving over to deposit her gently on the sofa.
Bianca sat upright, still holding his shoulder for a second longer than necessary. Then she released him and looked around. “You don’t have a single plant in here.”
Adam shrugged out of his wet jacket and hung it on a hook by the door.
Water dripped onto the mat. “I think I had a plant at one time.” What had happened to that, anyway?
Huh. He dropped to his haunches, looking at her jean covered knee.
No cut and no blood. That was good. Taking her hands, he gently tugged her up. “Try to put some weight on it.”
Placing her hands on his shoulders, she did so, first gingerly and then with more confidence. “It’s okay, I think.”
That remained to be seen. “Good.” He bent and lifted her again, smiling when she yelped.
Then he strode down the long hall to his bedroom and attached bath, where he set her down.
“Hop in the shower to warm up, and I’ll leave some sweats on the bed for you to change into.
Then I want to look at your knee, okay?” His sweats would be so big on her he could easily pull them up to see.
She gulped. “You’re bossy.”
“You have no idea.” He reached in and switched on the water before leaving the bathroom. When she locked the door behind him, he grinned.
His planned date had definitely gone awry, but the least he could do was feed her. Then he’d take her back to town, as long as her knee was fine. He would not, under any circumstances, think of the naked woman currently in his shower.
Nope. Not going there.