Chapter 19 #4
“The others are coming,” Grinder said quietly from behind them.
“What others?” Brinley asked, not loosening her hold on Shadow even a fraction.
“Everyone. The team, other searchers in the area, EMTs, police…everyone.”
Shadow forced himself to lift his head, to look her in the eye. He gently cupped her face. “What can I do? Where do you hurt? What do you need?”
She huffed out a breath that might’ve been a chuckle. “Hold me. Everywhere. And I’d do some embarrassing stuff for a drink of water right about now.”
“Hang on.”
He heard Grinder’s footsteps retreating.
He headed back to the Cherokee, presumably to grab a bottle of water.
But Shadow couldn’t keep his eyes off the love of his life.
His miracle. Because her standing there, in the shape she was in, on the road he happened to be searching, right after he’d made the decision to keep going rather than turning around… it truly was a fucking miracle.
“It was Tamika and a guy named Louis.”
Shadow nodded. “We know. They’re dead. They can’t hurt you again.”
She physically startled. “Oh…wow.”
Shadow would tell her the whole story later. Right now he was more concerned about her health. “Come on, you need to sit.”
Without thought, he shifted his hold and picked her up, cradling her against his chest as he walked slowly toward the Jeep, being careful not to jostle her unnecessarily. Brinley sighed and lay her head on his shoulder as she relaxed in his arms.
He carried Brinley to the back of the vehicle and set her down after Grinder raised the back hatch.
Shadow sat next to her, keeping an arm around her for support.
She looked awful. Tired, bloody, bruised, but Shadow had never seen anything as beautiful as she was in that moment.
He wanted to kill Tamika and Louis with his bare hands, but since they were already dead, he couldn’t do anything other than concentrate on making sure his woman was all right.
Grinder appeared with a bottle of water in his hand. Shadow cracked the seal and held it out to Brinley. “Slow, sweetheart. Don’t drink it too fast.”
She nodded and brought the bottle up to her mouth, closing her eyes as she swallowed the lifesaving liquid. Then she opened her eyes and said, out of the blue, “I saw a moose with three babies. They were beautiful.”
“We saw them too. They were walking along this very road. They didn’t run into the trees, just walked right past the car. So close I could’ve touched her as she passed by. I swear when she turned and looked me in the eye, she was trying to tell me something. I think it was that you were nearby.”
Brinley smiled. “I like the thought of that. My own personal bodyguard moose.”
Shadow had always thought Alaska was magical. This morning had proved it beyond all doubt.
She continued to sip at the water and lean against him as they waited for help to arrive. The sirens were easy to hear in the quiet of the morning. Shadow pressed his lips to Brinley’s temple as gently as he could.
She was alive.
He couldn’t believe it.
He hadn’t lost her.
But it had been close. Too close. He vowed to take any future threat to her seriously and act immediately.
Even if he overreacted, it would be better than seeing her like this, battered and hurting again.
He should’ve encouraged her to go to the police as soon as she got the first threat from Tamika.
He wouldn’t make that mistake ever again.
“I love you,” he whispered into her ear, as he held her close.
“I love you too. Thank you for coming.”
“That’s one thing you never have to thank me for. I would never have stopped looking for you. You’re it for me, Brinley. The person I’ve waited my entire life to find.”
She stared up at him with her one good eye, and Shadow had never felt more grateful in his life to have her here, alive and breathing.
He needed to know everything that happened to her, but it could wait.
At least until she’d been seen by a doctor.
And he only wanted her to have to rehash it once…
when the police were there. If she needed to talk about it more afterward, he’d gladly listen and help her cope with the aftermath, but for now, he was content to revel in the fact that she’d had the strength to survive whatever those assholes had done.
He’d always known his Brinley was strong; this just proved it to everyone else. She’d been beaten, strangled, and who knows what else…and then got up and started walking. Shadow had no doubt she would’ve walked all the way back to Fairbanks if she had to.
As the sirens grew louder, he took a deep breath. The next few hours would be tough on them both, but mostly for Brinley. He’d be right there with her every step of the way. From today onward.
She was his.
And he was hers.
Nothing he’d ever done in his life compared to this moment. The start of a beautiful future with Brinley at his side. He’d bend over backward to make her happy, to keep her safe, to give her everything she needed and wanted for the rest of her life.