AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“There!” Shai shouted, pointing at a roof a little taller than the others. “That’s the top of the Parryss Boathouse. To the right of that is where the dock usually begins. Those poles, painted white at the top—”
“Are the pilings securing the end of the dock.” Jayd pressed a hand to the base of her throat as her gaze extended across the white-capped waves. “Where the twins might have gone to get a better view of the storm.”
“Yes,” Shai said with quiet finality.
“Shit,” Jayd and I muttered at the same time. Jagger layered another oath atop them, in gritted Arcadian.
Our reactions were like fingers on a trigger—on a gun named Crista. She bolted from the truck, spraying mud in her wake, manic with fear. “No! They are safe. I can feel it. I know it!”
“Crista!” Jayd and I screamed it together—before sprinting out as well. But while Jayd was yanked short, caught around the waist by a cursing Jagger, I went over the side of the hill—where my foot hit a slick spot of mud at once. I went down for the count, careening down the slope on my butt.
“Lucina!” Jayd again.
“Fuck.” A snarling Jagger.
But not a single sound from Shai—fully explained the next second, as he vaulted past me, chasing after Crista.
“Thank God,” I rasped, drenched in relieved warmth, replaced nearly at once by an overall chill. The rain and mud had started seeping under my clothes in force. The storm was by no means a chilled front, but I was a thin-skinned California girl down to the helix of my DNA. Mud in the cooch was not my gig. On the other hand, my brain’s frantic orders to move were wholly ignored by my quivering body. My limbs felt dipped in chilled glue. I was frozen in place, terrified for Crista but even more fearful of following her.
I managed to lurch to my feet and stumble back up the hill, helped the last few feet by an equally muddy Jayd. Once we struggled back to the truck, the wind had a temper tantrum again, and we had to grip the truck’s wheel well to stay upright. I turned my head, trying to locate Crista and Shai, but the world had turned into a Jackson Pollock painting. The mud, the hill, the river, and the sky were splattered everywhere, mashing into a wild palette of brown, gray, green, and black. I yearned to close my eyes just to right my balance but didn’t dare. What if another bicycle materialized from the mist—or worse? And what the hell would “worse” look like?
And wasn’t that enough to take my mind on a new horror ride of possibilities?
Especially as I spotted Crista and Shai again.
Jayd’s cry of shock joined my own.
“What the hell?” The shout came from Jagger—as he sloshed down the hill toward them, apparently to help Shai out with a still-struggling Crista. Not that it was going to do any good. The men, bigger and stronger than the fairy-sized woman, were also bogged down by heavier clothing and holsters full of equipment. Shai also had a loop of heavy rope draped across his torso. Crista rocked nothing but skinny jeans, a T-shirt, and a hard finger on the giant panic button.
“By the Creator,” Jayd blurted. “The little imbezak is going to get herself into serious trouble.”
I nodded agreement but finished the action with bobbing my head toward the river. Correction. The freaking lake. “We have to help somehow!”
“Agreed,” she answered, to my relief. But no sooner had we pushed away from the SUV and started down the hill than we skidded and stopped, stunned by a new object rushing from the storm mists.
No. Not an object.
A sight that did answer the question about what “worse” would look like.
Like a soaked, stalking, glowering, Shiraz Cimarron.
Who, as he stomped closer, sure as fuck took care of the chill in my bones. And heated up a whole lot of everything else from his bad-ass presence.
Who, despite looking like he yearned to tear my head off, ripped me with the longing to kiss his face off.
Who, despite the glory of his dripping hair, search and rescue uniform, and combat boots, rocked banners of bloodshot in his eyes rivaling the neon orange of his jacket. His steps were mighty but heavy. The weight of a thousand kingdoms dragged on his shoulders.
“What the fuck are you doing out here?”
“Lovely to see you too, brother.”
“I still know where you keep your favorite shoes, Jayd.”
“Ass,” she groused.
“Get back in the truck,” he countered. “And while doing so, tell Fox a temporary insanity plea isn’t going to work this time.”
Jayd’s feet made slurping plops as she planted them and folded her arms. “I will do nothing of the sort.”
