AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sabella shook the thought away. Nothing lasted forever except her love for the husband that had been taken from her. Nothing lasted forever.
But as the night deepened and dawn came closer, it felt like forever. And when he finally collapsed beside her, wet with sweat, his arms dragging her to his chest, his breathing finally easing as she slipped into exhausted sleep, she wondered if maybe, a little bit, he did feel like her Nathan.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Sabella was furious the next morning after returning to the house, showering, and dressing for work. A scratch, he had told her the night before. He wasn’t hurt, he was fine.
It was more than a damned scratch. She had caught him when she awoke trying to bandage himself, thinking he could hide from her. Damn him.
There were three long slices on his upper body. One across his bicep, one at his abdomen, and again at the hip, and they were deep. Deep enough she had insisted he go to the doctor.
He had refused. When he had pinned her with the blazing determination to do it all his own way, for a second she could have sworn he had the same look in his eye, the same tense set of his face and body, the same shape of his jaw, that her husband had had when he was angry and determined in the face of her anger.
It had been frightening to see, to acknowledge. Because sometimes, she saw those little things, and she was terrified she was trying to turn Noah into the man she had lost simply to justify her need, her overhelming hunger for him.
And of course, Noah wouldn’t tell her how it had happened or even what had happened. A “disagreement,” he’d said.
She was so pissed that she walked to the garage later after she had returned to the house, rather than driving, simply to give herself time to cool down just a little bit more.
Entering the garage, she stared as Noah stepped from the open doors, wiping his hands on a shop towel as he lifted his hand and watched Toby as he approached on foot from the other side of the street.
Sometimes, Toby walked to work. He said it kept him in shape. She watched as Noah walked along the cracked blacktop in front of the station, eyes narrowed, body tense.
Sabella paused, looking around, wondering what had caught his attention, but she couldn’t see anything. She shook her head and took another step, watching as Toby strolled to the corner of the street. He stepped off the curb and started across the wide road when she heard it. A motor gunning.
A black car, low and fast, windows tinted, squealed from its parked position and aimed for Toby.
“Toby!” She screamed his name as the car barreled toward him.
Toby’s head jerked up, expressing surprise at the sound, and he turned, facing the vehicle speeding toward him.
Sabella ran. She would never reach him in time. She could see, knew the driver had every intention of running him over. She wouldn’t make it to the end of the driveway, Toby wouldn’t reach the sidewalk.
She saw, almost in slow motion as Toby jerked and tried to run. The car followed, heading straight for him as Sabella screamed and tried to run faster.
The morning sun beat down on her, fear and rage pumped through her. She couldn’t let this happen. She couldn’t let someone else she cared about be taken. Toby was a kid, just a kid.
As she screamed Toby’s name again, horrified, Noah streaked across the road, seconds, oh God, seconds in front of the car, his broad, powerful arm wrapping around Toby’s thin waist and threw them both across the road, rolling over the sidewalk and into the gully beside it as the car’s tires hit the sidewalk seconds behind them and then roared off.
The big, white bl
ond giant Rory had hired in place of the mechanic he had fired was across the road in a flash. He jumped into the gully as Sabella raced across the street.
Noah. Oh God. Oh God. Noah. He had to be okay. She had seen him. Hadn’t she seen him roll to that gully before the car hit the sidewalk?
She didn’t realize she was screaming his name until someone grabbed her from behind, holding her back as the mechanics raced into the incline.
“Noah!” she screamed, sobbing, clawing at the arms holding her back. “Noah!”
“Sabella. Stop. Enough!” Rory shook her, his voice harder than she had ever heard, his hands rough as he jerked around, glaring down at her.
“Let me go!” Her fists struck out, one landing on his jaw, knocking him back, as she tore herself away from him and stumbled over the incline.
Toby was sitting up, dazed, but Noah wasn’t moving. Blood seeped down his arm, darkened his shirt at his waist, his thigh.
The big mechanic, Nik, was leaning over him, slapping his face with hard, rough hands.
“Don’t you touch him!” She barreled into the bigger man, threw him off balance. “Call an ambulance!” she barked to the men standing around staring at her as though she were crazy. “Now or I’ll fire every friggin’ one of you!”
