That was damn well not going to happen.
He got the knife and tried to crawl back to her, but everything had turned so dark he couldn’t seem to find her.
“Tanner.” Her voice was a hoarse whisper, but it was enough.
He forced himself to his feet and took drunken steps toward her. “Freckles?”
“Tanner.”
He wasn’t sure if it was her voice that led him to her or sheer blind luck. But he ran into her hanging form a moment later.
Using the last of his strength, he lifted her. There wasno way he was going to be able to cut the rope from her neck. It was all he could do to stay upright.
After a moment of breathing, she whispered, “Just cut my hands, baby. I’ll do the rest.”
He couldn’t see the tape on her wrists, couldn’t see anything at all. He just prayed he wasn’t cutting her too badly as he kept one arm wrapped around her legs, supporting her weight, and used the other to slice through the tape.
“You did it,” she whispered. She took the knife from his hands. “We can do this, Tanner. You’ve always held me up, in every possible way. Now just do it for a couple more minutes.”
Her voice seemed like it was coming from a great distance, but no matter what, he would do it.
“Won’t let go.” His words sounded mumbled and unintelligible, even to his own ears. But she understood.
“I know you won’t.”
He drew on every iota of strength he had to hold her weight while she cut herself down. In the end it was thoughts of Nate, and the rope he would’ve sworn he didn’t have the strength to break and yet had, that kept him in place.
Sometimes you didn’t know how strong you were until strong was the only option you had left.
He felt Bree’s weight collapse against him and knew she’d managed to cut through the rope. They both fell to the ground, tangled with each other.
And the black that he’d fought for so long consumed him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
All Bree could do for the first few moments after falling to the ground with Tanner was breathe.
Every breath seemed to stab her lungs like a blade, but at least she had air. He’d saved her, by finding the superhuman strength to support her while she hacked at the rope.
“Tanner!” She yelled his name when he didn’t move at all, but the sound was barely more than a whisper. She felt for a pulse, sobbing silently in relief when she found one.
The bungalow floor was covered with so much of his blood. Way too much of it. She didn’t want to leave him for a second but knew she had to get help here as soon as possible. She crawled over to the phone and called the front desk, screaming as loudly as she could—which still meant they could barely hear her—for them to call for an ambulance.
She struggled back to him, forcing down the panic every time she slipped in his blood, and pulled his unconscious form into her arms, holding pressure on his wounds as best she could. There were so, so many.
She was going to lose him.
She struggled so often with finding the properemotions for a situation. But not this time. This time she knew exactly what she felt: mind-crushing fear.
But his heart kept beating. She whispered everything she could think of in his ear as she held him waiting for the paramedics to arrive. Promises of everything she wanted to do with him. Marry him. Have babies with him. Travel the world but still always come home to the ranch. She wanted to be there with him when Star had puppies, and her puppies had puppies.
And she wanted sex. There was so much sex she wanted with him.
She told him over and over that she loved him and he was her hero.
When she ran out of promises, she moved on to threats. Threatening to illegally hack into every database in the country if he died and left her alone. To send secret messages to Whitaker about what she was doing so he would come arrest her.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the paramedics arrived.
