“I—I think so,” she said, but the damn rain had it sounding like a murmur. God, was she hurt? Not knowing killed me. I was about to jump through the window when I saw one knee on the sill, then her head poking through. I reached up to help her out and pulled her into a cradle in my arms.
“I’m right here. I’ve got you.” My voice sounded broken, even to my own ears.
Nat clung to me as I held her, resting her face in my neck for a moment before pulling away. “I’m okay. I’m okay.”
Why was she trying to make me feel better?
She pushed my hair out of my eyes, and I blinked away the blur. Was I crying?
“I thought I’d lost you.”
Nat trembled in my arms but didn’t break eye contact, her gaze soft and vulnerable.
“Is she okay?” someone shouted, and the world around us became Technicolor once more. The rain hadn’t let up. Goose bumps crawled up my skin to the point that they hurt. The people holding my elbows to help lower me and Nat down from the tree were drenched. One offered to carry her, but I wasn’t letting go of her, and I wasn’t questioning why.
She was breathing. She was alive. And she was safe in my arms.
TWELVE
Nat
I pantedand clung to Jack as he cradled me in his arms, away from my destroyed cabin and into the clearing past my pod’s campfire. The commotion of voices and movement around us blended into the wind’s howling as the rain soaked us. I didn’t speak as Jack held me to his chest and kept walking.
He fielded questions and concerns from the counselors and campers who’d heard the tree fall onto my cabin and were trying to be helpful in the aftermath. My fear-riddled state had me hearing bits and pieces, but I didn’t miss it when he asked someone to call Dr. Alyse.
“I don’t need a doctor.” It was the middle of the night. I would be fine.
Jack squeezed me tighter, his face etched with worry and something else as he stopped and looked at me. “Yeah, you do, princess.”
I didn’t argue again. Jack was certain, and that meant the discussion was over.
Someone from my pod offered to carry me, but Jack gently refused. He had me, and I wasn’t going to question him. There was something different about this version of Jack, who’d cometo my window with a panicked look and was now prioritizing helping me over anything else.
I’d never imagined myself being rescued before or being attracted to the man doing said rescuing. But as Jack held me as if I were precious and delegated tasks to campers and counselors alike, I felt that stupid, familiar fizziness swirl around in my stomach. It wasn’t only the intensity of the night. No, it was the realization that Jack was carrying me as if he’d carried me hundreds of times. It was the look in his eyes and the reassurance in his hold with every step we took.
I never would have expected this kind of reaction from my enemy or from myself, but I was done questioning the events of tonight as I rested my head in the nook between his shoulder and neck and breathed in deeply.
I couldn’t help myself. He was comforting, so I instinctively held him closer. His grip tightened around me as if he’d never let me go, and he kept walking us in the rain toward the parking lot. I shivered against him. Cold. Wet. Then a wool blanket was thrown over me, its scratchy material barely noticeable. I could hear the tenor of Autumn’s voice as she and Jack talked in clipped sentences while I shamelessly clutched onto him. Grateful for the warmth. Grateful for him.
Slowly, my senses settled down. Adrenaline released its vise grip on me, and it hit me again that Jack was carrying me. That he’d rescued me. But also, now my feet were throbbing in pain. I had to admit he was right. I was hurt.
I remembered the harrowing steps I’d taken over shattered glass to get to the window. Which only reminded me of Jack’s desperate face as he’d reached for me. I’d never seen him so serious. So focused. I hadn’t thought then; I’d just moved into his arms.
Jack had murmured soft words into the air around us. “I’ve got you.” He’d puffed the promise into the air. More reassurances had quickly joined. “You’re safe.”
And in that moment, I’d known it was true. It was that simple. Jack was principled and wouldn’t say things he didn’t mean.
Autumn’s worried gaze met Jack’s, and her hand landed on his shoulder, which gave him pause. “I can drive her,” she offered.
I felt more than I saw Jack’s firm shake of his head. “I’ve got her. I’ll get her there. Can you make sure Dr. Alyse is coming? Please?”
I gazed up at him through wet lashes. I’d never heard Jack ask something of someone like that, as if he were desperate for it. His jaw was set in a line, fierce determination in his eyes. He was on a singular mission as he held me.
He flung his truck door open, but I was gently lowered onto the bench seat. Jack tucked the blanket in around me, and he reached across to buckle me in.
I was annoyed at the sweet gesture. I could buckle myself. Jack and I both looked down at my shaking hands and it spurred him into action. Suddenly, he ran around the hood of the truck and hopped in, and we were off. Jack’s knuckles were pressed white as he gripped the wheel. We drove to the clinic in silence, processing everything that had happened.
The lights to the clinic flickered as we arrived and, combined with the fallen branches and violent rain, it resembled a zombie apocalypse movie—eerie as hell.
