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That last was Rafe. He was looking for her. Even as she lay terrified, that made something warm unfurl inside her. She didn’t bother trying to move while the chaos ensued around her, but when strong arms gathered her close, she allowed herself to relax.
He didn’t try to move her, just held her.
“Are you alright?” he finally whispered, his voice hoarse.
She tried to say yes, but nothing came out. “I need a bottle of water over here,” he yelled. Someone must have heard because a moment later, he held a bottle to her lips, and she drank.
When it pulled away, Laura swallowed and cleared her throat, as well as forcing her eyes open. Everything was hazy in the smoke, but she could see Rafe clearly. “I’m fine,” she finally got out.
Tension bled out of him, and her heart skipped a beat. Why was he so worried about her?
“Does anything hurt?” he said, his eyes searching her body.
“My knee. He kicked me when—” she broke off and sat up abruptly.
“When what?” he asked.
“There was a man in here! He saw me and threw something on the floor that started the fire.”
“What man?”
“Dark hair and eyes, light brown skin. He didn’t sound like he was speaking English.”
“Fuck,” he muttered. “Eagle! Cap!”
They stepped into the stall. “Quadri was here. He started the fire.”
Eli cursed, and Cap’s eyes blazed. Then a third man stepped up. The new guy. She tried to be subtle about it, but glancing back and forth between the two men, Laura could definitely see the resemblance.
“Let’s go,” Ford said. “He can’t have gotten far, we can still catch him.
All three men looked at him. “I have some contacts. It sounds like you need some backup.”
Eli and Cap exchanged a look and then both turned to Rafe. After a brief hesitation, they left the two of them alone in the barn.
Cash came back just a few minutes later. “Can you move her?” Cash asked. “The fire is out, but the smoke is still pretty thick.”
“Can you walk, Freckles?” And Laura hated that she loved the nickname falling off his lips.
“I don’t think so, not without help.”
Cash entered the stall, and the two of them got her to stand. Laura protested when Rafe lifted her off her feet but closed her mouth at his look. Someone had run for a chair, and they sat her on it outside. Before five more minutes had passed, they heard sirens. Two fire trucks, an ambulance, three cop cars, and three unmarked black SUVs came speeding down the driveway.
Pandemonium reigned, but Laura didn’t see much of it. The EMTs whisked Laura onto a stretcher and into the back of the vehicle. She heard Rafe arguing with the staff outside.
“That’s my fiancée! I’m going with you.”
The driver shouted from up front. “Stop arguing. Just let him in so we can get her to the hospital.”
Laura wanted to protest she didn’t need the hospital, but the stabbing pain in her knee made her rethink that. Maybe just a quick trip to get checked out.
As the ambulance took off, she let her eyes close because watching the people hovering over her was not agreeing with her stomach. A hand squeezed hers.
Rafe.
Her mind drifted back to when she’d woken up tucked on his lap sitting up against the wall of the barn. She still felt the ache in her backside that made her think about things she had no business thinking about in mixed company. Hopefully, they would chalk up the blush she felt rising in her cheeks to something else… anything else.
After a few minutes of sitting on Rafe’s lap in the early gray dawn this morning, she decided he was deep enough asleep she could sneak out. What they’d done in Vegas was a distant memory, and last night had only been about his letting off steam.
