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“Denver, let them work!”
“Brother, it’s okay!”
“Kings—Kings, calm down!”
“Let me go!” I shouted, surging forward. The paramedics were ripping open her dress, exposing her skin to the sun above. A defibrillator was being passed to the main paramedic, and then the pads were pressed to her body. I didn’t understand it. My baby just needed to breathe. Why wasn’t she breathing?
“Clear!”
Silence.
No movement. Nothing.
“Try again!” I demanded.
They were trying again.
“She’s okay, Den. She’s gonna be okay,” Lance said next to my ear. I don’t know if he was trying to convince me—or himself.
“Clear!”
Valerie’s limp body arched and fell back down to the ground.
Nothing.
Tears clouded my vision and the ache I’d been feeling for the last twenty-four hours morphed into something else. Something stronger.
Despair.
It slammed into me like the force of a falling tree. It shattered me like an earthquake, breaking the ground beneath me and swallowing me whole.
“Valerie!”
The hands on me loosened and I broke free, running and crashing to my knees beside her again. I cupped her face, lifting her head gently.
“Baby, don’t you fucking leave me,” I pleaded, my voice cracking. The people around us were fading away, and it was just her and me. I studied her face, her clear fair skin, dark lashes and brows, her perfect lips, her cute nose. Everything was perfect, designed for me to love. Those perfect lips were set into a small frown, unmoving—lifeless.
My body shook as anguish took over and my tears landed on her chest. Cowboys cried, all right. I reached down and pulled her dress closed. Her body was for my eyes only.
“You need to come back to me, ya hear? I need you. Is that what you want to hear, Enchantress?” My thumbs stroked her cheeks. “If that’s what you want to hear, then I’ll tell you every second of every day, baby. Morning, noon, and night. Dammit, I’ll never stop telling you how much I need you—how much I love you. But you gotta come back to me—comehometo me, Valerie.”
Nothing.
My head dropped and I hauled her body up into my lap, my arms banding around her. I began rocking, holding her head against my heart. “You hear that? You hear that, baby? That’s for you. That’s yours. It beats for you and Caleb. No one else.”
Nothing.
A broken sob escaped me, the force of it shaking me and her. My hand sunk into her hair, holding her close. I looked up, my eyes taking in the ranch, the land, the mountain, the smoke in the sky, and the sun above us. When I looked down at her, I pressed my trembling lips against her forehead.
“You can have my land! Take it, baby! As long as I get to keep you. Do you hear me? Hallow Ranch isn’t home if you aren’t here. Valerie, please—please,” I sucked in an unsteady breath. I pressed my forehead to hers and closed my eyes.
“Breathe for me, Valerie. Breathe for me and never stop,” I cried, shaking her body. “Breathe for me because I’m breathing for you.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Valerie
“Youfoundmyspot.”
