AllFreeNovel
Share Us
They were just finishing popping up a tent when we made it to where all of the emergency responders were congregating and giving out orders. Immediately, Conan took a seat on one of the chairs that’d been drug out of the gas station and tugged me onto his lap. A blanket was wrapped around both of us, immediately warming me from the cold rain and biting wind.
I stayed silent as the paramedic cleaned Conan’s wound and wrapped it up. Then, Conan held me. I leaned my head on his shoulder, my eyelids drooping. My anxiety meds always made me sleepy, but the number of panic attacks I’d had within just a few minutes’ time wasn’t helping my exhaustion a single bit.
Conan pressed his lips to my forehead. “Get some sleep. I’ve got you, baby. I promise.”
“Thank you for saving me,” I whispered.
He tightened his arms around me. “I’d do anything in the fucking world for you, boy.”
6
Conan
Fletcher went silent not long after he stopped shaking. He dozed off and on, his eyelids usually too heavy to keep open. No doubt the lack of sleep combined with his anxiety med was doing him in. I also knew his anxiety attacks made him extremely tired and drained. I just hadn’t realized how much until tonight.
Seeing him shaking and trembling, his breaths coming too fast for him to truly get enough oxygen into his lungs, had cut me deep. I didn’t fucking like it. Because there wasn’t a damn thing I could do but try to coax him back to me. If he’d passed out in my arms from lack of oxygen, I probably would’ve lost my mind.
“Are you sure neither of you needs a hospital?” the paramedic asked. “He’s extremely tired and probably could do with some fluids, at the very least—”
“He’s fine,” I gruffly told her. I carded my fingers through Fletcher’s hair, and he snuggled closer to me. “He just needs some rest. As soon as a taxi or an Uber or something can make their way to us, I’ll get us to a hotel for the night.”
“There’s a hotel right up the road,” an officer said, turning in his seat to look at us. “I’m getting ready to head up that way to go take over at the intersection it’s at and direct traffic. I can drop the two of you off on my way.”
I nodded. “That’d be great. Thanks.”
I shrugged the blanket off of us and gently shook Fletcher awake. He groaned and burrowed his face in the curve of my neck. “No,” he mumbled.
I softly chuckled. “Baby, we’re going to a hotel. Come on. I need you to wake up.”
He lifted his head and smacked his lips together. His eyes were bleary—barely focusing. I placed my hands on his hips, holding him steady as he stood to his feet, his balance a little shaky. His feet were thankfully covered now. I’d waited until we dried off a bit to put socks and shoes on both of us, and hell, he’d barely stirred as I did so.
I quickly stood and wrapped an arm around his waist before nodding once at the officer. Fletcher stumbled along beside me as we followed the uniformed man to his car. He opened the backseat, and Fletcher stopped, eyeing the car warily.
“Dad’s going to be so mad I got arrested,” he mumbled, his words a little slurred.
I coughed to cover a laugh. “Fletcher, we’re not getting arrested.” An amused smile curved the officer’s lips. “He’s just being kind enough to give us a ride up the road to a hotel so we can get a hot shower and crawl into bed, okay?”
He nodded. “Okay,” he mumbled. “I trust you.”
I helped him into the backseat before sliding in beside him, my skin crawling from the close quarters. Wouldn’t have been so bad to be crammed into the backseat of a car—any car—if those stupid fucking bars hadn’t been separating the backseats from the front seats. It made me feel trapped, and fuck, I hated that shit. Claustrophobia was a real bitch to deal with.
Fletcher sank into my side, his arms winding around my waist, and some of my anxiety slipped away, allowing my breathing to settle. God, how was he capable of calming me like this? No one before him had been able to.
It took two minutes at most to reach the hotel up the street. The damage across the way was horrible. Uprooted trees, collapsed buildings, overturned cars. But the hotel as well as the area surrounding it looked untouched. While what happened to all those business owners, car owners, and everyone else affected by the tornado that had ripped through this small city, I was thankful this hotel was left standing.
It would give people a place to rest their heads that had been displaced.
After thanking the officer for the ride, I helped Fletcher out of the car and to the entrance of the hotel, his suitcase rolling behind me. I’d put a change of clothes in his bag for myself and grabbed our electronics, but that was it. I’d been in a rush to get back to him, and good thing I had been because he’d been panicking again.
There were already three families ahead of us, and I knew Fletcher wouldn’t be able to stand in line with how drowsy and out of it he was. Quietly, I led him to a chair. “Just sit here for a minute,” I told him quietly.
“M’kay,” he mumbled. He propped his elbow on the armrest and rested his head on his hand before shutting his eyes. I quickly stepped back in line. Within minutes, I was up at the counter, handing over my ID.
“How many beds, sir?” she asked.
“Just one,” I told her. “Leave the bigger rooms for displaced families.”
She waved my credit card away when I slid it across. “We’re not charging anyone tonight,” she told me softly.
