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My hands clench and my vision goes dim at the edges. I turn and Big Dog’s face swims in my vision. Gerard leans in and his rough hand cups my elbow, gripping it hard.
“Miss Garrison,” he says. “Are you alright?”
I turn on him. “Mrs.It’s Mrs. Garrison.”
The deep furrow between his brow appears and his mouth presses together. I try to sit up, but my head spins. My torso feels like it’s sinking beneath water and I can’t get my lungs to expand.
“I can’t breathe,” I gasp.
The last thing I remember is reaching in my pockets for the painted mare.
But she isn’t here, I left her on my bedside table. I came here alone.
CHAPTER SEVEN
GERARD
She faints and I catch her, letting her body slump into my chest. For a second, I sit there holding her, but she doesn’t wake. I roll her over and check her pulse. She’s breathing, but deeply.
She’s totally out cold.
Fuck.
I hadn’t meant to do that. I gather her soft body in my arms and carry her through the living room where Small Dog lifts his grizzled head and stares through his milky eyes. I send him and Big Dog a look and they both stay where they are, watching me as I carry her upstairs.
The guest rooms are done up, but I don’t bring her to any of them. Instead, I keep walking down the hall to the door at the end and push it open with my boot. She’s in a flimsy, little sundress. She needs the warmth of my fireplace.
I lay her in the center of my bed and pull the woven blanket up from the end, wrapping it around her lap. Then I turn the gas on and the fireplace showers the room in warmth. I shoot a text to Maddie, asking her to make tea and toast and bring it up to my room.
When I turn, my chest tightens.
I’d left her husband’s house a year and a half ago haunted. Something about this girl has split fractures through my rock solid world.
Whatever it is, I’ve thought about this moment for a long time. I wanted her here at Sovereign Mountain. In my room, in my bed. Just not under these circumstances.
She stirs and her lids flutter. She’s got the prettiest pair of blue eyes and dark gold lashes. Her red hair falls around her shoulders in a cascade. I’d caught a hint of its scent when I’d lifted her. Sweet and smelling faintly of pomegranate shampoo.
“Feeling alright?” I ask.
She looks around. I know my room is probably overwhelming with its tall ceilings, roaring fireplace, the window that showcases the sweeping mountains, and the bull skull above the hearth. I glance back to where her eyes are glued behind my head.
I preserved the skull from the biggest bull we ever had at Sovereign Mountain. It was an anomaly, a Goliath of an animal. I’d kept it for breeding and when it died, I’d sent its head away to be scraped clean.
Now it hangs over my fireplace. A trophy of success.
“Where am I?” she manages.
Her chest heaves and I allow myself the luxury of one look. She’s curvy and I know that, despite how big my hands are, her tits would fit in them perfectly.
“My room,” I say. “You passed out.”
Her eyes widen and she tries to sit up, but I shake my head. To my surprise, she obeys. Sinking back on the pillows.
“That’s right,” she says weakly. “I owe you a hundred million dollars.”
“Twelve million.”
“It could be my immortal soul at this point.”
