Page 39 of Shadow Touched

He shrugged. “Once upon a time I enjoyedthat life. I must be getting old. Anyway, let’s take the truck. Wecan stop and pick up some groceries after I’ve had my coffee.”

“You own a truck?”

“I don’t enjoy riding in the rain. But don’ttell anyone. Thorn’ll call me a pussy.”

She rolled her eyes.

Brim’s truck was in the garage, and it tookhim a moment to turn the engine over. It eventually rumbled tolife, and they headed to a nearby diner. He ordered a steak andeggs and she settled for pancakes.

“I might have to take a road trip to St.Louis,” he said.

“What’s in St. Louis?”

“Business.”

“Ah,” she said. “Say no more. If you’regoing, I’m going.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way,darlin’.”

“Can we catch a Cardinals game? I’ve alwayswanted to go to one.”

“I think we can make that happen.”

Brim held her hand as he led her through theparking lot. When she glanced at him, a black shadow suddenlyformed behind him. He grinned down at her, but at her expression,he stopped in his tracks.

“What is it?”

“A shadow,” she whispered.

She reached to touch it, but before she madecontact, a black sedan suddenly accelerated and swerved towardthem. Leia had no time to think. She acted on pure instinct andpushed Brim out of the way. Where she got the strength to move amountain like him, she didn’t know. While he stumbled out of theway of the car, she wasn’t so lucky. Leia tried to turn away, butthe car clipped her and threw her into the air. She landed with ahard thud on the asphalt, the wind leaving her body in a painfulswoosh. Dazed, she tried to gulp in air, desperate to breathe, butnothing seemed to be working.

“Leia!” Brim cried. Moments later, he leanedover her. “Breathe, darlin’. Come on, now, breathe for me.”

She couldn’t tell him she was trying. Tearsleaked out of the corner of her eyes. Something really hurt, butshe didn’t know what.

“God damn it! Someone call an ambulance!Stay with me, Leia. Do you hear me? No, don’t close your eyes.Leia…”

She heard no more as she succumbed to thedarkness clawing around her vision.

****

Brim heard the wail of the siren long beforethe ambulance showed up. He wanted to scoop her up and hold hertight, but he knew she might have internal injuries. Just thatthought was enough to send fear into his heart.

God damnit! He wasn’t supposed tocare like this. But seeing her so helpless tore him apart. Hewanted to hit someone, or something, but all he could do was wait.Finally, help came, and he watched as the paramedics swarmed aroundher. They asked him to move to the side, and all he could do wasput his hands on his head and watch helplessly. Finally, theylifted her onto a gurney and then placed her into the back of theambulance. He climbed in after and moments later they were speedingtoward the hospital.

He kept his gaze focused on her face, notliking how pale she was. At least she was breathing. The trip tothe hospital took forever, but soon they were pulling up to thefront. People in scrubs came swarming around them as they rushedLeia inside. He couldn’t go with her, but he wished he could.Instead, he had to watch, mentally urging her to not fuckingdie.

The admitting staff came to him withquestions, and much to his shame, he didn’t know half of what theywere asking. Instead, all he could do was sit in the waiting roomand stare out the window. He pulled out his phone and placed a callto Thorn.

“Yo.”

“She was hit by a car,” he said, unable tosay a greeting.

“Brim?”

“I want to find out who they were, andfucking crush them.”

“Brim, where are you?”

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