Page 132 of The Cowboy’s Intriguing Love

She closed her eyes tighter, wanting to stay in the darkness with her parents, but they were almost gone.

She sobbed when her dad’s voice whispered,“Get to work, busy bee.”

She opened her eyes and started rolling. She didn’t care how much it hurt. She didn’t care that she slammed into tree trunks and tore her clothes and her arms as she rolled faster and faster. She was gaining momentum and soon, she couldn’t stop; she’d reached a steep slope, and gravity had taken over.

She hugged her arm tight to her chest and surrendered to the ride. She thought she could hear voices again, someone was shouting – it was Ty. She loved that man with all her heart. And there was barking too – it sounded like Echo, she looked vicious, but she was a big soft furball when you got to know her.

“Echo!”

That was weird, that sounded like Lucky. She liked him well enough, but there were other people whose voices she’d expect to hear in her head before his.

“Shay!” There was Ty again.

“Shayna!” Oh! That was Davin. Maybe Alexis and Booker would shout soon.

But they didn’t. She finally came to a stop when the ground flattened out. Her head was spinning, every bone in her body felt as though it might have been broken on her crazy roll down the side of the mountain but … the voices hadn’t stopped. They were getting closer!

Echo was there, licking her face. Then, Ty was there, sitting beside her. He looked pretty upset – but then she probably looked like a mess.

Lucky appeared and hovered over them. He smiled. He was a good guy. Then it hit her – she wasn’t delirious, she wasn’t hallucinating – they were really here!

“Hi, Ty,” she murmured.

The look of relief that washed over his face erased the last of her doubts – this was real.

“Hey, Shay.”

“How did you …?”

Echo licked her cheek again, and she understood. She had no idea why Echo and Lucky were in Montana, but there was no doubt in her mind that they were the ones who’d found her.

“Thank you, lady.”

Then Davin appeared, and Kolby.

The look on Davin’s face made her want to cry. “I’m okay,” she assured him, and he smiled.

“You will be, when we get you out of here,” said Ty.

Then she was in his arms, he was lifting her, carrying her. Someone was talking on a radio. She heard Alexis’s voice, but she couldn’t see her.

She looked up into Ty’s beautiful blue eyes, and he gave her a grim smile. “I love you, Shay.”

She tried to focus on his handsome face, on the feel of his big strong arms around her, but it was getting dark again. “I love you,” she said and then she sank back into the darkness. It was okay – she was safe now; she was with Ty.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Ty stared out the window at the mountains. Shay had been in the hospital for two days now, and he hadn’t left her side – other than when Cash frog marched him down the hallway to take a shower this morning. He hadn’t wanted to go, but Alexis, Davin, and Booker had all stayed in Shay’s room with her – and Cash hadn’t given him any choice. Once he was dressed in the clean clothes that Kolby had brought for him, he understood how bad he’d smelled in what he’d been wearing since Thursday morning. It didn’t matter now – nothing mattered. Shay was safe, and she was on the mend.

He’d been scared stupid while he carried her down the mountain. The side of her face was all bruised, and the swelling around her temple had him worried that she’d sustained a major head injury.

Davin had radioed it in, and Cash had an ambulance there to meet them by the time they made it down to the forest service road. Deacon and his deputies had escorted them, and Trip was waiting at the doors of the hospital to meet them. Ty had paced like a lunatic while they ran tests. Trip had told him he needed to do an MRI; Ty knew that meant he suspected bleeding in her brain. She’d slipped in and out of consciousness for the first twenty-four hours.

Her other injuries were bad enough. Her arm was broken in two places, and she had torn ligaments in her ankle and knee. She was covered in bruises and long ragged scratches marked her skin. He imagined that most of those were a result of her crazy roll down the mountain.

He shuddered at the memory. Echo had started barking and taken off, and they’d all run after her. Ty hadn’t been able to understand what he was seeing at first. Shay was rolling down the mountainside like a log. His brain hadn’t been able to make sense of it. She was rolling too fast; the ground was too steep. His heart had stopped – thinking that she might be dead.

He’d chased after Echo, risking breaking his own neck as he scrambled down the slope after her.

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