Page 33 of Chasing the Fall

Only it’s not there. I release a low stream of curses, remembering that I left it with my street clothes in a locker out of deference to there being small kids around. Sending up a prayer that there is no actual danger, and Tally is simply lollygagging, I push open the door to the back of the store.

My prayer goes unanswered. I unleash a roar when I see Thurston dragging an unconscious Tally toward a rear door. I don’t hesitate, launching myself over the boxes and other crappiled between me and the man who thinks to take my woman away from me.

It’s not going to happen. I’ll kill him first.

Thurston must recognize as much because he looks up, sees me, and drops Tally, taking off for the rear door at a dead sprint. He’s in the alley behind the store in the seconds it takes me to reach Tally, and I hesitate, torn.

I have a choice. I can go after him, and possibly apprehend him, or I can help Tally.

It takes a single hard look at her pale face and slumped form to help me make my decision. Tally wins. Squatting beside her, I find my phone in Santa’s breast pocket and call 9-1-1 as I lay two fingers against her throat to check her pulse.

Then I wait.

Six hours later, I’mstill waiting, only now it’s in a private hospital room with the soft sound of a machine’s intermittent clicks and beeps as company. Tally hasn’t regained consciousness yet, but the doctor assured me that was to beexpected, as the sedative Thurston gave her was a long-lasting one.

Jack came by and stayed for a while, telling me that his deputy had picked up Thurston’s trail and was hunting. He left when Gunner and Shiloh showed up, wanting to join his deputy and not overcrowd Tally’s bedside.

Shiloh was visibly upset, wiping a steady stream of tears from her face while Gunner kept her tucked securely into the circle of his arm. “This is all my fault,” she whispered over and over. “He wouldn’t be doing this if I hadn’t killed his brother.”

“You know better than that,” I told her. “Your actions have no bearing on the fact that Thurston has a psychosis, plain and simple. We can’t determine what people like that will do or not do. Tally drew a target on herself when she went online and started poking the hornet’s nest.” I looked down at her, lying so still and pale in the bed, and stroked her hair away from her forehead. “And I didn’t watch closely enough.”

They left soon afterward, eliciting a promise to text and let them know immediately when Tally woke up.

A brief knock sounds on the door, and it opens a second later, revealing Kael. I tip my chin to him but don’t rise as he closes the door softly behind him and walks to the bed to stare down at his cousin.

My failure to stand on ceremony will register as one as disrespect, but I’m beyond caring. The only thing I care aboutis lying in that bed. The rest of the world can go to hell in a handbasket; I’m sure I’ll be right behind them soon enough.

“How is she doing?” Kael asks.

“She’s expected to wake within the next couple of hours, and aside from being knocked out by the drug Thurston injected her with, she’s fine.”

“Good.” Kael places his hands in his pockets and rocks back on his heels. “You don’t know how glad I am to hear that.”

A beat of silence passes, during which I say nothing. I know he’s not finished. Sure enough, he continues after walking to the window and looking sightlessly down into the parking lot below.

“How glad I am to hear that I don’t have to kill my best man.”

“I won’t try to defend myself,” I reply evenly.

“That’s probably wise. I told you to bring her to Philly. You took her hiking. I told you to bring her to Philly again. You took her to a remote cabin in Tennessee. I told you to bring her to fucking Philly yet again, and you brought her right back here, where a deranged psychopath is running around with her name on his to-do list. What the hell were you thinking, Bran?”

“...stop…” Tally’s voice, a weak thread of protest, silences the response on my tongue. I stand, leaning over the bed to grab the call monitor and page the nurse.

“Hey, there, baby…how are you—no, don’t try to sit up…how about some water?”

Curling an arm around Tally’s shoulders, I ease her up just enough to sip from the cup of ice water a nurse left earlier. “Saints, but you had me worried.” Tilting my head, I press a hard kiss against her temple.

I don’t pay any attention to how my words and actions might be construed until Kael speaks again.

“I told you to keep your fucking hands to yourself, and you fuck my baby cousin!”

Tally inhales sharply and pushes the cup away. “Kael!”

“Stay out of this, Twiggy.” Kael’s fists are out of his pockets now, balled into twin fists.

“I will not stay out of it! It concerns me! And I prefer Tally now, thank you.”

Kael ignores her, fixing his attention on me instead. “Well? Anything to say for yourself, or are you going to hide behind the tiniest scrap of a woman I’ve ever seen?”

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