Page 12 of When You Saved Me

Immediately sounding more alert, he asked, “Are you still in the cabin?”

“No. I grabbed Casper and we’re both sitting on the front porch.”

There was rustling in the background like he might be putting on a coat or something. “I’ll head over there right now. Don’t go back inside for any reason, okay?” There was an edge to his voice that made my heart flutter. Suddenly, the grumpy man I met on his front porch was concerned about my well-being…?

“Okay, I won’t,” I responded, peeking my head toward the window to see the smoke was growing thicker by the second. “But hurry, please?”

There was a roar of an engine through the phone. “I’m on my way.” Then, the phone line went dead.

Chapter 5

Deacon

Blood pumped wildly through my veins as my heartbeat pulsed in my ears. Charlie was alone and the cabin was filled with smoke.

An image of her buried beneath ceiling rubble clanged through my mind as I shifted gears and pressed down on the accelerator of my truck.

Before her arrival—before I knew it washerwho would occupy my rental cabin—I’d double checked everything to make sure it was in working order. The fireplace had been cleaned out, along with the chimney. Somehow, I missed something and now I couldn’t get the picture of Charlie being stuck in the cabin surrounded by smoke out of my mind.

Even worse, it was my fault.

Again.

“She’s not inside. She told me shewas outside on the front porch,” I told myself out loud as I maneuvered the shift stick into a higher gear. “She’s safe.She’s safe.”

No matter how many times I repeated the words to myself, my heart rate didn’t slow until I finally arrived at the cabin and found her standing outside, a white ball of fluff curled up in her arms.

She waved at me with a smile on her face. Anger boiled my blood.

What the hell was she thinking? Something could have happened to her, and she was smiling at me like everything was just fine.

Gravel slid under my tires as I slammed on the brakes and threw the shifter into park. Slamming the driver door behind me, I nearly ran to her. “What’re you doing?”

Her brows pinched with utter confusion. “What do you mean?”

I pointed at the cabin behind her. “You should be further away from this place, not just standing right outside the front door. There’s a gas line in there for the stove. If the fire would have reached it, there could have been an explosion.” My breaths were heavy with each word as I towered over her. But she didn’t step away from me. Instead, she inched closer and placed a hand on my forearm.

My skin burned where I felt her palm over my jacket. “Deacon, there’s no fire. I think something’s blocking the chimney, so there’s a lot of smoke. But the fire didn’t spread from the hearth.”

Nostrils flaring, I ground my teeth together. I was actinglike a crazed lunatic. Of course there wasn’t a fire. She’d told me that on the phone. It was just a blockage in the chimney.

I took her in for a moment, assessing for any kind of injury. There might not have been a fire, but smoke inhalation could cause long term problems.

Blue eyes stared up at me under the rim of reddish-brown lashes. Freckles kissed the skin of her nose and cheeks, giving her the look of a woman who should be somewhere on a tropical beach. Not in the middle of the Georgia mountains during the dead of winter.

Her closeness was making my vision grow hazy. I wanted her by my side, in my arms, away from any kind of danger. But that would be crazy because I hardly knew the woman. Even though I’d spent nearly every day of my life since the apartment fire thinking about her, I knew it wasn’t normal.

There was nothing natural about how Charlie would haunt my thoughts when I couldn’t fall asleep at night. Or how badly I wanted to see what those rosy, pink lips tasted like. I was a fiend for the woman ever since that day and it was so fucked.

Iam fucked.

Because that fire wasn’t the only thing that shifted my dreams into nightmares. Years in the military had warped my perception of the world. Always looking for the looming threats. Always assessing. There was hardly a moment when my mind was quiet—without worry, without fear.

And Charlie Banks had the uncanny ability of bringing out the worst in me. Because for whatever fucked up reason,the thought of something terrible happening to her was the most haunting thought of all.

“Deacon?” Charlie’s soft voice brought me back from the spiral that was threatening my sanity.

I clenched my jaw when I noticed her hand was still on my arm. “Let me go see what’s going on.” Her hand slipped away when I moved past her toward the front door.

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