Page 187 of Under an Endless Moon

My hands fell to my knees as I bent in two.

Heaving for air.

“Fuck,” I spat, whirling around like I was going to catch the motherfucker, all while knowing he was already long gone.

“Goddamn it.”

Gulping for oxygen, I turned around and ran back through the woods, no chance of catching up to him.

The aggression riding my being didn’t abate as I made it back to the fence and threw myself over it.

The frenzy still buzzed through me in electric shocks as I flew around the building to where a crush of people were huddled around Raven.

It looked like every person on the block had piled out of the restaurants and stores and circled her.

I shoved back through, and I nearly crumpled in a ball when those big raven eyes blinked up at me. Arrows that impaled. They dropped me straight to my knees, and I took her face in my hands. “Fuck, Raven, are you okay?”

She nodded against my palms. “I think so.”

“I’m so sorry. So fuckin’ sorry I let him get to you.” Guilt ate up my insides.

“It isn’t your fault.”

“Should’ve been nearby. Right next to you.”

Only my fiery little vixen would scoff in a situation like this. “I’m the one who told you I wanted some privacy with Charleigh.”

“Yeah, well I shouldn’t have given it to you when I knew someone was after you,” I murmured quiet enough that the spectators wouldn’t be able to hear.

She looked at me, the question clear. My head barely shook, a silent confession that I’d failed her in that, too.

Bastard had gotten away, and I wasn’t any closer to havingan idea of who it was.

“It seems like maybe it wasn’t as bad as it looked,” Charleigh cut in, no doubt trying to assuage the regret that flayed me wide. “But we do need to get her in to see the doctor to get her checked out to make sure.”

It was right then that the blare of sirens whirred in the distance.

Dread sank to the pit of my stomach. Someone had called 9-1-1.

But why wouldn’t they?

They were only doing what was right.

Helping.

They didn’t have the first clue that this all had to remain under wraps, which really pissed me off, too, the fact that Raven was trapped in this life that put a target on her head.

With the bleep of a siren, an ambulance came to a stop in the middle of the road with its lights flashing. Carefully, I picked Raven up and nestled her in my arms, one under her back and the other under her legs.

I carried her toward the tail of the ambulance, shouting at the paramedic who hopped out.

“We need to get her to Dr. Reynolds’ office.”

He started to open his mouth to tell me why it was against protocol, but I cut him off, grinding out, “You can check her inside the truck.” My tone told him there was no room for argument. “But right now, you’re going to get her to Dr. Reynolds’ office and you’re going to do it fast.”

I wound around him and climbed into the ambulance with Raven still in my arms. I sat down on the bench, holding her tight against my chest while the paramedics piled back in.

Charleigh hopped in, too.

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