Page 91 of Reclaimed

I stare ahead, between the trees where the man stepped out with the gun, and close my fingers around her palm. The reciprocating squeeze eases a little more of that tension from around my heart.

“He came from there.” I point out the narrow gap between an old birch and a maple. “And I fell right there,” I rasp. The words scrape through my dry throat. My finger draws a straight line to the spot in the grass.

We both look to our left, and I’m glad. Glad she isn’t watching my face anymore because it rises in me like a sudden tide. The desperation to get Frankie and me out of that situation.The moment I knew I was going to sacrifice myself. It all comes rushing back from the box I haphazardly tucked it into the moment I looked around at my family in that hospital room, the grip of it all a suffocating ring around my throat.

How close I was to failure.

“Aiden.”

A few inches, and I would have died.

“Aiden.”

I don’t realize I’ve shut my eyes until Isla touches my face.

“Aiden!”

They snap open, locking onto her worried ones. “I need you.” Palming the back of her head, I bring our lips together. The second we touch, a fire zips through my veins. “Fuck, Isla. I need you.”

She cups my cheeks, pulling back a fraction to mumble against my lips, “You have me.”

Her words alone extinguish the doubt. Quiet the relentless waves battering at my crumbling shell.

“You have me, Aiden.”

In that same spot I nearly lost my life five months ago, I make a new memory. One that’s golden and impenetrable.

Anchoring her with my hand in her hair, I slip the other between us. My fingers splay against her bump. She gasps into my mouth, opening for me to taste her. The strawberry gloss I love and the mint she chewed in the car on the way over. We kiss so long that our warm breath heats our frozen noses and our lips become numb. Until the riotous feeling is chased away by something only Isla gives me.

Peace.

Isla giggles and drops her forehead against my collarbone. She fingers the buttons on my jacket. I rest my chin on her head, holding her close with my arms around her shoulders until our breathing calms.

“Thank you,” I murmur into her hair.

She hums against my neck. “You never have to say thank you.”

She’s wrong. I’d thank her a million times for the calm she brings to my storm if she’d let me. Knowing she won’t, I vow to get creative. Starting now.

“We should probably head back if you’re still interested in finding a dog. There’s more to look at.”

She traces the loose leash with her eyes, stopping on Remy where he sits calmly a foot away. “I think I like this one.”

Remy’s ears flick forward like he can understand English. His front feet tap happily against the dirt.

“Then we better get back so I can convince Jude to give you one of his dogs.”

24

Isla

Something thumps against my abdomen.I stretch sleepily, shifting my legs and bumping into something warm behind me. Aiden’s arm tightens around my middle, and he lets out a quiet snore.

There it is again. My eyes pop open. The thump hits my stomach and I realize it’s coming from inside.

“Aiden!” I shake his arm, moving his palm down my stomach. “Aiden, wake up!”

“What’s wrong?” His head pops up behind me, gazing over my shoulder toward the door. “Is it Remy?”

---