Page 83 of Stay for Me

I froze, my eyes going wide. “But—”

He was nearly to me when he barked my name, causing me to jump. I clamped my mouth shut, watching him, and it wasn’t until he was towering over me, chest heaving, jaw tight, that he growled, “Never, in my thirty-six years of life have I been so fuckin’ terrified.”

My heart squeezed.

“Never, Diana,” he clipped, lowering to his haunches in front of me, his eyes never leaving mine.

“Mags—”

“Got blood on you,” he growled. “Covered in blood and dirt, Diana.” Those dark eyes dropped, scanning my body, and when they snapped back up to mine, he continued.“What the hell were you thinking?”

“There was a bear,” I whispered, my voice shaking.

“I’m aware,” he clipped, eyes hard. “Saw him three clicks back. You don’t ever—everrun from a fuckin’ grizzly. You should know that.”

I did. I did know that.

Suddenly, I was coated in shame, feeling small for the first time in a long time. Unable to handle his stare, I broke it, looking down to my lap. “I got scared,” I whispered. “I-I was petrified.”

The pain I’d been drowning in for the last few hours—or however long—-did nothing to distract me from the utter stupidity I now felt. The truth was, after all my years hiking this mountain, I’d never seen a bear of any kind on the ranch. Wolves, sure, but they didn’t bother me. Bears? Bears scared the hell out of me. I’d had a client get mauled by one a few years ago, and seeing him, his skin ripped to shredded in that hospital bed gave me nightmare for over a month.

Mags’ rough fingers gripped my chin, gently urging me to lift my head. My lips parted, finding him inches from my face now as he carefully avoided touching me anywhere else. “Fear, Firefly, leads to stupid mistakes,” he rumbled. “Fear leads to death.”

Glass appeared in my throat, and I could no longer speak. All I could do was stare at this cowboy, the one who’d made me feel alive and killed me all in the same breath. His eyes scanned every inch of my face. “Never been so grateful to whatever higher power is up there,” he murmured. “Never been so fuckin’ grateful and so fucking pissed at you.”

A tear, hot as fire, leaked onto my cheek, sliding down, burning me almost as much as his touch. He watched it, his eyes still hard, still ice cold. He dropped my chin and rose back up to his feet, pulling out a walkie. “Jigs, this is Mags, Over,” he said, looking over his shoulder, checking our surroundings.

Static filled the air before I heard the old man’s voice. “Mags. Thank God. Did you find her? Is she okay? Over.”

Mags looked down at me, his jaw tight. “Found her. No, she isn’t okay. Taking her with me. Send Denver. Over.”

“Copy. Over and out.”

He pocketed the walkie and pulled out his pistol, pulling back the clip and loading it. “Can you walk?” he asked, not looking at me.

It took great effort to answer, and by the time I did, it looked as if he was about to lose his patience. “No,” I croaked. “I think—I think I broke my ankle.”

“You didn’t. If you did, you’d still be screaming in pain or passed out from it,” he confirmed, twisting the gun and holding the handle out to me. “Take this.”

I looked down at it and then up at him. “Why are you—”

“Can’t hold a gun and carry you at the same time. Need you to hold that just in case we see the bear again,” he cut me off.

My stomach twisted. “I’m not shooting that baby,” I breathed in horror.

He stared at me. “Diana, thatbearchased you down, and you’re on the damn ground, covered in blood and dirt.”

“So you’ve mentioned,” I quipped.

In a flash, he was in front of me again, my jaw engulfed in his hand as he snarled, “You aren’t supposed to ever be covered in blood and dirt, Diana Harper.”

I flinched and opened my mouth to speak, but he stopped me, his fingers tightening, digging into my cheeks.

“You’re colors and smiles. You’re beauty and grace. You are clean and whole,” he pushed through his teeth, his body shaking with fury, my heart seconds away from stopping.“You do not belong on the ground covered in blood and dirt.”

For only a moment, the universe allowed me to have a glimpse at the man I’d fallen for all those years ago. Underneath his tainted silence, his anger, his shield was nothing but dread. It lingered in his dark pools, beckoning me to join, to drag me down into the depths of his broken soul. It challenged me, knowing that it would take me years—perhaps the rest of my life--to put him back together, to make him whole again.

Mags shoved the gun into my hands, the barrel against his chest. “If I was half sane, I might make you pull the trigger, baby,” he murmured, the darkness in his eyes changing as they dropped to my lips as I stiffened. “Might ask you to put me out of my misery so I don’t have to see you like this anymore.”

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