Page 155 of Ride the Sky

“Davis,” I yell, hopping out of my truck.

“Ambulance,” he booms and points, but I’m already headed in that direction.

When I see Fallon sitting in the back of the ambulance with a blanket over her shoulders and an oxygen mask over her mouth and nose, my heart flatlines.

“She’s my wife,” I growl as one of the paramedics holds out a hand to stop my approach.

I swat him away like a gnat and stride toward her.

“Trouble.” Her name falls from my lips in a ragged breath.

She tugs off the oxygen mask, her lips pulling into a smirk. “It’s about damn time.”

I pull her up and into my arms, expecting a protest, a poker face. Instead, a shaky shudder tears out of her. Her arms wrap around me tight, and she burrows into my chest.

“Fuck, Fallon, are you okay?” I ask, kissing the top of her head.

“I’m fine,” she says, her words muffled by my chest.

I pull back, needing her eyes on mine. My heart wrenches when I see her face. Pale. Haunted. “Baby, what happened?”

She whimpers, her eyes fluttering shut. “Someone was in the house, Wyatt. The light was on. I went to the basement for—”

I shake my head at the overload of information. “The fuck were you in the basement for?” I cradle her face in my hands, my stomach turning over in ice-cold dread. “You could have fallen, what were you thinkin’?”

“I wasn’t thinking,” she snaps back. She looks embarrassed. “I was trying to make you cinnamon rolls, you asshole, and I was out of sugar.” Though her face is fixed into that icy shell I’m used to, she’s white as death. Her voice trembles. “Anyway, if you’ll shut up and listen to me…I went into the basement for sugar, and that’s when I smelled gas.” Her voice drops. “The light was on, and someone was upstairs. They were walking around. I could hear them.”

“Christ.” My pulse spikes at the thought of her being cornered with no way out.

I wasn’t there. I wasn’t fucking there.

“How’d you get out?”

“I crawled through the basement window.” She moves closer to me, her small hands gripping my shirt. “Someone was outside.”

I tense. “Who?”

“I don’t know. I saw boots right before I passed out.” Voice taking on a faraway tone, she says, “They were copper with these strange almost wing-like markings.” A shudder wracksher slender frame. Her face crumples. “I was so fucking scared, Wyatt.”

Choking on my guilt, I crush her against me. “I have you, Fallon. You’re safe. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Protect her at all costs. My life included.

“Is she okay?” I ask the paramedic. If she isn’t, I’m taking her to the fucking hospital immediately.

“She’ll be fine.” The paramedic gives me a grim nod. “It’s a good thing we found her when we did.”

“How?”

He shrugs. “Someone called it in.”

I squeeze my eyes shut.

This is my fault. I left her alone. I wasn’t there. I wasn’t fucking there.

“Hey, Fallon,” Sheriff Richter says, storming toward us.

At the sound of his voice, Fallon straightens in my arms. But I don’t let her go.

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