Page 130 of Beneath the Mountain Sky
Smoke.
“My…my truck overheated. I pulled over.”
It was always doing that. We were going to buy a new one soon. I was annoyed that it was going to delay me getting home.
“And then what happened?”
I tilt my head, trying to see the road more clearly, but it was raining. A summer storm. It made it difficult to see through the deluge.
But I could hear.
The sound roars in my ears.
“I heard another vehicle, someone stopping to help me.”
“Good, Willow. And who was it?”
I attempt to picture the face, to see who stopped, but I can’t. A form approaching through the driving rain. A knock on the window. Rolling it down to talk. “I don’t…I don’t know.”
“Was it a man or a woman?”
Pain slices at my temples, and I reach up and rub my fingers into them. Darkness sweeps across my vision, blanketing what should be a very clear image of the person I’m speaking with.
“Remember, you’re in a safe space, Willow. The cabin with Killian. Nothing can hurt you. Breathe in. Breathe out. Keep it slow.”
I struggle with his command.
Trying to get my lungs to cooperate.
The cabin.
Killian’s arms.
Safety.
His scent.
It melts away the anxiety and pain in my head.
Clears the clouds covering the memory.
“A man. It was a man’s voice.”
“What did he say?”
“He…he called me Bobby.”
“Bobby?”
I nod.
Squeezing my eyes closed.
Trying to stay in the memory.
“And then he…” A sharp crack of agony hits the back of my head, and I place my hand there, the echo of the pain coming through vividly before blackness takes over again. “I think he hit me with something.”
KILLIAN
