Page 50 of Never Fear (Whiskey Ridge)
“McKenna.” I’d repeated her name six times. Maybe ten. I lost count through the hope blaring in my mind that she’d answer. All I heard was a faint creaking and an off-beat clicking. Everything else was silent. Her voice didn’t caress my ears with some snide remark that she was fine. The familiar, faint sound of her chewing didn’t filter through the speaker. But despite the quietness, I didn’t have the heart to hang up. What if she woke up and called for me and I wasn’t there?
She’d be so fucking scared.
Fuck, she had already been scared.
I shouldn’t have let her drive home from work. I shouldn’t have fallen asleep earlier in the day. There wereso many things I shouldn’t have done, and once again, because of those things, this was my fault. She’d be safe if she had been with me. I’d have killed the fucker following her before they even had the chance to read her license plate.
I’d done my fair share of speeding down these roads. Of breaking the law and getting away with it. But none of those times compared to now. There were no limits I wouldn’t go to for McKenna.
She would not die. Not on my watch.
And maybe that was because I had grown to feel more for her than I’d originally planned. Hooked from the first time we met, sure. But obsession quickly turned into a heart-pounding ache in my chest every time I was away from her.
Not only that, but I refused to let another woman in my life die because I was helpless to change their fate.
I lived my life with a lot of regrets, but McKenna would never be one of them. I wouldn’t allow it.
So I stayed on the line as long as I could, gunning it down the road toward her because sheneededme.
And I needed her. Her voice. Her sweet, strawberry scent. Her blinding smile. The cute little eye roll she did when I annoyed her.
All of it.
Three blocks from Wagon Road, I passed the only other vehicle I’d seen out here—a truck with a blinding light bar. But I didn’t stop to follow them to see if they were the one who drove McKenna off the road. The only thing on my mind was her. Revenge could come later—and it would.
Seconds passed before my headlights illuminated twin black streaks on the faded asphalt, and I moved my bootfrom the throttle to the brake, coming to an abrupt stop on the shoulder. The brush lining the road was obviously recently disturbed, given the clear path of broken branches and torn-up leaves and dirt.
I didn’t waste a second as I jumped out of the truck and bolted for the edge. It wasn’t steep enough to be considered a cliff, but it wasn’t an easy slope, either. And right at the bottom sat two dim lights.
McKenna’s car.
My heart threatened to escape through my throat as I reached for the nearest branch and slid down the embankment. My descent was anything but graceful, and once I made it to the bottom, I braced my hands on the trunk and rounded the car.
Smoke billowed out from the hood which was crushed against a thick pine trunk, a hiss of air coming from that general direction. I grabbed the handle for the driver’s door to keep myself steady. And when I looked inside?
My heart nearly split in two.
“McKenna.” Her name was a desperate plea on my lips, pained and choked, as I wrenched the door open. Twigs cracked, leaves crunched, and my stomach plummeted.
Blood dripped down the side of her head, half of her bright blonde hair coated red. My eyes jumped from one thing to the next. The seat belt eating into her skin. Her forehead pressed against the wheel. Her limp hands. Her phone pressed up against the windshield.
So much chaos in the span of a few seconds andI hadn’t been here.
“Never forgive me,” I whispered as I gently reached around her stomach to find the seat beltbutton. With my other hand on her arm, I pressed it, releasing her from the only thing keeping her upright. She immediately fell into me, not making a sound.
Her silence hurt worse than any words she could ever spew at me.
Tore me apart in more ways than if she were to drag a knife straight through my heart.
Carefully, I scooped her into my arms. Her head fell limp onto my shoulder, and I turned to eye the steep climb ahead of me.
“You will not die today, McKenna. Do you hear me?” I looked down at her, her features so slack, I wanted nothing more than to see that jaw work, to see that crease between her brows and her nose scrunching.
Something to tell me she was alive other than the subtle rise of her chest with every shallow breath.
Holding her closer, I began the trek up the embankment. My boots slipped every few feet, my knees slamming into the rough ground as I refused to fall. Eventually, I made it back to my truck. I didn’t want to set her down, but I couldn’t hold her on my lap while I drove, so I forced myself to ease her onto the back seat. Once she was laying across the seats, I shut the door and got in behind the wheel.
I wasted no time booking it to the nearest hospital.
