Page 5 of Beyond the Blue Horizon
Made her look like some kind of battle-torn angel.
Or maybe it was just my own adrenaline thundering through my being that was distorting my nerve endings. Sending my reaction sideways and slanting in a direction it shouldn’t go.
A trauma response.
Only I’d seen so much blood and gore in my life that I knew fuckin’ better than that.
I was nothing but a gluttonous fuck.
Wanting to devour the good and lay it to waste.
“Mommy is right here, baby.”
The second she set her knees on the seat next to him, the kid instantly stopped crying.
“Hi, Mommy.” Through his tears, he grinned this beaming smile, and she choked out a relieved laugh.
“Hi, baby,” she whispered. Her delicate hands started running over every exposed inch of his body.
His little arms and legs.
Over his head and chest and shoulders.
Searching for any injury.
“You’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay,” she mumbled like maybe she was trying to convince herself.
“I okay. We go crash?”
“Yeah, just a little crash, but we’re okay. Everyone’s okay.”
“Mommy gotowie?” He pointed at the cut on her head. His eyes that were the same color as hers were wide with innocent worry.
“It’s just a tiny bump. It doesn’t even hurt.”
Doubted that claim was actually legit. About an inch of flesh was busted open, and a steady stream of blood oozed from it.
“I’m going to grab the first aid kit and get an ambulance out here to check everyone out. Pretty sure your car isn’t going anywhere.”
Her attention flashed up to me when I said it.
A different kind of panic lit her gorgeous features. Could tell she wanted to argue, but then she was looking back at her son, torn by something I couldn’t make out.
“Okay,” she finally agreed, and I ducked out of the car and ran for my truck. I threw open the back door and dug out the kit from where I kept it stashed, then I nabbed my phone from the console and thumbed into the screen at the same time as I went running back for the car.
Fuck.
No service.
Guts twisting, I kept moving before I popped my head back through the rear passenger door. “There’s no service. We’re pretty deep in the woods and the storm is likely adding to it. I can probably get it about five miles up the road. Think we need to move you all into my truck. It’s warm and I can get you into town quickly.”
Didn’t love the idea of moving the kid, or any of them for that matter.
My only solace was he seemed unharmed.
“I thought you said you could get service five minutes up the road?”
I let go of a heavy exhale. “I said probably, but I’m not a hundred percent. Besides, I’m not sure how long it would take an ambulance to get out here in this storm. Might be best for me to drive you the whole way.”
