Page 26 of Montana Rain

“What?”

Her breath shook as I put her on speaker and pulled on a shirt and my socks. Shoes. I needed shoes. And a coat. Fuck, it was snowing.

“He’s gone now. I made the bed so it looked like I wasn’t here, and he bought it.”

My shoes were on, and I grabbed my keys. “I’m on my way.”

“It’s okay,” she said. “I’ll call the police and Daniel. You don’t have to come all the way here.”

“Like hell,” I ground out the words, placing the phone on the seat of the truck beside me. “You call the cops, and then call me back, okay?”

“Okay.”

The line went dead, and I focused on getting down the mountain without killing myself. Because I was going to go as fast as humanly possible in this shitty weather. A bit out of season for this kind of storm, but it was northern Montana. What the hell did I know?

I pulled onto the highway as my phone rang. I set it straight to speaker. “You okay?”

“They’re on their way.”

“Good.”

We sat in silence as I drove. Rayne breathed, and I listened to her do it. Before tonight, I don’t know if I would have said that I craved the sound of someone’s breath, but tonight, I did. Because if she was breathing, she was alive.

“Almost there.”

“Charlie’s here,” she said, palpable relief in her voice.

My hands unclenched on the steering wheel just a little. “Go. I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Okay.”

Her side of the call ended, and I focused on the road ahead of me. I was halfway through town and getting close to her neighborhood. The snow had built up a little since the last plows had gone through, but it was bearable.

The snow whipped past my headlights as I turned into her neighborhood. I already saw the police lights flashing. This time, I parked more carefully by her curb before I went inside.

No knocking. The door was unlocked, and I pushed it open. Charlie, the police chief, noted me, but when Rayne saw me and waved, he stood down.

There were other officers in the house, looking through things. Whatever they could. Because her belongings were everywhere. Drawers turned out and shelves emptied. Nothing was broken or ripped into. Just a frantic, if thorough, search. Was this what her office had looked like?

And Rayne looked…wrecked.

Tired and afraid.

Seeing her whole and safe satisfied something deep inside me, and yet I wanted more. All I wanted was to pull her into my arms and hold her. Make her feel safe. But I couldn’t do that in front of the officers. Hell, I didn’t know if Rayne wanted me to do it at all.

She’d called me, and I was so grateful, but now that I was here, I wasn’t sure what she wanted from me. Regardless, whatever she needed, I would do.

Now that she was in my line of sight and safe, I took a breath. The way my stomach had hollowed out at the fear in her voice had been so fucking familiar. But she was here. She was safe. She wasn’t Jamie.

“Do you have someplace to go?” Charlie asked.

“Umm…”

I stepped forward. “Yes. Resting Warrior will take her.”

Rayne’s eyes flickered to mine for a second, and she nodded.

Charlie looked between the two of us. “Hold tight here for a second. I’ll have them clear your bedroom so you can grab some things. Doesn’t look like that’s where his focus was anyway.”

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