A warm hand touched her back, fighting off the chill that had overtaken her. She tried to sit up, and Jesse’s fingers circled her upper arms, helping her.
His gaze narrowed on the left side of her face. She could already feel it swelling from the elbow to her cheek.
He growled before inspecting the rest of her. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, his brows slashing when he obviously caught the flicker of pain in her expression. “I’m okay.” But only because Dylan was gone and Jesse was here.
She looked down at Dylan’s lifeless body. To the bullet wound in the side of his head, almost in the exact same place she’d nailed him with the key.
“He’s dead.” She wasn’t sure if it was a question or just her saying the words out loud to make herself believe they were true.
“He’s dead,” he confirmed.
She looked back to Jesse. “How did you know I was here?”
“I called.”
Aspen looked up at the woman standing beside Holden. Her chest was moving fast, and Holden was gently easing the chair from her grasp.
“I’m Sky,” she added.
“Aspen. I’m so sorry I brought him in here.”
She shook her head. “Don’t be. I don’t know the whole story, but Idoknow that guy wasn’t one of the good ones.”
That was an understatement.
She swallowed as distant footsteps sounded. Then the store was filled with people. Deputies with guns. Paramedics.
She was about to push to her feet when Jesse cupped her cheek. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“No. But I will be.”
Jesse’s fingerswere firm around the wheel as he drove home.
Today had been what nightmares were made of. For a short while, Aspen had been out of his reach, and that time had almost killed him.
He shot a glance at her in the passenger seat. She was already asleep, her cheek resting against the sweater she’d pushed between her face and the window. She’d fallen asleep almost the second he’d started the engine. Paramedics had looked over her, but that wasn’t enough. Jesse had wanted her to go to the hospital and be properly checked out by a doctor. They needed to know what she’d been drugged with.
Luckily, the hospital had been fairly empty, so they’d be seen quickly and would get the results of the blood test soon. His sister had also taken a blood test, and Jesse was betting that whatever had been slipped into Aspen’s drink had been slipped into Clara’s too as a way to pull his attention from Aspen. Thank God, they’d both only drunk a small sip of their coffees, so neither had been out for long.
He pulled into his carport but didn’t get out right away. Instead, he just watched her, thoughts plaguing him. Dark thoughts. Of how differently today could have gone. If they’dstepped into that building a second later, Sky would have been dead, and, likely, Aspen next.
The thought made his heart lurch and darkness fill every crevice of his mind. He didn’t fear much in life, but losing her? The thought fucking terrified him.
He climbed out of the car. When he reached her side, he lifted her into his arms. She fit so damn perfectly against him. If there was anything he believed in this world, it was that they were always meant to find each other. It was always supposed to be them.
He walked through the house and into his bedroom, where he laid her on the bed. But again, he didn’t leave immediately. Instead, he removed her shoes, then her jeans. Once the covers were tucked around her, he perched on the side of the bed and grazed a lock of hair from her cheek.
“You scared me today, Aspen.” He’d never been more scared in his life. The fear had been like a parasite, sucking the life from him. “Never again.”
He swallowed and was about to rise when her hand grabbed his, and she whispered, “Hey.”
Her eyes fluttered open, her blues colliding with his brown, so damn captivating they paralyzed him.
“Thank you for saving me,” she whispered.
He shook his head. “I didn’t save you.Yousaved you. By forcing that asshole to crash the car and running. By being smart.”
