I tilted my head back, looking north toward the road. “We’re here!”
“Can we pull you up?”
“Is that Walker?” Allegra sniffled.
“Aye.” I rubbed a hand down her back. “Do you think you can stand? I have the rope tied to my Defender. Walker can pull you up.”
“Not without you.” Her hands fumbled between us and I realized what she was doing.
“Stop. Keep that tied on.”
“Not without you,” she insisted stubbornly.
With a sigh, I nodded, even though she probably couldn’t see it. Then I quickly untied the rope and retied it around us both. “Ready?”
“Yes.”
Slowly, very slowly, I helped her to her feet. “We’re coming up!”
“We’ve got you!” Walker yelled back.
Standing over the Wrangler while Allegra was inside it was the longest moment of my life, but trying to get her trembling body safely up that hillside was a close second. I was drenched in sweat by the time Walker and North pulled us to safety. Headlights from several cars lit the country road, which was now blocked off by an ambulance, a fire engine, and a police car.
Walker and North weren’t alone. Sloane and Aria were there. Wesley and Chiara.
I gave Walker and North a nod of thanks but immediately turned my attention to Allegra.
“You’re safe.”
She looked up at me, eyes round, pupils dilated. “Thank you. I …” She bent over suddenly, pain flashing across her pale face.
“Allegra?”
My wife’s expression slackened as her eyes rolled and her knees gave out.
“Allegra!” I lunged, catching her before she hit the ground.
The next few moments were a panicked, confused blur as paramedics shoved me out of the way. I just kept asking them what was happening, renewed terror flooding me as they lifted my wife’s prone body onto a stretcher.
“What’s wrong with her?” Aria cried, tears streaming down her face.
“Where are you taking her?” Wesley demanded.
I didn’t hear the answers. I just followed.
“Family only.” One of the paramedics tried to bar me from the ambulance.
“She’s my wife,” I answered as Aria snapped, “He’s her husband! I’m her sister!”
“Just one,” the paramedic said.
“Go, Jared.” Aria pushed me toward the vehicle. “We’ll follow.”
I stumbled up into the ambulance, sitting across from Allegra as the paramedics worked over her.
“What’s happening?” I repeated, feeling as if I was watching that Jeep fall again with my wife barely out of it.
“It might just be a concussion, but we’ll need to check for internal injuries.”
