If I killed him, I wouldn’t need the antidote. Besides, this is Chase Knight. I wouldnever. “No, I didn’t kill him. I tased him. He should be out long enough for me to give him the antidote. It’ll work, and Chase will be okay.”
It has to work. Hehasto be okay.
I start to rise when Chase shudders. I drop down again. I’m prepared to tase him a second time if I have to, but when his eyelids flutter and I see those familiar blue eyes—blue, not black like a lurker—I know that Chase is still in there somewhere.
He reaches his hand out, groping wildly, searching for something or someone, and I can’t bring myself to leave his side.
Even when he says, “It’s my fault, Hal. I didn’t see it. It came from the water… the fire didn’t catch on the damp cloak. The stare failed before I could ignite the fucker’s skin. It got me… take me out. Put me down. I won’t hurt you, baby. I’ll never hurt you.”
A lump lodges in my throat. “I know, Chase.”
“I love you.”
Tears well in my eyes. “Know that, too.”
“Hallie…”
I squeeze his hand. “I love you, too,” I tell Chase. If he’s delirious enough that he thinks I’m my twin as he’s dying, it’s the least I can do, letting him have these few moments when he’s with her again.
He jerks his head, then closes his eyes. “Good. Then I’m ready. Do it. Kill me, baby, before I’m not me.”
Yeah. That’s the part that’s not going to happen.
“Maverick!” I shout. “Jesus fucking Christ, my pack. Can you grab it for me or not?”
“Hallie… it hurts,” grunts Chase. “I’m so sorry…” His eyes fly open again. His back arches as if a shot of voltage has just gone down his spine. Because he’s still holding my hand, I’m on this roller coast ride with him, up, then down as he crashes back onto the dirt so hard that it makes me wince in sympathy.
Or maybe that’s because he’s squeezing the life out of my hand.
“Get away from me,” he hisses between clenched teeth. He closes his eyes once more, screwing them up tight. “Run, unh, save yourself?—”
The desperation in Chase’s voice, the desperation, the fear, the concern… I’ve heard it all before.
He sounds like my brother right before he attacked Mom and me.
“Don’t be stupid.” I snap. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Maverick finally gets up. But he doesn’t go to where my pack is nestled next to my rolled-up sleeping bag and the pile of blankets we’ve been toting around. I want to scream at him to stop dicking around… and that’s when he grabshisbackpack.
Chase is shuddering, grunting and crying out now, but his grip is like a vice—he won’t let go of my hand and I don’t want him to.
However, I can follow Maverick as he unzips that secret pouch in the reverse side of the backpack that used to hold his hat.
“Mine,” I tell him. “The antidote… it’s hidden in a sock at the bottom of my p?—”
My words fail as I watch Mav pull a sock out of his pack. He dips his finger in as he hustles over to Chase and me.
“Here,” he says, pressing a glass vial into my free hand.
There’s a faded red ribbon tied loosely around it.
My antidote inMav’spack.
CHAPTER 27
There’s no time for me to wonder how he got it or why it was in his pack instead of mine. Chase needs me. He needs the antidote.
He’s shaking, pain wracking his entire body. I’m not strong enough to hold him down, but I give it my best try. I place the antidote on the ground a few feet away from him; safe and sound. Then, yanking my hand free from his since the intense trembles led to him loosening his hold, I climb on top of Chase again. I straddle him, doing what I can to get him to stay still.
