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A laugh cracked through the storm, and I was only 70 percent sure it wasn’t mine. My head rolled toward the sound, slow and syrupy, like everything around me was underwater.

Two men stood a few feet away, their silhouettes cut from rain and shadow. One was tall and broad-shouldered, with a black Stetson shadowing a face that looked like it had been built for trouble. The other wasn’t any safer. Leaner, not quite as tall, but equally terrifying…like the universe had decided to clone sin in two flavors.

The taller one, the one in dark flannel with a face that looked violently unfair to the rest of the male population, kept his eyes locked on mine as though he could peel me open with a look.

My vision doubled, then steadied. My tongue worked before my brain caught up. “Hi,” I said, swaying slightly. “I hit your…um. Cow.”

The leaner one tilted his head at me, then at my poor crumpled Prius. “You okay, ma’am?”

“Definitely,” I said. “Except for the part where my car attacked your cow. Or maybe it was mutual.”

“You’re bleeding,” the other one said in a low voice as his gaze flicked to my temple.

I reached up, and my fingers brushed something too warm to be rain. Blood. Perfect. Just what this trip needed.

“Oh,” I said. “Well. That explains the weird ringing in my ears. I thought I was just developing superpowers.”

“She probably has a concussion,” the second one muttered.

“Really?” I said, blinking hard. “Is that why you both have two heads?”

The world wobbled again.

I leaned back against the car to stop the spinning, but the car wasn’t stable, and my knees weren’t listening, and then⁠—

Strong arms closed around me, halting my slow collapse.

“Wow, you’re pretty,” I murmured, gaping at stormy blue eyes staring back at me from below the wide brim of his hat. “The view’s even more spectacular up close.” I winced. “Did I say that out loud?”

His friend snorted behind him, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what was funny.

“Don’t move,” Mr. Dreamboat Cowboy ordered in a clipped, bossy voice…obviously used to being obeyed. He held me upright like it was nothing.

“That’s the plan.” I leaned into his hard, warm chest, and the scent of orange and leather wrapped around me like a hug. “You smell expensive,” I said, unsure why I needed to tell him this. “Like cologne that comes with a security tag.”

“Fuck. She really did scramble her brain,” the other one muttered.

I tilted my head just enough to squint at them both through the rain. “Should we call the police? Or someone?”

“We’re someone,” the man holding me said, his tone smooth and sure, carrying that quiet kind of certainty that made it impossible to believe I could be anything but safe with him.

“That’s…convenient,” I whispered. My head tipped back as my knees wobbled again. “If you’re someone, then I think I’ll just…stay right here.”

The other one barked out a laugh, but the one with the storm-blue eyes didn’t smile. He just kept holding me upright like I was both a problem and a curiosity. Something he was eager to figure out but content to hold onto for as long as that took.

And then everything tilted again, and the ground left me, and the sky folded in on itself.

CHAPTER 4

SIENNA

Iwoke up staring at a yellow ceiling.

For a good ten seconds, I couldn’t figure out why I felt like a bag of broken crayons. Then it slammed back into me.

The storm. The mountain road.

The fucking cow.