by Stasia Black
But then she saw it.
Holy—
Off to the right, opposite the dam, a funnel cloud was just touching down to earth.
The next second, Hunter was yanking at her passenger side door. But it was locked. Shit. Shit. She fumbled for the button to unlock it, her eyes never moving from the tornado. Hunter screamed at her and pounded on the door.
Finally she managed to get it unlocked and Hunter pulled her down from her seat. She barely landed on her feet but had no time to get oriented before Hunter was dragging her forward. She stumbled along behind him.
There was a tornado. An actual, real, bona fide tornado. Like in the movies. Holy shit. Fuck. Shit fuck.
Hunter dragged her toward a steep grassy embankment when she suddenly remembered. Beauty. She jerked her hand out of Hunter’s.
“Beauty!” The wind had started whipping around them so loudly she had to shout to be heard above it. “We have to get Beauty.”
“No time,” he shouted back. “And if you stop again, I’ll fucking carry you!”
Then he grabbed her wrist and yanked her so that she was forced to follow him. The rain had started up again and not just rain, but small pebbles of hail. She used the arm Hunter wasn’t holding up to shield herself.
When she looked toward the tornado again, her heart stuttered. Oh God. It was headed right toward them. And it seemed bigger now. At its base was a dark brown cloud. It was ripping and twisting up debris as it went.
They were going to die.
“Careful now!” Hunter yelled as they reached the steep embankment.
Isobel tried to focus. No, they weren’t going to die. She had Hunter. He grew up around here. She thought she could see where he was trying to take them. At the bottom of the embankment was the dam’s base where there were several concrete culverts. The sturdiest place around to take cover, though still open on one side to the storm.
Hunter took her waist as he stepped sideways down the steep grassy area. But they were rushing and the grass was slick from the rain. Her foot slipped once and he caught her, pulling her tighter against him.
They were almost halfway down when—
“Oh!” Isobel slipped again. Her feet went out from under her. Then, the world went topsy turvy— Ow! God. Ow! She rolled and slid and then rolled some more until she landed on the concrete at the bottom of the hill. All the air was knocked out of her lungs on impact.
She gasped for breath, feeling dazed and looking around. Where was Hunter? Was he okay? The tornado. Oh God, the tornado.
“Isobel!”
The next thing she knew, her body was being lifted. Cradled against a warm chest.
“Isobel, talk to me!”
She tried to say his name, but she still didn’t have any breath. Hail pelted her legs in painful stings though Hunter shielded most of her upper body. She couldn’t see the storm, couldn’t see anything but his chest. Her body jolted with his every step and with how fast he was moving, she knew the danger was far from over.
A few moments later, Hunter set her down. Concrete, hard at her back and underneath her. They’d made it to the culvert.
She sucked in another breath and finally managed to take in air.
“Hunter,” she gasped out. The wind was so loud, she doubted he could hear her.
He must have seen her lips move, though, because she saw the relief on his face right before he pulled her into his body. Even though he was as rain soaked as she was, he still radiated warmth. It made her feel safe. False comfort, she knew.
“Tornado?” she managed to ask, getting in more air with each breath now. She was less disoriented too and could make out the huge concrete box created by the structure of the dam. It would have been perfect—except for the fact that the tornado was heading toward them from the one exposed side.
Hunter pushed her into the corner and was trying to cover her body with his but she strained her neck to look over his shoulder. What little air she’d managed to gain whooshed out again.
“Oh my God,” she whispered, shrinking into the corner. Not that she could hear her own voice over the storm. It roared like a locomotive racing past at top speed. It was almost on top of them, and it had gathered momentum so that instead of a spindly little funnel it was a wide cone, tearing up swaths of land as it went.
“Hunter!” She flung her arms around his waist and tried to pull him as tightly as she could into the corner with her.
The roar got even louder and debris was flung into the concrete wall of the dam. Isobel screamed as wood chunks and tree branches crashed all around them. Hunter hunched his body over her, both of them curled into the corner as tightly as possible.
They were going to die.
They were going to die.
And it was all her fault.
If she hadn’t dragged Hunter out here. He knew it was a bad idea. She hadn’t taken the storm seriously, but his instincts were spot on.
And now here they were.
For all the miserable times in her life when she’d thought it just wasn’t worth continuing on—dammit, she just wanted to go back and smack herself now.
She wanted to live.
She wanted it so badly.
There was so much to live for.
Please God. Please. I want to live.
The wind howled. Debris continued to slam the walls. It piled up all around them. It felt like the world was coming to an end.
Chapter 16
HUNTER
Hunter curled his body as tight as he could around Isobel as the storm raged on. He had to keep her safe. Safe. Safe. It was all he could think.
Pain ripped at his back but he only noticed it peripherally.
She had to be kept safe.
If it had to take someone, let it be him, not her.
Christ, not her.
But then, all of the sudden, the screaming wind quieted. The junk and debris that had been continually flying at them stopped. The punishing rain became a light sprinkle.
Hunter’s eyes were clenched shut and he held his body around Isobel’s like an immovable cage. It was only when she stirred beneath him and asked, “Hunter? Hunter, is it over?” that he dared look over his shoulder.
And saw that the tornado had turned and was moving east. Not only that, but the funnel was narrow again. Losing momentum, it seemed.
Isobel tried to push out from under him but he wasn’t about to let her up yet.
“Stay down.”
She stopped struggling and settled for craning her neck to look at the retreating twister with him. As they watched silently over the next minute or two, it grew smaller and smaller and then dissipated entirely.
Isobel started laughing. It had a hysterical edge to it but he couldn’t blame her. Jesus, how close had the goddamn thing come to them before it turned? He finally released Isobel and sat back on his haunches, looking around them.
Debris, mostly tree limbs and churned up earth, cluttered the ditch running up to the culvert. But there was also a ripped-up car tire and the twisted frame of what might have once been a bicycle just a little to their left. Shit. If either of those had hit him and Isobel…
He shuddered. Better not to think about the ‘what ifs.’
Isobel was standing and she held down a hand to help him up. He took it and got to his feet, the whole while checking her up and down for any damage. But other than being covered in mud and a few scratches she probably gotten from her tumble down the hill earlier, she looked fine.
She was okay. She was safe.
She looked around them at all the damage, shaking her head in wonder when her eyes suddenly widened.
“Beauty.” Then she took off like a shot, jogging through the twisted tree limbs and—damn, was that a tractor?—to scramble back up the embankment.
“Isobel,” he called, but she didn’t slow down. Damn fool woman. If she wasn’t careful, she’d fall and break her neck on that damn hill. He hurried after her, wincing at the stiffness in his back. Looked l
ike he’d have some cuts and bruises of his own.
She was already halfway up the hill by the time he made it to the bottom, scrambling up with her hands and feet like she was a monkey. He almost called out to her again but then stopped himself. He didn’t want to break her concentration. And within another minute, she made it to the top.
He had a slower time of it, but when he finally got back to the road, it was to find a beaming Isobel. He immediately saw why. While there was some debris on the road, it wasn’t nearly as much as there had been in the culvert below. And his truck and the trailer stood pretty much untouched.
“Beauty’s still okay. Come on,” Isobel waved him toward the truck. “If we get going we can still make it to Casper in time.” She ran to the passenger side and hopped in.
Her and that damn horse.
Hunter let out a deep breath. He wasn’t sure if it was relief or exasperation or what. All he knew was that this woman was going to be the death of him.
He walked toward the driver’s side of the truck, grimacing as he hauled himself into the seat.
He turned the key and the truck fired to life, no problem. But before he pulled it into gear, Isobel suddenly launched herself over the bench seat and wrapped him in a fierce hug. His back was still sensitive and he winced. The feel of warm, alive woman was enough to make him not care, though. He wrapped his arms around her and breathed her in.
He wanted to say a hundred things to her in that moment.
Like: Don’t you ever scare me like that again.
And: I’m sorry for being an ass the last few weeks.
And: Let’s both get out of these muddy clothes and celebrate being alive. While naked.
And: I’m terrified I’m falling in love with you.
But before any of those fool things could come out of his mouth, Isobel broke the hug and pulled back.
Then she screamed.
Because her arms were covered in blood.
His blood.
Oh.
Shit.
That was when he passed out.
Chapter 17
ISOBEL
Isobel paced up and down the hospital corridor, her nails chewed to nubs. It was an obsessive habit she hated, but compared to the alternatives, it was one she could live with.
What she couldn’t live with, however, was Hunter not being okay.
The ER waiting room was loud and chaotic all around her. Babies crying. People crying. The news on the big screen in the corner of the room. The tornado warning was finally over but it had touched down near a mobile home park. The whole ER was buzzing about it and there had been a load of patients who’d come in with minor to severe injuries.
It was all just freaking insane. And the rush and chaos meant no one was telling her anything about Hunter.
But he’d be okay. He had to be okay.
God, when she’d hugged him and her arms had come back covered in blood… And then his eyes had rolled back in his head and he’d just sunk against her—
She leaned against the wall, feeling out of breath all over again just remembering it. She’d never felt more terrified in her life. Not even after she’d swallowed all the pills from every bottle in the house she could find that horrible night back when she was sixteen. It was only after she’d finished downing them that she’d realized she didn’t want to die—but she’d been terrified she was too late and that she was just minutes away from death.
But no, not even that trauma compared to seeing all the blood and being positive that Hunter had just died in her arms. She’d been so busy worrying about the damn horse she hadn’t checked to make sure that he was okay. What was wrong with her?
She pushed off the wall. It had been hours. She was just about to go to the nurses station and ask again if there was an update.
But then the double doors swung open.
And Hunter himself strolled out, wearing an oversized blue T-shirt with a giant yellow smiley face.
Isobel’s mouth dropped open. Yes, he’d only passed out for a short time in the car, but he’d still been so woozy and out of it when she dropped him off. The nurse who did triage had taken one look at Hunter’s back after Isobel had helped him stumble in and sent him straight into surgery. His shirt had been shredded and his back wasn’t much better.
There’d been so much blood.
Isobel shook the images from her head and ran up to Hunter, automatically sliding her shoulder under his arm to prop him up like she had on their way into the hospital. “What are you doing up? You should be in a wheelchair.” She looked up at him. “Actually, you should still be back there in a bed. What’s going on?”
“Aw, I’m fine.” Hunter swung his arm over her shoulder easily enough but didn’t lean nearly as much weight on her as he had earlier. He headed toward the exit. He was a little stiff but walked with far more ease than Isobel would have expected.
She moved with him, completely confused. “But your back!”
“Just needed a little stitching up.”
“A little—” She started, incredulously. His back had looked cut to pieces, especially that deep gash on his upper shoulders—just a few inches to the left and it would have hit his spinal cord. She shuddered and reached up to clasp the hand of the arm he had around her.
“What about the mare? Did you get her to the animal hospital?”
She turned her head to gape at him. Was he seriously asking about a horse right now? “You could have died.”
He looked down at her with a wide, dopey grin. “Aw, you worried about me, Isobel? Isobel? Ma belle?” Then he tipped his head back and started to sing a butchered version of that old Beatles song Michelle, Ma Belle, except inserting her name. “Isobel, ma belle—” then he’d sort of start humming along, obviously not knowing the French lyrics before busting out with qui vont très bien ensemble at the end of each line.
“Oh my God.” Isobel shouldered more of his weight when he stumbled a little. “What the hell did they give you?”
Hunter immediately started shaking his head. “Oh not that much.” They were nearing the hospital exit. “I told them to do a local where they were stitching and I think that’s all they did. But they were really good. I didn’t even feel it. I think I even fell asleep.”
Riiiiiiight. Isobel was pretty sure from both what she’d seen of his back and the way he was acting now that he’d been knocked out from anesthesia.
She looked back over her shoulder. “Are you sure you’re all right to leave the hospital? Aren’t they supposed to wheel you to the exit or something?”
“Phsh.” Hunter said sloppily, then waved a hand. “I’m walking just fine.”
Right then he tripped over his own feet and almost took a header face-first into the glass exit door.
“Hunter!” Isobel managed to catch him right before he got a face full of glass.
“Whoa. Thanks.” He started laughing high-pitched in a way she’d never heard before—like he’d gotten a case of the giggles.
Grouchy Hunter Dawkins. Was giggling.
Okay, the world had officially gone nuts.
But he’d pulled away from her and was walking out toward the darkened parking lot and he did seem a little steadier on his feet. Would wonders never cease.
It was eleven o’clock at night but the parking lot had enough street lamps lit so they could see where they were going.
She hurried to keep up with his long-legged stride when all the sudden he stopped. His momentum kept going forward and he stumbled a little bit, catching himself just in time before he toppled over.
“Whoa,” he said again, then shook his head. He looked around. “Where’s Rhonda?”
“Who?” God, what if he’d gotten hit on the head really hard and had a concussion or something in addition to his back and—
“My truck. Rhonda.” He looked at her like, duh? and then kept searching the large hospital parking lot.
Now it was Isobel’s turn to laugh. After the stress of the day, it was su
ch a relief, she had to grab her stomach she started laughing so hard. “You— Named your truck—” she managed to get out through heaving gasps, “Rhonda?”
Hunter only looked mildly insulted. “Rhonda and me go way back. Certainly the best relationship with a female I ever had.” All amusement fled his face with that last statement. He lifted a hand to the back of his neck but immediately winced at the movement and dropped his arm. It must have tugged at the wounds on his back.
Isobel sobered quickly. “Come on.” She took his forearm and tugged him to the back of the parking lot where she’d parked his truck and trailer.
“I dropped Beauty off at the horse hospital after they took you in,” Isobel said, finally answering his earlier question now that she had him steered the right direction. “They were ready for us since you called ahead and when you couldn’t perform the surgery yourself, one of the vets there said she could step in.” All the vets had been on call because of the storm and they were happy to get Beauty seen and fixed up so they could free up the operating bay for the flood of clients that would no doubt be coming in all afternoon and evening because of the storm.
“They called just a while ago to let me know that they removed the problematic portion of intestine and Beauty was doing great. They’ll stable her for the night.”
Hunter was nodding intently to everything she said. “You wanna stop by there and check on her before we head home?”
Again, Isobel stopped with her mouth dropped open. “No I do not want to— Are you insane?” Then she huffed out a breath and reminded herself that he was heavily medicated at the moment.
“You’re in no shape for a two-hour long car ride.” Isobel shook her head, looking out at the dark road. “Not to mention I wouldn’t want to make that drive at night with a trailer hitched anyway.” Then, more under her breath, “My luck, I’d hit a deer or hydroplane and manage to kill us both yet.”
“Come on.” She took his arm again. “We’re going to go stay at a hotel.”
He cracked a grin at this. “You tryin’ to get me in bed, Ms… Ms…” His face screwed up like he was straining to think. “What’s your last name again?”