Page 43 of Quinn

Glancing up, she tried to see any sign of Quinn or Danny. The brown wall was blinding. The rope pulled tight and she said another silent prayer.Please God, I cannot lose Danny or Quinn. I just can’t.

Blast. Quinn squinted in the distance. What he had hoped was Danny, was nothing more than the longest and skinniest piece of tumbleweed he’d ever seen. Gripping the rope to return to the car and wishing he’d thought to grab a pair of work gloves, he struggled to put one foot in front of the other. When he finally reached his uncle’s SUV and grabbed onto the door handle, the wind caught it just right and for half a second he thought the dang thing was going to blow off its hinges.

Slamming the door hard behind him, he looked into Eloise’s soulful eyes, shocked when she threw her arms around him.

“Do not ever do that again.”

Before he could utter a word, overhead a loud crack reverberated around them.

Pulling away, Eloise looked up. “What the hell was that?”

Lifting his gaze to the ceiling, Quinn wished the tumbleweed had been Danny and they were all on their way back to the ranch. “If we’re lucky, lightening.”

“And if we’re not?”

“Hell may be about to come crashing down on us.”

“Hell?” Poor Eloise looked like she couldn’t take any more bad news.

“Sound could be an electrical pole about to snap.”

“We can’t stay here,” Finn ground out. “Either go forward or go back, but we can’t stay here.”

“Forward.” Quinn straightened in his seat and turning the ignition, hit the gas. The car lunged before once again crawling along the dark road at the pace of a sick snail. “Eloise, I want you to tie yourself and Finn to the rope again. If anything happens to… the car and we have to get out in a hurry, I don’t want to lose either of you.”

“Not me,” Finn winced. “I’m not going anywhere. And I’m not sitting up to tie that thing around me.”

Quinn hesitated. “Fair enough.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll tie it if we stop again.” Her brows buckled, her mouth hung open no doubt ready to protest when he beat her to the punch line. “I promise, first chance we get to stop somewhere safe, I’ll link with you.”

With a grunt and a nod, she quickly untied the rope from the seat, attached it to herself, then reattached it to the seat. “Done.”

“Good.”

As if Mother Nature was laughing at their efforts, a massive crack split the air.

Finn yelled, “Drive!”

Knowing what was coming next, he watched the expression of sheer horror take over Eloise’s face as a power pole seemed to dip in slow motion.

Quinn gunned the engine; whether or not they were on the road, the side, or about to tangle with more tumbleweed didn’t matter, he had to get Eloise to safety.

Pressing harder on the gas pedal, he kept an eye on the rearview mirror. The falling pole crashed down only inches behind them, then, as if it weighed nothing more than a feather, flew into the air again.

What goes up must come down. If pushing the pedal any closer to the floorboard would make the SUV go faster, he would push his foot right through the floor. Only a few yards down the road, the pole came crashing down once again. The pole’s second landing jolted the SUV hard right. Quinn fought the wheel, squinting through the brown haze. Where the heck was the dang road?

Movement caught his eye. Unless tumbleweed had suddenly grown arms, they just might have found what they’d been looking for—someone waving frantically.

“Danny?” Eloise leaned forward as much as possible without releasing the pressure on Finn’s shoulder.

Easing on the brakes, Quinn edged closer. Two figures materialized in the headlights. They were pressed against the back end of a small car. Looking closer, not just the back end, the nose of the car was buried in the ditch and the trunk was at least four feet off the ground. At least he thought it was a ditch. Now he understood why Danny and a young man who looked barely out of his teens were on the road and not taking shelter in the vehicle.

Quinn hit the brakes. The kid with Danny looked terrified.

“Get them in here!” Eloise was already reaching for her door.

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