Page 96 of First Chance

We’re just outside of Lawson, the biggest town in Rollins, and I can hear the tornado sirens. This is bad, really bad.

He slams on the brakes, and my head nearly hits the dashboard until he accelerates again, throwing me back.

“I can’t see shit.” He swerves around a downed tree, and I throw my hands over my face, wishing I could stop looking. I peek through my fingers as he drives blindly down the freeway that no one else is stupid enough to be driving on.

He takes the corner that takes us to our mountain road when the rain suddenly clears and the sky goes from dark gray to… Green?

“Is it over?”

“We need to take shelter. Now.” He speeds into the parking lot of the little carryout, jumping the curb, and my entire body lifts off the seat before bouncing down as he drivesstraight up onto the sidewalk on the side of the building. “Come on!”

He flings his door open, bracing against the wind as he pulls me across the bucket seat and into the ladies’ bathroom. It isn’t until he’s struggling to shut the heavy bathroom door that I realize how truly not over this storm is.

“Get in the corner!” He yells, but I’m short-circuiting, I can’t move.

He flips the deadbolt and throws himself my way, shoving me into the corner and crowding me with his body.

The wind howls outside the concrete building, and I hear the train horn, the roar of tornado-force winds. It sounds like the bathroom is going to collapse at any moment, as large debris is thrown against it.

Something crashes into the one tiny window, smashing the glass out, and I scream as glass particles rain down around us. Lochlan’s arms circle me tightly, engulfing me while his back takes the brunt of the rain surge blowing in.

It’s so loud, it never feels like it’s going to stop. “Lochlan,” I plead his name, screaming into his chest when thunder cracks loudly right on top of us and the lights go out.

“I’ve got you, baby. I’ve got you. I’m not going to let a thing happen to you,” he murmurs in my ear, squeezing me tighter. His hand cups my head, holding it against his chest, and blocking some of the noise.

Focus on his heart.

Focus on his heart.

When I can hear his heartbeat, that means this is over.

His heart.

His heart.

His heart.

The erratic tempo of his heart beats against my ear, and I can finally breathe. I can’t hear the wind; all I can hear is his heart beating.

“Is it over?”

“I don’t know, I think so.”

If he wouldn’t have come to get me, I would have been in the worst of it, and I could have gotten myself killed.

My shaking arms squeeze his waist tighter, imagining that I could have had to endure all of this alone sends a wave of sadness over me.

I’m so used to doing it alone, I don’t want to think about the day that Lochlan won’t be there to save me.

He’s always here to save me.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Lochlan

I’m afraid to let her go. As if the moment she’s gone from my grip, the roof will cave in and I’ll lose her. I’m not someone who can be scared easily. I’ve confronted 800-pound black bears without breaking a sweat, but just now, I was scared to death.

“Are you okay?” I smooth her hair away from her face, so I can look at her, and I mean really look at her.

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