Page 51 of Ride the Sky

My fists ball. There’s only one person I wanted to fight today, and it wasn’t my big brother.

Davis points at me. “I told you if you were lookin’ for a one-night rodeo, don’t do it with Fallon McGraw.”

“You don’t know what the fuck you’re talkin’ about,” I snap, irritated he thinks I’ve been playing games all this time.

What we did, said, in cheap motel rooms mattered more to me than any fucking medal I could get on the rodeo. Her walls came down in those motel rooms. Whatever it was, the whiskey, the weed, Fallon was an open book. She let me see her. Secrets, confessions, scars. And then it was back to hating my guts in the morning.

Hell, I know more about Fallon than anyone.

Her full name.

Her nine lives.

Her estranged mother.

Her scars and tattoos and all their meanings.

The only thing that’s still a mystery is what I did to make her hate me so damn much.

Davis and I stare at each other, gazes clashing.

I could say it. Say everything to get my brother off my back.

That I love her.

That I’m a love-sick bastard for the vicious, terrible, amazing Fallon McGraw. That the last year has been hell on Earth without her. That every part of me belongs to Fallon, and she doesn’t know it. That the absolute worst feeling in the world is loving a woman who can’t fucking stand you.

I can’t pinpoint the exact moment I knew I loved her. It was like the slow crash of a wave. The erosion of an iron mountain. It just happened.

All I know is that when she saidyesin Vegas, it felt right.

She felt like mine.

“Hey, leave him alone,” Charlie growls, causing Davis to take a step back. My eyes soften in thanks.

“So, he’s married,” Charlie continues. “Who fucking cares. It’s business. It’s between them.”

Business.

The thought rankles me, but I keep my mouth shut.

Fallon’s the woman I want to kill and fuck on a daily basis.

She’s anything but business.

“We got bigger things to worry about.” Charlie dips his bearded chin in the direction of Fallon’s hospital room. Everyone sobers. Guilt flickers in the shadows of Davis’s eyes.

My jaw locks. I look Davis in the eye. “You done? Good.”

Taking a deep breath, I turn on my heel and head straight for that place in my heart that’s always been my light.

Fallon.

Oh god. Ribs. Hips. Fingertips. Everything hurts.

In my ears, the gentle beep of a machine. Steady. Constant. Like a single heartbeat. My body and my head feel distant, foggy. Like I’m waking from the densest fog in the darkest hole.

Slowly, so slowly, I blink open my eyes and look around. An unfamiliar dim space. A figure rises from a chair.

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