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Late? It took a moment for her to process that it was dusk, that the day was over, and somehow, she was off the mountain.

Thanks only to Owen.

“We went up earlier. Right after lunch. It was clear then. We didn’t see it.”

Paige heard the hurt in Owen’s voice. She desperately wanted to tell him it was okay, to thank him for getting her home safely, but her words wouldn’t come. She was fading. Her words died inside her as her vision faded completely, rendering her mute.

Owen,she wanted to scream,thank you for saving my life.

Instead,blackness.

CHAPTER NINE

Not the Answer They Were Looking For

When Paige openedher eyes, everything was different. She wasn’t in her bed like she’d thought she would be. She was inabed, but it was small, with railings. Her body throbbed like she’d been pummeled by a bull.

No, a horse.She remembered now, the evening before coming back to her in a quick succession of snapshots.

Riding up the ridge, scared.

The top, the view, oh the view.

Making love to Owen. His hands on her, inside her. The rain as they held each other.

Rushing to leave. The ride down with Justice.

Lightning, thunder that shook the earth. Shook her from her horse. Owen’s face, upset.

Her brother there, how was he there? Carrying her, to where? Where was she?

Trying to sit up, Paige cringed, drew in a sharp breath. It was almost impossible to move without feeling like she was breaking in two from the middle. She lifted her arm and found it covered in wires, tubes.

She was in a hospital. Clarity rushed through her in a flood of emotion, adrenaline, pain.

Then gratefulness. She was safe.

Owen kept her safe even though she’d fallen, injuring herself badly, apparently. Even her fingertips hurt as she tried to move them, call for a nurse. It was so much worse than she thought on the ridge, but then she understood enough about pain and injuries to know that this was often the case, adrenaline the likely culprit.

Outside the window to her room the sun broke over the peaks along the horizon. A new day.

They must be in Helena judging by how far away the mountains of her home loomed in the distance. Why hadn’t they brought her to Bozeman, which was closer by a long shot?

The sky had mostly cleared, leaving only a pink and orange-tinted hint of the wreckage the storm had induced the night before.

On the other side of the room, the one that beeped and buzzed and dripped, Owen dozed in a compact chair, most of his body spilling over the arms and seat.

She wasn’t used to being on this side of the medical experience, found it disorienting and frightening. Seeing him, though, calmed her. She smiled, found that her cheeks hurt too.Ugh.

Her phone rang on the table, buzzing violently against the enameled wood. It sounded like a roar in the otherwise silence. It was also swathed in mud, but seemed okay otherwise. She was able to reach for it, but a spasm wracked her side. Her fingers trembled under such a small weight but she swiped left on the home screen and choked out a hello.

It was almost impossible to hold the phone to her head, but she managed to put it on speaker, hoping the noise didn’t wake Owen, who still dozed peacefully in his chair.

She heard only sobbing on the other end. What the—

As her brain defogged, she looked down and saw it was Aurelie on the other line.

Shit. Her friend didn’t have to say a word. Paige had hoped this moment would take longer to come.