Page 7 of Beyond the Blue Horizon

My spirit tried to cling onto his name like knowing it would make this okay.

Like giving in and allowing him to give us a ride was better than keeping a mountain between me and my family and anyone else.

He’d already ducked into the driver’s seat, turned off the ignition, and flipped on the hazards, the man on a full-scale mission as he prepared my car to be abandoned.

Of course, that was all after he insisted on being the one to remove Finn’s car seat and strap it into the backseat of his truck.

A tremor rolled through me as the vents pumped hot air into the cab of the massive pickup. With one hand, I pressed the compress to the cut near my hairline. With the other, I gripped the truck’s door handle like through it I might be able to read the owner’s mind.

Draw his intentions out from the expensive leather of the seats.

I refused to be so stupid as to just place our safety in his big, foreboding hands.

I mean…God…look at him.

Out in the icy snow with the wind lashing through his thick black hair and licking over his heavily tattooed flesh.

Only wearing a fitted black tee and jeans.

Worn motorcycle boots on his feet.

The man was written in menace and peril.

A dangerous type of beauty that compelled.

A magnet that would suck you into an abyss before you even realized what hit you.

The last thing I needed was a dark, intimidating knight, and there he was, running around like it was his duty to save us.

God, how could I have been so careless?

But I hadn’t seen the black ice on the pavement.

At least I’d been going slow.

At least no one was injured.

At least?—

“Can feel you spinning out up there just as fast as our car did, sweet girl.” Nelly reached up from where she sat directly behind me and set her hand on my shoulder. “Take a deep breath. We’re all fine, and that’s the only thing that matters. We’ll figure the car out later.”

My grandmother had always been my voice of reason.

The calm in the storm.

My guide and my hope and my support.

She also tended to take things far too casually for our dire situation.

“I know,” I muttered, my attention still pinned on the man who pulled our suitcases from the trunk then slammed it shut.

I had my duffel on the floor at my feet, refusing to let it out of my sight.

“Mommy, is okay. No worry. Weawwfine.”

I shifted around to find my sweet Finn grinning from his seat, peeking at me from around the side of it, the single dimple in his right cheek out in full force.

My love for them squeezed my heart in a fist of desolation.