Page 114 of Break the Barrier

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Stetson untying an unconscious Thea. Her hand up above her is pale, her face streaked with tears and a redness caused by someone hitting her, and her leg. Fuck. He cut her leg enough that there’s blood dripping from it in a constant stream.

The sight of her has me stepping away from Eric and rushing to her side.

I don’t give a shit about him. I know my brothers and the rest of the group who joined us today will take care of him.

All I care about is her.

Stetson lifts her up, but I grab her gently from him. “I got her, I got her.”

Her light, fragile body is cradled against my chest, and I rush down the stairs, worried that she hasn’t stirred even once.

God, what if I was too late?

I feel my eyes burn at the prospect of that and yell for Stetson’s name.

He gets into gear, flying down the stairs behind me, and opens the door, first to the abandoned house and then the one to the back seat of the truck.

I somehow manage to slide us both in, taking care not to hurt her, and without a word, my brother gets in the driver’s seat and heads down the mountain to the nearest hospital.

“Hang in there,” I say, cradling Thea to me and pushing her hair back away from her face. I kiss the top of her head, and my hand goes to her throat, holding my thumb over her pulse and feeling for her heartbeat.

My eyes water, and I breathe a sigh of relief to feel it there, pulsing under my finger.

But I don’t remove it. I hold it there all the way to the hospital.

I was pissed.

Thea was coming back any minute from the x-ray they weredoing on her wrist. They’d immediately gotten the cuts on her leg taken care of and assessed all the other damages, but they left me in the waiting room for the rest, stating I wasn’t family and couldn’t go back there.

I could have said I was her husband; I could have said I had every right to be there with her, but the truth is, I needed a moment to get myself together.

In the grand scheme of it all, now that Thea was safe and her sisters were on their way, I was allowing my brain to go over the entire situation.

She had locked me out.

Pushed me away.

Broken us up.

And for what?

She still got hurt and abused by her ex. She now had scars from that son of a bitch.

I could have prevented that from happening if only she didn’t push me away.

I had heard from CT, and they had done the noble thing and called the cops, retelling everything that had happened, and because Eric was on parole and clearly violated that in more ways than one, he was heading back to prison.

I wasn’t sure how long he would last in there, but I secretly hope it isn’t long.

He deserves everything that’s coming to him.

Mitch and CT were heading back to my mom’s to be with Lue, who I hear had begged to let her come to the hospital.

I said no.

I needed a minute with Thea before her sisters arrived, and I wasn’t sure how the conversation was going to go.

I love her. I’m in love with her heart, body, mind, soul—all of it.