Page 23 of Unnatural (Men and Monsters #2)

Autumn slammed on the brakes, the truck jerking to a stop in Bill’s driveway.

“Shit,” she hissed, glancing over at Sam.

The jolt of the vehicle hadn’t disturbed him though.

He still sat hunched over, his neck bent, head almost resting on his shoulder.

Panic spiked, zigzagging through her system.

Again, she reached over and felt his pulse.

Not strong, but he was a fighter; she’d give him that.

Please keep fighting. I’m putting everything on the line here.

She barely remembered anything about their race out of the city, except that she’d gone between glancing in the rearview mirror for the flashing lights she expected behind her at any moment and putting her fingers on his pulse every few minutes, making sure his heart was still beating.

If he dies, you’ll go to prison. She might anyway for…

what was she doing? Harboring a criminal?

Aiding and abetting a crime? He’d been there for some reason.

He’d known the shooter. Oh God, she couldn’t consider all the ramifications because she’d lose her nerve about whatever it was she was already too far into.

She still couldn’t believe she was taking this risk.

She was gambling with everything she had. Everything.

With New York City far behind them, she’d finally pulled off at a rest stop and examined his wounds.

The bleeding had mostly stopped, which was a good sign.

She was pretty sure she could see one of the bullets right beneath his flesh.

She’d need to remove it. The other one appeared to have gone straight through his side, but she couldn’t be sure.

His rib was likely broken, and he’d lost so much blood, he was in shock.

Not to mention medicated, even if only by over-the-counter products.

She’d given him a lot, but his wounds were extensive, and he was a very large man.

Her sweater was saturated with his blood, so she folded it and placed it on the floor. They’ll have his DNA at the crime scene. They’ll test it. Was he in any public databases? She had no idea, but she’d know soon enough. If they were able to identify him, his picture would be all over the news.

Autumn jumped from the truck and ran for the house but pivoted when she saw Bill walking from his shop. She skidded, reversing course as he rounded the corner, his face breaking into a smile that immediately dropped when he took in her face.

“Darlin’? What’s wrong?” he asked, rushing forward. His gaze went to the truck in his driveway momentarily, his brow creasing before he looked back to her, eyes traveling from her face to her feet quickly and then back again. “Are you okay?”

She took in a gulp of air, nodded, and then shook her head. “Yes. No. I mean, Bill, I need your help.”

“With what, honey? What’s going on?”

Autumn pointed over her shoulder at the truck, parked so that Bill couldn’t see the giant, wounded man sitting in the passenger seat. “There’s a man in there, Bill. The man.”

“The man? Autumn, slow down. What man?”

“The man from the woods. His name is Sam.” Sam. His name is Sam. My moonlight boy has a name!

Bill froze, his gaze darting to the truck again and then back to Autumn. “What? How?”

“I don’t have time to get into all the details. He’s been shot and he needs medical attention. Bill, I need to use the lake house.”

Bill had bought a lake house—really more of a fishing cottage—the year after Allie died.

He went in the summers to fish and the fall and winter to walk in the woods and bask in the utter solitude.

To seek healing only nature could provide.

Of course, just a short time later, Autumn herself had arrived at his door, and his life had been flipped upside down, so he didn’t use the cottage regularly.

Bill’s eyes were as wide as saucers. “The lake house? Wa-wa-wait. You’re going to take a wounded stranger—”

“He’s not a stranger,” she insisted, casting her eyes to the side momentarily. “Exactly. I mean he is, but—”

“I can’t allow it. He needs to go to a hospital.”

Autumn set her shoulders back. “I don’t have time to argue, Bill. I love you more than life, but I’m going to help this man whether you let me use the lake cottage or not. I’m already in deep. I fled the scene of a crime—”

“The scene of a crime!” He gripped his hair, spinning around and then back. “What is happening here?”

“I’m on the run is what’s happening. I might be a fugitive.

I’ll explain everything later. But right now, I need medical supplies, and I need a place to hide him.

I’m sorry to drag you into this, but…Bill, I need you.

Please help me.” She beseeched him with her eyes, and he looked at her for a moment before setting his jaw, looking away, and then giving one curt nod.

“What’s mine is yours, Autumn. You know that.”

Autumn let out a breath of relief. “Thank you.”

Bill still had a mildly shell-shocked expression on his face, but she could relate.

And she was the one who was going to have to do her best to dig bullets out of a man twice her size with whatever supplies Bill could obtain and the things she had at her apartment in her medical bag that she’d have to ask Bill to pick up. “Let me see this man.”

“I don’t have time. I’m heading to the cottage, and I need you to gather everything you can from the list I’m going to make for you and meet me there. And, Bill, I need you to hurry. ”

Before he could respond, Autumn raced inside the house, grabbed a piece of paper and a pen from the kitchen junk drawer, and scrawled a list she hoped was legible.

Then she ran back outside, grabbed Bill’s hand, and stuck the list in it before racing to the truck, jumping in, and backing out of the driveway.

Bill watched, his mouth open slightly, not having moved from the place where he stood, as if he needed a minute or two to let the events fully catch up to him.

Autumn let out another relieved breath when she glanced in her rearview mirror and saw that he was walking quickly to his car. His unending faith in her brought tears to her eyes. Thank you, God, for Bill.

***

Autumn used a poker to move one of the logs closer to the center of the blaze and then, satisfied, stood, returning the tool to its stand next to the stone fireplace.

Her shoulders lifted and fell as she released a breath that felt as if it’d been lodged in her throat for the last few hours, if not longer.

For several moments, she stood staring into the crackling flames, allowing her mind to go blank.

Relief. So much was made of emotions like joy and ecstasy, but no one gave enough credit to the moment after you feared the worst would happen and realized that you’d avoided disaster.

Sweet relief.

Even if she still wasn’t out of the woods just yet. Literally and figuratively.

And neither was he.

She turned, heading back to his bedside.

She’d somehow managed to rouse him just enough that he’d helped her assist him down from the truck where she’d gotten a blanket beneath him and dragged him, inch by painful inch, inside the house.

He hadn’t so much as stirred. Thank the good Lord there weren’t stairs at the fishing cottage, because she’d have had to leave him lying in the dirt.

By the time Bill had arrived with the supplies, she’d had Sam stripped from the waist up and washed, his wounds cleaned with the few supplies in the first aid kit in the bathroom cabinet.

“We should call Ralph. He’ll know what to do. We can still explain this. If this man dies—”

“I’m not going to let him die.” Confident words for a girl who was scared to death. Yet she was going to do as her moonlight boy had asked her. She was committed. In her mind, there was no turning back now. Help me. Please get me out of here.

She’d met Bill’s worried gaze, tenderness engulfing her.

We, he had said. We should. We can. Who would she have become had she been placed with someone else all those years ago?

He’d believed in her from the very first day.

A gift more priceless than a pirate chest of gold. Yet she had to do this without him.

“I need you to leave, Bill.”

His eyes had widened, and he shook his head. “No way—”

“Bill. I need to focus. I have to do this alone.”

“I’ll stay outside.”

“No,” she had told him, adding firmness to her tone. She was going to give this everything she had, but if the worst did happen, she didn’t want Bill involved. He had looked momentarily hurt but then sighed, and she could see that he was going to honor her request.

“He could hurt you,” Bill had said, a final try, but his assertion held little passion. Autumn had looked back at Sam, lying still and bloody and all but helpless on the bed Bill had helped her move from the bedroom into the main room and lift him onto.

“I’ll tie him to the bed.”

“Promise?”

No. “Yes.”

Still, he’d obviously been struggling. He was trusting her, but it was costing him to set aside his protective instincts. I love you, Bill.

“If anything goes wrong, you have to drive home.”

She’d nodded. “I will. I’m going to shut my phone off. I can’t risk it being pinged out here.” Just in case.

“I’ll bring you a burner phone,” he’d said before gathering her in his arms in a sudden bear hug and then letting go just as quickly. He’d exited the house, and a moment later, she had heard his car start up outside and the crunching of gravel as he drove away.