Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99960 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99960 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Allegra’s scream filled my ears as I grabbed for purchase on the roof until the gust passed. My muscles strained as I gritted my teeth and held on for dear life.
Metal creaked as the Jeep lowered again and my heart stopped throbbing sickeningly in my throat.
“Here.” I threw the rope to Allegra. “Unclip yourself and tie that around you. I’m holding on to the car. You’ve got this.”
Her face was pale beneath my torchlight and I saw the blood streaked down her temple as she very slowly and shakily undid her seat belt. Her breath caught as the car creaked with her movements.
“You’ve got this, baby,” I prompted her. “You’re so brave. You’ve got this.”
My words seemed to steady her and she gave me a tight nod before she quickly wrapped the rope around her waist.
“Tie that knot as tight as you can.”
“Okay. Done.”
“Now …” I braced my legs, one hand holding open the door, the other gripping the underside of the roof. “You’re going to climb over the center console toward me.”
Her eyes held mine, the fear in them breaking my fucking heart. But Allegra nodded determinedly and pushed herself slowly up. She reached for the passenger seat to pull herself along and the SUV started to tilt.
What happened next was so fast. Her eyes widened and she just threw her whole body toward the passenger side. I let go of the car and gripped onto the rope tied around her waist as the nose of the vehicle started to slide south again.
Allegra scrambled over the passenger side, her shins clipping the doorway as I hauled her out just in time. My back hit the hillside, pain shooting down my legs as I made contact with rock.
Nothing mattered but Allegra, who lay sobbing against my chest, holding on to me for dear life. My headlamp lit up the Jeep as it crashed into the sea below us.
I tightened my arms around my wife as she shuddered against me.
“I love you,” Allegra sobbed, her whole body shaking violently.
I squeezed her closer, trying to soothe her shock.
“Jared, Allegra!” a deep voice cut through the dark and cold.
“Who’s that?”
I tilted my head back, looking north toward the road. “We’re here!”
“Can we pull you up?”
“Is that Walker?” Allegra sniffled.
“Aye.” I rubbed a hand down her back. “Do you think you can stand? I have the rope tied to my Defender. Walker can pull you up.”
“Not without you.” Her hands fumbled between us and I realized what she was doing.
“Stop. Keep that tied on.”
“Not without you,” she insisted stubbornly.
With a sigh, I nodded, even though she probably couldn’t see it. Then I quickly untied the rope and retied it around us both. “Ready?”
“Yes.”
Slowly, very slowly, I helped her to her feet. “We’re coming up!”
“We’ve got you!” Walker yelled back.
Standing over the Wrangler while Allegra was inside it was the longest moment of my life, but trying to get her trembling body safely up that hillside was a close second. I was drenched in sweat by the time Walker and North pulled us to safety. Headlights from several cars lit the country road, which was now blocked off by an ambulance, a fire engine, and a police car.
Walker and North weren’t alone. Sloane and Aria were there. Wesley and Chiara.
I gave Walker and North a nod of thanks but immediately turned my attention to Allegra.
“You’re safe.”
She looked up at me, eyes round, pupils dilated. “Thank you. I …” She bent over suddenly, pain flashing across her pale face.
“Allegra?”
My wife’s expression slackened as her eyes rolled and her knees gave out.
“Allegra!” I lunged, catching her before she hit the ground.
The next few moments were a panicked, confused blur as paramedics shoved me out of the way. I just kept asking them what was happening, renewed terror flooding me as they lifted my wife’s prone body onto a stretcher.
“What’s wrong with her?” Aria cried, tears streaming down her face.
“Where are you taking her?” Wesley demanded.
I didn’t hear the answers. I just followed.
“Family only.” One of the paramedics tried to bar me from the ambulance.
“She’s my wife,” I answered as Aria snapped, “He’s her husband! I’m her sister!”
“Just one,” the paramedic said.
“Go, Jared.” Aria pushed me toward the vehicle. “We’ll follow.”
I stumbled up into the ambulance, sitting across from Allegra as the paramedics worked over her.
“What’s happening?” I repeated, feeling as if I was watching that Jeep fall again with my wife barely out of it.
“It might just be a concussion, but we’ll need to check for internal injuries.”
Internal injuries.
“Can I take her hand?”
The other paramedic gave me a sympathetic look. “Of course.”
I reached for Allegra. Her left hand was missing her wedding ring. I rubbed my thumb over the empty spot on her slender, small finger. She’d told me she loved me and I hadn’t said it back because I didn’t want to say it like that. I didn’t want to believe that it would be the last thing we ever said to each other.