Lost at Heart: A Steamy Small Town Romance (Bluerock Series Book 2)

by Danielle Marx

  Colton’s truck had the crappy radio and even though the conversations were broken up, I could just about hear Carl sending out some of the volunteer rangers. They were headed east, but it would be another thirty minute before they would reach the area. Luckily, I was already on the trail heading that way.

  I kept as close to the mountain side as I could but the road turned narrow, and I was forced to open my window and lean out to check my tires weren’t hovering over the edge. The wind chilled my wet hair and the drop made me dizzy. I could handle heights but this was far too dangerous for my liking.

  The thinner the trail grew, the more I had to accept defeat and turn off the engine. The truck could go no further. I climbed out and crept along the drop to the flat ground ahead. Once I was safely in front of the truck, I cupped my hands together and bellowed into the wind, “Colton!”

  Between the howling gale, rustling trees, and roaring river, I could barely hear my own calls. I didn’t quit though. I called out again and again, as loud as my throat would allow.

  After ten minutes of screaming out into the mountain and running up the narrowing trail, my lungs were burning. I gasped for air against the force of the wind.

  “Colton!”

  It didn’t take long for me to slip down and hit the ground. The cold wet mud seeped through my jeans. As I placed my hands on the ground to pull myself up, I spotted a square object by my thumb. I pulled it out of the dirt and flipped it over in my hand. My heart dropped to my feet.

  It was Colton’s wallet. I brushed a slimy finger over the ID, seeing his handsome face stare back at me behind smudged mud.

  I whipped my head around, checking where he could have gone. He’d obviously been on this track. I was close. Closer to him than any of the other rangers. There was nothing here though. I crawled over to the edge of the hillside and checked the river below. It was high, but the pebbled bank wasn’t completely submerged yet.

  I curled my fingers on the edge and looked down below. Left and then right. That’s when I spotted him. “Colton!”

  He didn’t answer.

  From up here it looked as though he was sitting up against the hillside, watching the river flow from the pebbled beach. Harmless enough, but during a storm with the river rising fast, I didn’t need to be told something was seriously wrong.

  “Colton!”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Colton

  I could hear her now. Her silky voice, calling my name against the rhythm of the water. If I closed my eyes, I’d see her again. It was tempting, but I was in a bad way. The more I shut my eyes, the less likely they were to open back up again.

  The adrenalin had faded and every movement was excruciating. After I passed out a second time, I forced myself back to consciousness and attempted to stop the bleeding before I faded away again. I’d somehow managed to take off my shirt and tie it around my waist, over the wound. If I stayed perfectly still, the bleeding slowed down. But my time was running out, and if the blood loss didn’t kill me then the rising river would. I had to move but my muscles were like lead, and the pain, fuck , the pain had me questioning my own limits.

  “Colton.”

  I lifted my head up to the far too real voice and focused my vision. My hand reached out testing the hallucination. It hit her smooth cheek, warming my icy fingertips. “Tia?”

  “It’s me. I’m here.” She cupped my face, snapping me back to some form of reality. “Shit. What the fuck are you doing down here?”

  I chuckled low at her foul language and then winced at the pain. “Enjoying the view.”

  “You’re bleeding.” She pulled my other hand away from my stomach, examining the blood soaked shirt. I heard a gasp of horror from her lips before she ripped off her sweater and pushed it against the wound. I looked up in her eyes and saw the panic flickering on the edge.

  My feet were like ice. I didn’t need to look to know the river had reached them. The water crept up over my feet, the temperature jolting me from my haze. I had only one thing on my mind now. I had to get her out of here before the water hit her too. “You need to get out of here. The water’s rising.”

  She glanced behind at the river and whimpered at the sight. Without giving it a second thought, Tia shook away her fear and bent down to me, slinging my arm over the back of her shoulder. “Come on, let’s get you up.”

  She was actually trying to lift me. I wanted to tell her to go, get to safety, leave me behind. But it was useless. I could see the look of determination on her face. There was no way she’d leave me down here. The only way to get her out of here was to get me out of here.

  I reached out for a tree root above my head and pulled as hard as I could. Tia lifted me up at the same time, taking as much of my weight as she could. My body burnt as the movement twisted against my open wound.

  Once I was on my feet, Tia moved her hand down my back to my blood soaked shirt. “Oh, my god. What the hell did you do? Your back’s bleeding too.”

  “It’s nothing. Just a scratch.” She didn’t need to know the details of me being impaled by an old tree. Tia was already on the brink of panic. Luckily, she couldn’t see the wound well enough to completely freak out.

  I rested my arm over her shoulder and turned towards the incline. There was enough earth for us to climb up, but with the ground oiled with mud, it wouldn’t be easy.

  Tia wrapped her arm around my back and clawed up the bank with the other. She grunted and panted, digging her fingers into the ground, struggling to reach the top whilst supporting my bust up body. She didn’t stop though. She didn’t slow down. My strong girl dragged us up the muddy trail, saving us both from the murderous rapids with every bit of power she could muster.

  Our exhausted bodies collapsed in the mud when we finally reached the top. The pain was unbelievable, and I was about ready to pass out right there in the dirt.

  Tia didn’t take long to recover though and wrapped my arm back over her shoulder. “We have to keep moving, Colton.”

  My eyes fell shut. “Just go. Get help. I’ll wait here.”

  “No,” she growled, lifting me back to my feet. “I’m not leaving you here. Come on, the truck’s not far.”

  It took all my strength to stand back up and pry open my eyes. Tia wasn’t wasting any time and led me back down the trail. I could see a blurred white object in the road up ahead. After a few more staggered steps, I recognized it as my truck. “You drove that here?”

  “Uh huh,” she panted back, not picking up the surprise in my voice. She circled to the passenger side and opened the door wide. “Step up.”

  I pulled myself up and dropped my body down on the hard leather, feeling a ripple of pain tear through my body. She slammed the door shut and ran around to the drivers side.

  Firing up the engine, Tia stuck her head out of the window and put the truck in reverse. Every bump in the road shattered through my body. I tried to focus on our location, but I had to admit, I was lost. I had no idea where we were.

  After a short drive, I felt the truck steady on smoother ground. Tia managed to perform a U-turn and hit the gas hard. “Hold on. We’ll be out of here in no time.”

  Just then I felt the truck jerk forward to a halt. I glanced up at her, seeing the panic flood back in. “Tia, what’s wrong?”

  “The road’s blocked. There’s a fallen tree. How do I move it?” She turned to me for the answer, but she wouldn’t like it.

  “You can’t move a tree by yourself.”

  Her hand slammed down on the steering wheel. “But we can’t get through. Just tell me how. I can do it.”

  “You can’t. It’s okay. We’ll figure something out.” The slur of my voice was anything but reassuring. It sounded as though I’d had one too many whiskeys. “Turn off the engine.”

  She didn’t look convinced, but did as I said. As soon as the key was out of the ignition, she focused her attention back on me and pulled my arms away from my stomach. I’d hoped she wouldn’t see the damage but it
was impossible to hide when the passenger seat dripped with fresh blood.

  Tia examined the wound and froze. Her breathing grew short and fast. I could hear the frightened whimpers slipping from her lips. I lifted my hand up to her cheek and tried to soothe the panic attack before it hit. “It’s okay, baby. I’m okay.”

  Tears fell from her eyes and she choked out a small sob. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry about yesterday. I didn’t mean to shut you out, Colton.”

  “Shh, it doesn’t matter. It was just a dumb fight. It’s over now.”

  “This is bad. This is bad,” she muttered to herself, trembling like crazy. “No, no, no. Not again. This can’t be happening again.”

  “Tia. Come on, baby, I need you to calm down.”

  More sobs slipped out. Her terrified eyes locked onto mine. “I can’t watch you die, Colton.”

  The devastation in her voice hurt more than any flesh wound ever could. I couldn’t do this to her. No matter how close the end was, I couldn’t take my last breath knowing it was the one that would break her heart forever. I had to grab hold of whatever strength I had left and get us both out of here before she witnessed the end.

  I took a deep breath and willed my mind to think. “Tia, I need you to listen to what I say. I’m gonna help you, and you’re gonna help me, alright?”

  She was still a mess, crying over me, inconsolable.

  “Tia,” I snapped.

  She swallowed hard and wiped the tears from her face. She gave me a nod, trying to compose herself.

  “Grab the radio. Hold the button down on the side and speak.”

  She snatched the mic off the dashboard and called into it. “Ranger Scott.”

  There was no reply, just static.

  “Ranger Scott?” she called louder. “Carl? Anybody? We need help. Colton’s hurt.” She took her finger off the button and looked over to me. “Why won’t they answer? They know you’re missing. They’re out looking for you now.”

  That was good. If we couldn’t get to safety then maybe safety would come to us. “The radio’s fucked. Try your cell phone.”

  She pulled it out with shaking fingers but her shoulders dropped when she turned on the screen. “No signal. Where’s yours?”

  “Gone. I lost it back at the river.”

  The fear was edging back onto her face. “What do I do now?”

  “They’ll find us. I need you to go in the back. Grab the blankets and the black box that’s under them.”

  She barely waited for me to finish before jumping out of the truck. My head flopped back against the seat as I fought to stay awake just a little longer. Tia hopped straight back in with the items. She slid a heavy duty, blue blanket behind my back and pressed another one to my stomach. The fabric soaked up the fresh blood quicker than I’d have liked, but it did the job.

  “You need to stay still,” she ordered. “Don’t move and you won’t bleed out so fast.”

  I kept my body as limp as I could, which wasn’t hard as I was already feeling numb to my bones. “The box.”

  Tia looked down at the rusty, black box in her lap and opened it. “A gun?”

  “It’s a flare gun. I need you to stand outside and shoot it up straight into the sky. No angle. Just directly up. Can you do that?”

  She didn’t hesitate, and I noticed how confident she was handling the gun and loading the flare. It wasn’t surprising really. She was from the city, and most women from there had handled a gun at some point in their lives.

  She jumped out of the truck again and held it up to the sky, shooting a direct light above us. As soon as the orange flare shot through the grey sky, she got back in and tossed the gun back in the box, stuffing it under her seat. “Now what?”

  “Now...we wait.”

  “We can’t just sit here.”

  “We have to.” Everytime I spoke my lungs ached. “There’s nowhere to go. They’ll see the flare and come for us.”

  I could feel myself fading. I knew that it wouldn’t be long now. Even if they found us, and by some miracle got me to a hospital in time, I’d lost way too much blood. No matter how hard I fought, I was no idiot. I knew I wasn’t gonna make it.

  I could only sit back and pray Tia wouldn’t see the fall. The very thing she had been protecting herself from was laying right in front of her. How could I be so fucking cruel to subject her to that?

  Her hands tapped the steering wheel as she glared out of the window, looking out for some sign of rescue. A small tear fell from her eye. I watched as the courage silently fell from her face again.

  “Everything’s gonna be okay, darlin’,” I slurred.

  “I knew this would happen,” she whispered back, staring straight ahead. “I should have left town as soon as I started to fall in love with you.”

  “I’m gonna be fine. We’ll be fucking in the woods in no time.”

  A sad smile curled up on her lips. She looked down at me with heartbreak plastered on her face. “You really are a good man, Colton Haxley. The best.”

  I didn’t want to scare her with the whole goodbye speech, but my time was running out and I needed her to know. “I really do love you, Tia. I know you havn’t heard it much in your life, but you deserve to hear it every fucking day until your sick to death of hearing it.”

  She shuffled in closer to me, careful not to move my body, and touched my lips with her own. I was far too weak to kiss her back but when I tasted her against my mouth, feeling her breath flutter over my cold skin, I sank into her touch fully. I knew that even if I died at that moment, it would be with a smile on my face.

  My heart eventually slowed and my eyes closed, but I could still see her behind my lids, clear as day. My beautiful Tia.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Tia

  “Are you sure I can’t get you some water, sweetie?” the nurse asked again. She’s made the same offer three times already. I refused each time. I’d done the same with the coffee, the food, the clean clothes and the phone call to my next of kin.

  What next of kin? Who the fuck would I even call?

  “I’m fine, thank you,” I replied, my eyes still glued to the large wall clock.

  She was unconvinced but gave me a sad nod and went back to the nurses station in the middle of the hallway.

  I continued to stare up at the clock on the white washed wall. I’d been watching it for at least an hour, but time had felt as though it stopped as soon as we arrived at the hospital. Every second echoed, dragging me through to the next.

  Tick-tock. Tick-tock.

  I’d go mad like this.

  I ripped my eyes away and looked down at my hands. They were filthy, caked in dried blood and dirt. The sight turned my stomach. I quickly ripped my eyes away and dragged them back up to the safety of the clock.

  Tick-tock. Tick-tock.

  Every second that passed, I braced myself for the surgeon to appear, telling me it was finally over. That they did all they could, but he’d slipped away on the operating table.

  I knew he was dead as soon as I got him in the truck. He’d lied to me, telling me everything would be fine, but I wasn’t stupid. I’d seen what a stomach wound, pumping out fresh blood, did to a person. It didn’t matter how hopeful the rescue team were as they lifted us out of the woods in the helicopter. Or how skilled the doctor was. He was dead, and making me wait for the conformation was nothing short of torture.

  I screamed at him to wake up until my voice gave out. I kissed him again and again, begging him to open his eyes, to hold on just a little longer. His lips were stone cold. His body, completely still. I placed my forehead against his and cried. I told him I loved him just as the chopper flew over our heads.

  I should have been happy. Relieved to see help on its way. But he was already gone. I knew it.

  He had a pulse. A faint beat, giving everyone something to fight for. And call me selfish or morbid, but I’d already given up. Life had been too cruel to me. I stopped having hope a long time ago.

 
; The door at the other end of the hallway flew open, jolting my attention away from the clock. Mr and Mrs Haxley came running over to me.

  “Tia.” Mrs Haxley pulled me out of the chair and into her arms. “Are you okay, sweetheart?”

  The question took me by surprise more than the motherly hug did. Her son was half dead, and she was concerned about me . “I’m okay.”

  “Where is he?” Colton’s father asked, his face impatient.

  “Surgery.” My voice was hoarse and burnt as I spoke. “He’s been in there for almost an hour.”

  Mrs Haxley brushed my matted hair from my face and cupped my cheek. “He’ll be alright, Tia. He’s tough. Just like I told you he was.” I couldn’t tell if she was trying to reassure me or herself. “He’ll be fine.”

  Just then, a doctor came down the hall that I remembered from earlier. “Doctor?”

  “My boy,” Mr Haxley butted in. “Is he okay?”

  She placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder and answered honestly. “Colton looks as though he was impaled. He has a large puncture through his torso. By some luck it missed his major organs, and my team managed to stitch him up. But I have to be frank with you, he’s lost a considerable amount of blood. His body has gone into shock, and I’m afraid we won’t know anything until he wakes up.”

  “He’s alive?” I squeaked out, hardly believing it.

  “He’s in a coma.”

  “For how long?” Mrs Haxley asked.

  “I can’t say. The longer he’s out, the less likely his chances are. He may have lost too much blood. I’m sorry, but you need to prepare yourselves for the possibility that he might not wake up.”

  Mrs Haxleys strong composer fell at that moment. She broke down in her husband’s arms. The doctor tried to comfort them the best she could and ushered them down to the nurses station. My sweet little nurse ran around to assist along with another lady. Together, they tried to comfort Colton’s parents and promised to do all they could to save their son.