by Laura Kaye
She caught the scent of his clean, crisp aftershave. “Will you promise to call me? When you have time to talk. As soon as you can?” Makenna nailed him with a stare.
Heated brown eyes blazed down at her—or maybe that was her projecting what she felt and what she wished. “I’m on tomorrow, too, but I can promise that.”
“I mean it, Caden,” she said.
And then he stole her breath. He cupped the back of her head in his hand and pressed a kiss to her forehead, then one to her cheek. He nuzzled the side of her face. “I promise,” he said.
Oh God. His heat, his touch, this confusing moment of bliss. It ended in an instant.
“I’m sorry. You know your way out, yeah?” he said, already opening the door.
Stunned, all Makenna could do was nod. “Be careful,” she called.
But he was already gone.
And Makenna had no idea how to interpret what’d just happened.
* * *
Fuck. Fuckfuckfuck.
That was the general tenor of Caden’s thoughts as he and his partner pulled out of the bay in response to the call. He couldn’t believe…so much. That Makenna had come to see him. That he’d had her right there in front of him. And that they’d been interrupted before he could say even one of the things that needed to be said.
And before she could tell him why she’d come. Curiosity curled through his gut. Why had she come to see him? After all this time? He was dying to know, but wasn’t sure what the next thirty-six hours of his double shift might entail for him given the shit show bad weather usually created. And he didn’t want to leave anything up to chance. Glad he wasn’t driving for this one, he pulled out his phone and shot off a text.
It was damn good to see you, Red. Do you maybe want to get together Friday night to talk? I’m serious about keeping my promise.
Not just the one he’d made to call her, but the one he’d made to himself to live with no regrets.
He hit Send and nearly held his breath.
Makenna responded in less than a minute. I have an on-site meeting in Loudoun County on Friday and won’t get home until late. Saturday morning? It was good to see you, too.
That last line made him smile, even though having to wait an extra night was going to kill him. The only reason he hadn’t driven right from the Pittsville FD to Makenna’s apartment the day before was because he’d wanted to touch base with his therapist first. Just to make sure he’d thought all this through the right way. Because when Caden went to Makenna, he wanted it to be for keeps. If by some miracle she was willing to give him a second chance, he didn’t want to do anything to fuck it up. Ever again.
He texted back. Saturday morning works. Your place, or?
My place. Be careful, Makenna replied.
You, too, Red. Caden’s fingers itched to type more. But he’d wait. Because now he knew exactly when he’d have his shot to get the life he most wanted.
And this time, nothing was going to stand in his way.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The traffic on 66 was heavy but moving as Makenna made her way home on Friday night from the off-site meeting she’d had out west of D.C., which was surprising given the snow and freezing rain they’d had on and off all day. Being from Pennsylvania, Makenna wasn’t uncomfortable driving in the snow, whereas people in D.C. tended to either crawl along or drive like maniacs who didn’t think frozen surfaces and black ice could possibly affect them. But so far, so good.
Makenna’s stomach did a little flip. Only one more sleep until she’d see Caden tomorrow and finally get to tell him her news. Their news.
As if she wasn’t nervous enough, seeing him on Wednesday night had confused the hell out of her. His compliments, his touches, his kisses. The text he’d sent saying how good it was to see her. What did all of that mean?
And was she being a complete and hopeless idiot for wanting it to mean that he still had feelings for her? Because she would’ve given almost anything for that to be true. Even after everything.
It didn’t seem to matter what she told her heart, because it wouldn’t stop wanting the sweet, sexy, damaged man she’d met in the darkness.
A song came on and she hummed along until she couldn’t hold back from singing the catchy tune on the chorus. Paying close attention to the road, her gaze shifted from the cars in front of her to her rear view mirror as she sang.
A tingling sensation in her belly. Again.
Makenna didn’t think anything about it.
Until it happened again. Harder. Like… Oh, my God! Like something moved inside her.
Could that have been the baby? She was suddenly sure it was.
“Was that you peanut?” she asked out loud, a smile breaking out on her face like she hadn’t felt in weeks. She nearly held her breath for the sensation to happen again, because the first fluttery feeling of her baby moving inside of her was one of the most amazing things she’d ever felt. “Do that again, you little bugger.”
The rest of the song played out, and the baby didn’t move again, but that didn’t keep Makenna from grinning until her cheeks hurt.
Slam!
Something hit the rear quarter-panel of her car on the driver’s side, and Makenna barely had time to make out the shape of a dark SUV spinning out of control before she was struggling to control her own car. The impact of the other vehicle sent her Prius into a slow sliding circle. She turned her steering wheel in the other direction, trying as hard as she could to keep from losing control.
“No, no, no, no, no.”
Her efforts were keeping the car from spinning out, but the hit had pushed her onto the snow-covered side of the road untreated by the plows and salt trucks. Her tires lost traction, and the car wouldn’t respond to her handling or to the brakes she reluctantly engaged as other cars’ brakes lights came on ahead of her.
“Oh God, oh God, oh God,” she said out loud, because she wasn’t going to be able to stop. And flashing headlights behind her revealed she wasn’t the only one out of control.
Airbags exploded in front of her with a cracking pop, and then her car became a pinball.
She hit a car ahead of her and slammed into the airbag. There was no time to think or feel or react. Pop. The side airbags deployed, and she was hit again. Again. Again. The car jolted this way and that. Screeching tires and blaring horns and other crashes sounded out all around her until Makenna couldn’t tell from which direction they came. Another hit, the hardest yet. Suddenly the car was on its side and rolling.
And all Makenna could do was scream.
* * *
Caden’s cell phone rang a little after seven, and he picked it up to see the firehouse’s number on his screen. “Grayson here.”
“Caden, it’s Joe. I know you just pulled a double but there’s a multi-vehicle MVA on 66 I expect us to get called in for any minute now. I sent Olson home an hour ago with the flu so we’re short and I know you’re close,” his captain said.
Caden was already shoving on his boots. “I’ll be there in five.”
By the time Caden was parking his Jeep, the doors on the firehouse bays were rolling up. Both emergency vehicles had their lights flashing as men suited up and climbed in. Caden hightailed it through the falling snow to the rig and grabbed his gear. “Let’s rock and roll,” he said as he jumped into the passenger seat of the paramedic unit.
From the engine truck, Joe gave him a salute.
“Catch me up,” Caden said to Brian Larksen, driving the rig beside him. They’d run many an incident together over the years.
“Multiple vehicles. Possibly as many as ten. Two overturned. One, Two, and Three are on the scene or en route,” Larksen said, referring to the county’s other fire stations. “Four and Ten were called out with us.”
“Christ, what a mess.” Caden said. “Well, one patient at a time.”
“Just like we do,” Larksen said, hauling ass onto Interstate 395 behind the engine truck.
Even with Friday night traffic
and the snow, they made it to the scene in just under fifteen minutes. Not bad for being outside their usual area of operation.
And, Jesus, the scene was a fucking disaster.
Even from a distance, Caden could see the responders struggling to access vehicles smashed one against the next. A delivery truck was on its side half in the grass, where the road sloped down toward the exit ramp for Westmoreland Street.
They caught up with their guys at the engine, awaiting orders from the chief running the incident. Orders came quickly, and Caden and Larksen were tasked with attending the driver of the delivery truck. They got their gear and booked it to the truck. The crash had blown out the windshield, making access to the passenger cab easier than it otherwise would’ve been.
“Sir, my name’s Caden Grayson. I’m with Arlington E.M.S. and I’m going to help you,” Caden said, leaning in through the jagged edges of the busted window. The male driver was laying against the passenger door, which was road-side down, likely revealing he hadn’t been wearing his seat belt. The man looked up, and the side of his face was like hamburger. “Just lay real still for me. We’re gonna get you out of there. What’s your name?”
“Jared,” the man rasped.
“Getting him out of there is going to be a bear,” Larksen said quietly, handing Caden a flashlight. Caden nodded, his brain already working through the logistics on this one. They might need an assist. Caden knocked out the rest of the glass along one edge so he could lean over without cutting himself.
“Jared,” Caden said, leaning in further. “I’m going to take your vitals. Can you tell me what hurts?”
“My face and my arm,” the man said. “I got dragged against the road here.”
“Do you think anything’s broken?” Caden asked, getting the man’s pulse and heart rate, and checking the dilation of his eyes.
“No. I don’t think so,” Jared said.
“Okay, buddy, just hang in there. I’ll be right back,” Caden said, unfolding himself from around the window. He was updating Larksen and gathering supplies when Jared’s voice sounded from behind him.
The man was trying to climb out.
“Whoa, whoa,” Caden said, turning to support the man’s shoulders as he leaned out the window, blood streaming down his face and onto Caden’s jacket.
Larksen was right there, and together they lifted him out and laid him down on the road.
“Grayson!” a voice called.
Caden looked around until he saw Bear jogging toward him, but he ignored the other man because they had to get these wounds treated, particularly the one on Jared’s face. White bone glinted through the gore, and now Jared was struggling to maintain consciousness.
“Grayson,” Bear said, running up beside him.
“What?” Caden said, laser-focused on his patient.
“I need you to come with me,” Bear said.
He held out his bloody gloves. “Little busy here.”
“Shit, Caden. I need you to come with me now.” Something about Bear’s tone slid ice into Caden’s veins.
“I got this,” Larksen said. “Deal with whatever it is and come back.”
Caden rose, rolling off his gloves and dropping them to the ground. “What’s the problem?”
Bear took him by the arm and led him away from the truck and further onto the grass that divided the highway from the exit ramp that curved off down a little hill. “She’s conscious, but she’s trapped, and she’s—”
“What the hell are you talking about, Bear?” Caden asked, agitated at having been pulled away.
“Makenna,” Bear said, pointing down the slope, where a little car sat upside down and propped at an angle against the hillside.
The world sucked in on Caden until he couldn’t see anything else. He took off like a shot, sprinting his way down the slippery embankment, his heart in his throat, his gut a sick knot, his brain paralyzed with fear.
No, no, no, not Makenna!
Firefighters were working on opening the badly mangled driver’s door so they could extricate, so Caden slid around to the passenger side where a team of paramedics was working.
“Makenna!” he called. “Makenna?”
“Caden?” she cried, her voice warped and wobbly.
A gray-haired EMT from Station Four named Max Bryson peered awkwardly out of the door. “Caden, she’s been asking for you.” Caden swallowed hard as the man climbed out of the crumpled, upside-down front passenger seat. “She’s stable for now. I can’t tell about the baby though, I’m sorry. They’ll have her out in just a few. Car’s stable if you want to get in with her.”
“Baby?” he asked, his brain scrambling to catch up with the man’s words.
“Shit, you didn’t know?” Bryson asked.
Makenna’s pregnant? Caden’s head was spinning.
But he wasn’t what mattered.
Caden crouched down to the narrow opening of the crushed passenger seat immediately. “Makenna?” Jesus, it was tight. And that was as much thought as he gave that before crawling in beside her because fuck his claustrophobia. Nothing was keeping him away from her.
He couldn’t quite get his whole body into the space, but he was close enough to see that she was hanging upside down by her seat belt, her body curled by the way the loss of roof height forced her to bend.
Christ, she was bleeding and cut up and shaking. White powder from the airbag deployments dusted her hair, face, and clothing.
Every one of her injuries lashed at his soul. “Makenna, talk to me.”
“Oh, God, it r-really is y-you. Caden, I’m-I’m s-scared,” she said, looking up at him, her face wet with tears and blood from a wound that had been bandaged on the side of her forehead.
He reached for her hand, but found it wrapped in gauze and splints. “It’s me. I’m here.”
“The baby,” she whispered, her tears coming harder. “I don’t w-want to lose your baby.”
The words reached into his chest and squeezed so hard he could barely breathe. He had so many questions, but now wasn’t the time. “Everything’s gonna be okay,” he said, willing it with everything inside him. Life owed him this, goddammit. This one thing. Her and his child coming out of this okay. The fucking bullshit in his head had robbed him of so much already. Not this. Not this, too. He crawled closer so that he could rub her hair. “You’re pregnant, Red?” The wonder of those words raced through him.
“I’m s-sorry,” she cried. “I should’ve t-told you sooner, but I…I…” Her face crumpled.
“No, no,” he said, stroking her hair. “Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to you or the baby, okay? I promise.” Jesus, she was pregnant. Pregnant. With his baby. He’d be fucking ecstatic about that if he knew they were both okay.
With a loud crunch, the driver’s side door abruptly wrenched open. Makenna flinched on a moan.
“Hey, Red, look at me. They’re going to get you out of here. Just hold on for another minute,” Caden said, looking into her beautiful eyes. It killed him to see so much pain and fear there. “Take a nice deep breath for me.” She did. “Another,” Caden said, breathing with her, calming her down.
“Okay, Makenna,” Bryson said, leaning in the doorway. “We’re gonna cut your seatbelt free and ease you out of there. Caden? You think you can support her legs from in there so I can get her out by the head and shoulders?”
“Yes,” Caden said without hesitation. Although it was going to force him to squeeze all of himself into the tight space so he’d have leverage to hold her. They didn’t want her to fall to the roof of the car when they cut her free. He got into position, his shoulder bracing her thighs. His head was crammed against the jagged roof.
Which was the first moment it occurred to him that he and Makenna were stuck together in a crashed upside-down car. Déjà fucking vu.
The moment Bryson cut the belt, Caden was all that was holding her. Makenna gasped as her weight shifted. “I’ve got you, Red. I’ve got you.”
Judg
ing by the way her legs turned, Bryson was slowly moving her upper body toward the opening. She groaned and her hands flew to her belly. “Please, please, please, please,” she whispered over and over again.
And Caden was right there with her. Please let them both be okay.
As Bryson started to move her out of the car, Caden slowly lowered her legs into his arms, and then another guy outside grasped her legs until she was free.
Getting himself back out of the car took longer than he had patience for, but he essentially had to soldier crawl under what was left of the caved-in passenger door opening. And then he scrambled around to the far side and went to his knees by Makenna’s head.
As he leaned over her, words spilled out of his mouth in a desperate rush. He couldn’t let another second pass without her knowing. “I love you, Makenna. I’ve loved you from the very beginning, since you laughed in that elevator and eased my fears, since you shared your first-time story with me and made me laugh, since you accepted me even when I couldn’t accept myself. I’m so fucking sorry,” he said.
“Caden?” she said, her voice slurring. Her eyelids fluttered and sagged.
“Yeah, Red, it’s me,” he said.
Her head lolled to the side.
“Loss of consciousness,” one of the medics said. “Let’s get her moving.”
Caden rose as the men lifted the stretcher. “I’m going with you,” he said to Bryson, daring the man with his gaze to challenge him. He didn’t. Jogging along with the stretcher, they made for Station Four’s paramedic unit. Caden glanced around for his team, and saw Bear in the distance. The guy looked his way and gave him a wave and a nod. It was all the okay he needed, and if there was hell to pay for leaving, Caden was more than willing to pay it.
Because everything he loved lay broken and bleeding at his side. Here he’d thought he had time…time to get himself right so he could be the man Makenna deserved. Now, all he could do was hope he wasn’t too late.
