Page 115 of Promised to the Cowboy

“So am I.” Jacob’s voice leaves no room for argument.

Ethan shifts aside, already reaching for the medical kit one of the veterans has thrown down beside us.

Jacob stacks both hands over Gabriel’s chest. Then he begins. Hard. Fast. His whole body behind every compression.

“Come on,” he says.Push.“Come on, son.”Push.

The word tears through me.

Son.

Jacob says it like it has been waiting thirty years to come out.

“Don’t you do this.”Push.“Not now.”Push.“Not before I get the chance to tell you how sorry I am.”

His voice breaks. Tears run unchecked down his face, but his hands never stop.

I bend over Gabriel and press my forehead to his. “You promised.”

Jacob keeps his rhythm.

My tears fall onto Gabriel’s face. “You put your hand on our daughter and promised you’d always choose me. Choose us. Stay. Please.”

Ethan tears open the defibrillator pads and presses them to Gabriel’s chest.

“Clear.”

Jacob lifts his hands.

The shock jerks Gabriel’s body off the ground.

Nothing.

The machine begins analyzing again.

No pulse.

Jacob goes straight back to compressions. “Come on, son.” His voice is wrecked now. “Come back to me.”

Federal sirens rise beyond the ridge. Men shout orders across the runway. Somewhere behind us, Alexander’s plane engine cuts out. I hear weapons hitting the ground. I hear someone yelling for Falcon to stop resisting.

None of it means anything.

The whole world is Gabriel’s still face. Jacob’s hands. Ethan watching the monitor. Our daughter moving beneath my ribs as though she knows something is wrong.

I take Gabriel’s hand and press it against my stomach. “Feel her,” I beg him. “She’s here. We’re both here.”

The monitor chirps.

Ethan looks at it.

“Clear.”

Jacob pulls back again.

Another shock.

Gabriel’s body arches.