Page 133 of Against The Tide

“No, I took care of him myself. Like I should have taken care of you instead of sending that useless whore to do a man’s job.” Mike takes a deep breath, shrugging off the visible tension in his shoulders before he takes a step forward and swipes my legs from under me.

The impact rattles all the way up my spine to my head as I land on the wet floor on my ass.

“We all learn from our mistakes, and I’m here to fix mine now.”

“They know it’s all you. The feds have everything.”

“They have jack shit,” he laughs, and my racing heart thunders faster and faster as scorn wickedly tugs at the corners of his lips. “Because it’s not what you know, it’s who you know and what you can leverage over them.”

The door swings open suddenly, and while Mike’s attention is diverted from me, I jam my feet into his knees. The shards on the ground cut into my palms as I fall back into the wall and watch him slip back. His head hits the edge of the shattered basin as his neck snags along the sharp edge, eyes blinking and his mouth gaping open and closed like a fish out of water while blood pours from his neck. His body twitches and limbs convulse as the life floods right out of him.

That’s it.

It all happened so quickly. A split second. That’s all. One last heartbeat.

It’s over.

Except I still can’t find the air I need to live.

A sob breaks from my throat. Hot and raw, it burns as though my lungs are corroding in my chest while I look for a way out of here. There’s only one person I need right now, and nothing will stop me from getting to him.

Nothing will ever stop me from being with him again.

Rhett Reynolds is my one and only. The forever and eternity I hoped for all my life. He is my everything.

CHAPTER 36

AVERY

The steady beeping of the heart monitor is lulling me to sleep when the nurse walks in to check on Rhett again. There hasn’t been any change since he’s been out of surgery. I keep waiting for him to wake up, but the nurse that checked on him at the end of the last shift said it could take a while longer. I’m at a loss for what to do. Half of my heart is lying in the bed in front of me, and the other is back at the ranch with Jo, Callie, and the kids.

“The doctor will be doing rounds soon,” the nurse tells me when I look up at her expectantly. “He’ll be able to tell you more.”

The reality is that I don’t want to be told anything more; I just want Rhett to wake up. With a sigh, I sit back in my chair and hold on to his hand, giving it a firm squeeze in the hopes that he will respond, but there’s nothing.

“Lung trauma takes a real toll, and the meds are probably overwhelming his system. It’s not unusual for a patient to take a while to wake up after a trauma like this and such a long surgery.” With another check of the stats on the heart monitor, she leaves the glass-walled room.

I’m about to check my phone when it rings. Callie’s name flashes up at me, and I answer it on the second ring.

“Hey.”

“Hey, Mommy.” Iris yawns down the line before asking, “Where are you? I miss you.”

“I miss you too, baby. Did you feed the dogs this morning?” I ask her, trying to distract her from asking questions.

“I did, and I fed them dinner too. Rowan’s friend helped me. Did you know Jesse has a metal leg? It’s like a pirate’s peg, only cooler because it looks like a real leg.”

“No, I didn’t know that,” I tell her, listening to the low bark of Jesse’s laugh in the background as Callie yells for the kids to hurry. “Is Callie taking you to school?”

“No, she said there’s no school today.”

“Can I talk to her, please?”

“Yeah.” I hear her call for Callie, and before she hands the phone over, she asks, “Is Doc with you?”

Instantly, my stare flits to Rhett. He’s like an angel with his dark golden hair and paled skin. His stubble is a little stained in patches from the blood he coughed up, but still, he’s the most beautiful man I have ever seen. Most beautiful, kindest, smartest, and good. He is so warm that he makes my heart melt. It wouldn’t have softened for anyone else, and I’m certain of it.

“Mommy?”