Riders (Riders, #1)(46)

Explosions of possibility went off in my head. “I’m listening.” I ran my thumb over her knuckles. Her skin was so soft. We were connecting. Taking a first step.

Together. Now. Yes.

“I’m starting to get a headache.”

For a second there I thought that I, Gideon Blake, had grossly misjudged the entire situation and annoyed her to the point that I’d given her a migraine.

Then I remembered and shot out of the Jeep, almost knocking her over. “You mean a vision-download headache?” I did a move with my hands like I was shampooing my head. Like that was going to clear things up. “The kind you get beforehand?”

“Yes,” she said, calmly. “That kind.”

“Okay. Okay. Sit down. Sit right there.” I tried herding her into my Jeep but she sidestepped.

“I’m fine, Gideon. Relax.”

“I’m relaxed.” That wasn’t totally true, but I was also completely ready to do anything she needed me to do. I was buzzing with the need to help. “I’m actually trained to handle this kind of thing.”

“You’re trained for this?”

“Definitely. There’s a whole section in the Ranger Handbook. Seeker Assistance Procedures Checklist. SAPC for short. Section One-A of SAPC says, ‘Secure a safe location for the Seeker’—which is you. So, sit. Please, Daryn. I know what I’m doing.”

“Soon,” she said. “I will soon.” She was still smiling, but starting to blink slowly, the way a person does right before they’re going to fall asleep. “Is this scaring you?”

“Does it hurt you?”

“The headaches a little, but not for long.”

“Then I’m not scared.”

“You look worried.”

“Just alert. This is my vigilant face.”

“I actually believe you. Gideon, can you,” another slow blink, “can you keep Marcus and Sebastian away while it’s happening?” She got hung up on the S’s in Sebastian, slurring a little. “It’s not that I’m embarrassed, it’s just…”

“No one’s getting close to you.”

That should’ve sounded overprotective and crazy, but as I stood there, the heat of the desert sun on my back, it just didn’t. I felt like I was exactly where I needed to be. Standing guard. Looking out for her.

“They’re over pretty fast,” she said. “Five minutes, usually.”

“Okay.”

“It probably says that in the Ranger Handbook. Or maybe it says three hundred seconds. You military types are so strange about time.”

I mustered a smile. She was slurring more and starting to slouch. I had to fight the urge to forcibly wedge her into the passenger seat.

Daryn twisted her hair to one side, and her fingers drifted over the chain. “You know what’s really beautiful? Feeling what another person feels. Feeling all their love and their fears … It’s all just so beautiful, you know? Life?”

I didn’t even know what to make of that, so I nodded.

She stared at me for a few seconds. “It’s possible that I could topple over.”

“Then get in the freaking car, Daryn.”

“Would you catch me?”

“Of course I would.”

“What about right now? Will you catch me before I fall?”

That knocked the air out of my lungs. Literally. A first for me. Lots of firsts all of a sudden.

I stepped toward her, half expecting her to ask me what I was doing, but the second I put my arms around her, she burrowed against my chest like I was her favorite pillow. Then I had one of those moments where time compresses, like your thoughts are having a car wreck, everything fast but slow. And I saw these images—fast-roping, blueberry pancakes, fire horse charging, bone knives flying, gorgeous girl making a nest out of my shirt with her face. Which was now. Happening right now.

She smelled amazing, like spring smells, cool, rain, flowers. And it felt incredible having her so close. I just really liked her close.

I cleared my throat. “How you doing there, boss?”

“I’m so good. Guys give the best hugs.”

“Um … guys do?”

She laughed.

“You’re really messing with me right now?”

“Guilty.”

Yep. Liked her.

She gave me more of her weight. I was almost holding her upright now. It felt like she was drifting away somewhere, on a tide I couldn’t see.

“You feel good, Gideon,” she said. “I knew you would. That’s why I didn’t want thisss—” She went limp.

I pulled her against me and went through a hundred different scenarios in my mind in a second before I forced myself to chill out, take a breath. She’d told me not to worry, that she’d be fine, and as much as she kept secrets, I didn’t think she’d lie about that.

I turned my back to Marcus and Sebastian. They weren’t close but if I could’ve become a tank around her, I’d have done it. Shifting around a little, I tried to get it so she’d be more on my shoulder, which seemed better. More comfortable for her.

Then there was nothing left to do but count down.

Three hundred, two ninety-nine, two-ninety eight, two—