Without Regret (Pyte/Sentinel #2)(103)

“Have to be,” he sucked in a breath, “quiet,” he said, hoping like hell that no one could hear them. He gestured for her to turn around and keep walking, but she of course ignored him and continued to glare up at him.

“You don’t want to be my mate. You don’t want the baby. Well, guess what? I don’t want you,” she said around a loud sob as she shoved him and damn if that didn’t f**king hurt. It didn’t hurt that her hand slammed into his broken ribs.

His vision dimmed as the pain shot through his lung and Izzy’s cries for help registered in his mind.

“Run, Munchkin,” he managed to say as his world flickered black.

Chapter 36

“Chris? Chris!” she cried as Chris’ eyes closed and his body dropped into the ice cold water before she could grab him.

She hadn’t meant to hurt him. Oh god, had she killed him? Her heart lurched in her chest at the thought of Chris being dead. No, he couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t be. She was mad at him that was all. She’d been angry that he didn’t want the baby and that he was still planning on sending her off after she thought they were getting closer.

Not that she expected him to beg for her to stay with him or anything. She wasn’t an idiot. Okay, she might have wondered what it would be like to fall asleep in his arms every night and wake up in his arms every morning, one or two dozen times over the last ten hours since he turned into sweet, funny Chris, the Chris that she was afraid she just might be falling in love with.

The way he could make her feel on top of that too strong connection she felt with him had her falling hard for him and she was helpless to stop it. She knew he hadn’t wanted anything permanent, but she was hoping that he might have felt the same way about her. Something to let her know that she wasn’t in this all alone and that maybe for once someone truly cared about her.

But he didn’t. Clearly nothing had changed between them. He still planned on shipping her off and now felt like he had to take the one thing she’d never thought she’d have and would never give up. Not without a fight.

If he didn’t want them then that was fine with her, or at least she would make it fine later. Right now she needed to make sure that he was okay so that she could yell at him for scaring the hell out of her.

“Chris!” she cried as she half-ran-half-stumbled after him as the current threatened to knock her on her butt.

He went beneath the water as it dragged him back the way they came.

“Chris!” she screamed, feeling so damn helpless as he was dragged head first towards a large rock sticking out of the water. Praying she didn’t miss him, she dove for him. She landed to the side of him, missing her mark, but she made up for it by shoving him away and from the rock.

As she reached out and grabbed his ankle, praying he hadn’t swallowed too much water, she slammed her shoulder into the rock, but somehow managed to hold onto Chris through the mind numbing pain.

She pressed her back against the rock, ignoring the way the sharp edges dug into her skin and pulled Chris towards her. Once he was close enough she grabbed him by the waist of his pants and dragged him until she could pull him out of the water and into her arms.

He was too damn big, she thought as she struggled to get her arms around him and pull him towards the shore. Finally she gave up and instead grabbed him by the backpack that he thankfully hadn’t lost in the water and dragged him towards land, fighting the strong current every inch of the way.

“Please be breathing, baby,” she said, struggling not to cry. He had to be okay. He was a big tough guy and this was just a minor setback, nothing more.

Somehow she managed to drag him halfway out of the water, but that was all she needed.

“Chris? Baby?” she said, trying to figure out what to do.

Why the hell hadn’t she taken that First Aid course at the Y? Oh, because there was a Buffy the Vampire Slayer nightly mini marathon on television that she just couldn’t miss, she remembered, wishing she wasn’t such a geek.

She wiped the water off his handsome face and ran her fingers through his hair as she tried to figure out what to do. A raspy sound caught her attention and she sighed in relief when she realized it was coming from Chris. The sound of his breathing should scare her and in fact did, but right now she was just so damn happy that he was breathing that she decided to just take what she could.

“Baby, can you wake up?” she asked, leaning over him.

He groaned, but other than that just lay there. She looked around the thick woods for help that she damn well knew wasn’t coming. It was up to her to get him out of here, through the woods and to safety.

They were so screwed.

She didn’t know First Aid, didn’t know squat about navigating her way through the woods and she was pretty damn sure she wasn’t going to be able to lift him.

The man was solid muscle, more than a good foot taller than her and had to outweigh her by a hundred pounds. God, what the hell did they feed him? she wondered, as she struggled to step out of the water and drag him along with her.

It became pretty clear that she wouldn’t be able to get him all the way up the dirt and rock slope to level ground. She needed help that much was clear, but first she needed to get him out of the water before he got sick, not that he wouldn’t get sick from the combination of the cold crisp air and being soak and wet, but it was the only thing she could think of to do.