Saving Amber - Zoe Dawson Page 0,77

“Tristan, I can’t.” Her speech was slow, as if she were drunk. He stopped and bent down, set his shoulder in her middle and scooped her right over his shoulder.

She was sure they were headed right toward the cabin. She tried to muddle through it, hanging upside down as Tristan moved so fast through the snow. “Are we going in the wrong direction?”

“No, babe. Hang on.”

“I’m so cold.” A shiver racked her body, her breathing shallow, as if she couldn’t catch her breath. She’d lost track of how long she’d been outside. It had been all about nonstop running, heat and cold, then heat again. Being shot at. Sick of the running.

But Garza had been slowly stalking her and she’d been out straight. He’d overpowered her and he’d…her brain shied away from that. She shivered some more, starting to get sleepy. She knew it wasn’t good, but she was so tired.

“Stay with me, baby. You okay?”

“So tired, Tristan.”

Before she knew what was happening, he was climbing, she could feel the elevation by the position of his body. Then she was off his shoulders and he laid her out, settling down with her. “Be quiet,” he whispered in her ear. She shivered and felt the last bits of her endurance trickle out of her body. She heard his voice and started awake, but Tristan’s hand on her chest kept her down. Her only thought was to run.

The voices passed under them, and it was clear Garza was pissed. Good. She hoped Tristan had kicked his ass but good.

Some time elapsed after the voices faded into the distance and Tristan stood, the snow creaking beneath his feet. He picked her up in his arms and walked to the edge of the roof.

“We’re back at the cabin?”

“There are so many tracks because of the number of people who traipsed around here before they let us go. We can lose our tracks by walking in theirs.”

“That’s very clever.”

“Hang in there, sweetheart. We’re almost there,” he said, either a few minutes or an hour later. She had lost total track of time and her shivering was now uncontrollable.

Then she felt him descend. A grayness filled her vision and before she knew it, he was laying her across his lap. She could feel his jerky movements, as if he was trying to go fast, and then the sound of metal clanging and the crackle of something. Her eyes were just too heavy to lift.

He stripped her of every stitch of clothing. She felt the heat on her face, and then Tristan was covering her and enveloping her in the warmth of his body.

The darkness surrounded her, and she dropped down into it like a stone into a cold pool without so much as a ripple.

It had been harrowing there—touch and go when he’d stripped down to warm her core. Garza had hurt her, more than physically. He could see that. Clamping his jaw shut, he forced himself to concentrate on other things, like how they were going to get out of this. He really didn’t have a whole lot of options. Amber was tough. He didn’t discount that, but she’d been through quite a bit of trauma already, least of all getting knocked around by Garza. The only way the man thought he could alpha her was to force himself on her.

His expression set, Tristan went back into the cave. For his own peace of mind, he checked on her, crouched down—she had been in bad shape by the time they had gotten here. She was curled up on the makeshift bed, very soundly asleep, her hands tucked under her face. He rested his hands on his thighs so he wouldn’t touch her, his expression fixed as he watched her sleep.

What bothered him the most was her dull look. Her special effervescence—that rare kind of energy that could light up the whole room—was gone. It was as if her bright spirit had been extinguished, and she just looked so fragile. For that alone he was going to kill Garza. Her face and torso were beginning to discolor where the man had punched and kicked her.

Aw, God, if Amber could only be his. He closed his eyes. He’d give anything if he had the right to hold her, to wrap her up and keep her safe.

Ever since she’d appeared in his life, she had been his still center, filling the emptiness in his life. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do without her in it,