The Forbidden Note (Redwood Kings Book 4)

I…

See…

It…

Happen…

The truck that appears out of nowhere.

The way it rams into Grey’s car.

The way her head slams on the steering wheel.

I hear the crunch of metal.

I feel the roar of pain that tears out of my chest and rattles through the mountains. And it’s even a little louder than the squeal of the attacker’s car as he backs away and speeds in the other direction.

I want to chase him, but I can’t leave Grey behind.

I’m running and then full on sprinting toward the wreck.

I don’t feel anything.

The wrist in a cast.

The exhaustion from hiking all the way down the mountain and then turning and heading back up to reach her.

Inside, my heart is pounding.

No, no, no.

Grey.

Please, God.

No.

With each step I take, the pain increases.

A shedding.

A trial by fire.

Somewhere, something—the little kid I was before I met her, the boy I was before I fell in love with her, the person I was before fate gave me something as precious as a person I could cherish…

It seeped away like the blood staining her leather steering wheel.

I died.

There is nothing, nothing worse than watching someone you love get hurt and not being able to stop it. As I cradle her face and watch her limp body, it all becomes crystal clear.

I am nothing without her. Damn. She’s my everything.

“Grey!” I’m trembling so much I can barely move. “Grey!”

She’s not responding.

There’s so much blood.

So much…

The horror is paralyzing.

I want her to open her eyes. Those beautiful, intelligent, kind brown eyes.

I want her to snap at me.

Call me arrogant and obnoxious with those big vocabulary words she earned from years of reading and teaching.

“Grey!” My hands, stained with her blood, rush into her hair. She’s limp in my arms. “Grey, please.”

My first call is to my brothers.

My second is to the ambulance.

Everything outside of that is a blur. I don’t remember the medics setting Grey on a cot and wheeling her to the ambulance. I don’t remember climbing into the back of the truck. I don’t remember the ride, the full-on sprint inside the hospital, the time that ticked by in the waiting room.

I don’t remember when Dutch, Finn and Sol appear.

Or when Cadey shoves a bottle of water into my hands and Dutch tells me to wash the blood off.

I don’t think I remember how to breathe.

Not until I hear that she’s okay. That she’s bruised but there’s nothing broken. That she’s lucky to have come out unscathed. That if the car had rammed into her just a little more to the left, she would be dead.

But she’s not.

She’s alive.

And I am too.

Life pours into me, my veins, my muscles, my heart.

I have a reason to keep going, to keep breathing.

I’m by her side through the night, cleaning her hands, making sure she’s warm, watching over her when my brothers—one by one—leave the hospital room.

And, when she finally opens those eyes I know so well, I grab her hand.

Grey groans in pain. “Where am I?”

“The hospital.” I help her to sit up.

She peers at me, her dark skin making it seem like there are no bruises on her face. But there are and they’ll throb like hell in the next few days.

“Zane,” her eyes widen and she flinches, “there was a car. It was the same one that—”

“I know.”

“Someone’s trying to kill me,” she whispers fearfully, as if the words are live snakes that’ll bite her.

My fingers curl into fists. “I know that too.”

Her gaze lifts to mine and what I need to do next drops into my mind with such clarity that it feels like I’m not even in control. Like it was all pre-destined. Written out in the stars.

“Marry me,” I say firmly.

Her eyebrows hike. She sets a hand on her head. “Am I the one with the head injury or is it you?”

“From now on, things are only going to get more dangerous.” I take her hand and rub my thumb over her knuckles. “The best way to protect you is as your husband.”

The blood drains from her face as she realizes I’m serious.

I bring her hand to my lips and kiss the back of it. “Grace Elizabeth Jamieson, will you be my wife?”

Jinx: A Snare Queen Rises

Loyalties are shifting at Redwood Prep. Who decides what’s right and wrong? The ones who hold all the power, of course. But some sins are more unforgivable than others.

There’s a reason dirty deeds are better done in the dark.

When you drag the forbidden into the light, it wreaks one thing: chaos.

Until the next post, keep your enemies close and your secrets even closer.

– Jinx