“Honestly, no,” I chuckle. “I’ve never left the state.”
“Me either,” she says. “I want to see places, though.”
“Where do you wanna go first?”
“Somewhere that feels like a fairy tale. Like Iceland.”
“I can dig that.” I grin, looking over at this princess. “Hot springs. Hikes. You. Me.”
She laughs. “Wow, this is moving fast.”
I swallow. Lift her hand to my lips. Kiss her soft skin. “Yeah, I guess it is, isn’t it?”
I haven't felt this way in so long, since before Luke died, and I look over at her, thanking God she came into my life. I've known her for what? An hour, and already I know this woman is a woman I cannot live without.
* * *
At urgent care,things get complicated real fucking fast.
The moment the doctors understand who Prairie Jones is, they whisk her away.
Graham shows up—of course I already called him to tell him about the man Prairie killed up in the forest.
He finds me yelling at a nurse. “Let me be with her. Can’t you hear how upset she is?”
Prairie is hysterical because they won't let me go into the examination room with her because I’m not family.
“She'd calm down,” I tell my brother, “if they’d just let me go in there with her.”
Graham forces me away from the nurses’ station and leads me into the waiting room.
“Tell me everything that happened,” Graham says. “From the beginning.”
I tell him what I know, stressed the entire time because I know that Prairie is in another room being interrogated.
Graham's eyes search mine. “Rye, what's going on? You just met her. Why are you so protective?”
“I'm just... I'm really worried about her. I really care for her. She needs me,” I tell my brother.
“You don't even know her,” Graham says.
“I know she is my person.”
Graham stares at me, taking in my intensity. I don’t back down. I know who Prairie is to me. Before we got out of my truck and came into the urgent care, I told her I would do anything she needed, forever. I would be her rock.
“We need to make sure her story is sound,” Graham says. “Make sure nothing she's saying is—”
I growl, cutting him off. “Don't tell me she's a liar. I saw her run through the clearing. It's my duty to protect her. Do you understand?”
Graham is not having it. He shoves me back. “Don't, Rye. Don't make me do something you're going to regret. I'm the law here. You understand? There are helicopters at the cabin that she claims she came from and there are officers already at the scene. Everybody is out there. There's an FBI crew on the way. This is no small matter. This woman has been missing for four years.”
“Were people looking for her?” I ask.
Graham shakes his head. “Apparently, four years ago she aged out of the system. There's been nothing about her since. No one's been looking.”
“And now you're thinking she could be a liar. Fuck you,” I shout at my brother.
“I didn't say she's a liar. Clearly she's been through hell.” He gets a radio call from the Rough Forest. “I gotta take this.”