The world fractures.
She shatters into it.
Cold engulfs her, stealing breath, locking her spine, silencing thought.
She falls, weightless, directionless.
Water surges through her, into her nose, her mouth.
Bubbles drift through the blur of blue and green.
Her lungs burn, instinct rising in a silent scream—
Rhett—
Is he—
Her arms flail, battling the sharp, relentless current.
Bubbles spiral past her face as her lips part.
Her body jolts, nothing answers.
Her lungs smolder, screaming for air—
No—
Not like this.
Father…
The deafening rush of water devours everything.
She tumbles deeper, consumed by the endless green.
A shadow slips through the dark, moving toward her.
Familiar—
She reaches forward.
A hand seizes her wrist, wrenching her forward through the dark.
Black creeps at the edges of her vision.
Silence swallows everything.
A faint light ripples ahead, flickering through the dizzying blur.
He pulls her toward it, faster, faster—
Her chest convulses, her thoughts dissolving into nothing.
She's going to—
Break.
They burst through the surface.
Air slams into her chest, her ribs aching as she gasps, choking, coughing violently.
She clings to him as he pulls her through the roaring current, her chest constricting as she drags in breath after breath.
A crash cuts through the ringing in her ears, sound rushing back all at once.
She catches glimpses, guards, movement, shouted commands, as they swim toward them.
She coughs up water, dragging in air, as the shore comes into view.
A blur of motion reels in the distance as they fight toward it, the forest looming beyond.
The water surges around them, a living claw reaching out, as he drags her toward the shore.
She collapses to her knees, coughing violently, her palms digging into snow-dusted gravel.
Her nose stings. Her throat burns raw, her vision blurring as his hand moves over her back in slow, steady strokes.
She blinks hard.
His face, flushed with cold, brow drawn tight with worry, swims into focus.
Her lips tremble.
He pulls her into him, wrapping her tight as she folds against his chest.
Oh God...
He presses her against his racing heartbeat, voices slicing through the roar of the river.
"There!" someone shouts. "On the bank!"
"Get them!"
Please, no more. No more…
"We need to move." Rhett wraps an arm around her, hauling her up.
Her limbs are heavy, body protesting against the biting cold as they push into the forest.
A few steps forward, she stumbles over a root, but his arm catches her before she can fall.
"Come on," he says, steadying her.
Branches claw at them, her breath breaking, ragged, as they race through the fog-choked forest.
A main road cuts into view.
Her sodden boots crunch over gravel and snow as footsteps thunder behind them, shouts following, sharp and furious.
They break into a clearing.
An engine roars to life somewhere nearby.
Headlights slice through the fog.
A sleek red Aston Martin surges into view.
But just as hope sparks, it withers.
The car tears past them, wind howling in its wake.
He goes still as the Aston Martin screeches to a halt.
It reverses, her pulse spiking as the tires hiss against the ground.
He steps forward, a gun steady in his hand as the window rolls down.
Bright blue eyes meet theirs.
"Boss!" the light-brown-haired man grins.
"Took us long enough."
She glances up at her fiancé, confusion flickering as relief breaks across his face.
He pulls her toward the Aston Martin.
"Get in." He yanks the door open.
She doesn't hesitate, guards spill from the forest behind them.
Gunfire cracks through the trees.
He dives in after her, slamming the door shut. "Drive."
The engine snarls to life.
They lurch forward, then surge, tearing away as the guards dissolve into the fog, fading into a blur of nightmares.
Still catching her breath, she glances around.
Her heart skips a beat as she meets those bright blue eyes, already watching her.
"Hey," a gentle voice comes from beside her.
She turns, and meets another pair of sky-blue eyes, bright against a soft, heart-shaped face framed in blonde hair.
"My name is Sky," she says with an easy smile, offering her hand. "Nice to meet you."
Neva hesitates, her gaze flickering from the outstretched hand to the open laptop balanced on her lap. "Same to you," she manages, taking her hand.
Nothing makes sense anymore.
"Someone give her a jacket," Rhett says.
She meets his eyes, worry drawn tight across his face, his skin pale as a ghost.
The blue-eyed man hands him a jacket.
She folds into him as he wraps it around her, barely feeling it.
His arms close around her, pulling her tight against his chest, his shirt damp and freezing.
Her teeth won't stop chattering, even as warm air floods the car.
Her cold fingers brush the damp curls from her cheek,
a quiet prayer of gratitude threading through her slowing heartbeat as drowsiness draws her under, deeper, deeper.
Silence settles in, no more shouting, no gunfire, only the soft hum of tires against snow and the low murmur of the heater.
"Thank you for coming," her fiancé says, his voice a low, steady rumble.
"Sky gets the credit, Boss." It's the handsome, light-brown-haired man's voice. "Good thing we were close.
Figured you might need backup."
There's a teasing lilt to his voice.
The driver remains quiet, dark-haired, and focused on the road.
"Thank you," he murmurs.
But Boss?
Who is he, really? She lets the drowsiness take her, surrendering to it.
She'll ask him later.
Nothing matters now, not here, not in this fragile pocket of safety.
"No big deal," Sky says lightly.
"We passed Raka's backup on the way in.
They're swarming east."
A soft kiss brushes the crown of her head.
A quiet, awkward throat-clearing follows. It's the blue-eyed man.
She doesn't care how close she curls into him.
All she wants is warmth,
to shed the cold, to disappear into a bed, into him, into the shelter of his arms.