I didn't expect them to come for me like this.
Behind him, Reid is approaching too, but Tal beats him to it, yanking my door open.
“I didn't know it would storm,” I say, my hands coming up in a defensive gesture. “Aren’t they supposed to warn us about these things in advance?”
“Did you check the weather app?”
I shake my head.
“Did you turn on the local news?”
I shake my head again, and he exhales sharply.
“So how exactly were you expecting to find out? Telepathy?” He sighs. “You’re supposed to check the weather before you go on long trips.”
“Yeah, this one was kind of impromptu.” I smile.
No one laughs. The joke lands flat. “This kind of weather is dangerous up here in the mountains. Anything could’ve happened.” Luke is still lecturing me.
“Get her out,” Reid orders, and before I can recover enough of my senses to obey under my own power, Tal drags me out of the seat and into his arms.
Not just his. All the men are touching me in some way, checking if I'm okay, scolding me about wet clothes, and the stupidity of trying to drive in a storm like this one.
Too many voices, too many hands—and yet at the same time not enough. Not nearly enough after that lonely desolation I had been feeling. I don’t want any of it to stop.
I feel surrounded by them as I’m gently ushered into Reid’s truck, and I barely feel the raindrops on my skin, because they shield me from all of it.
“Keep her warm, Tal,” Reid calls as he and Luke get up in front. “I'm going to need your help seeing ahead of me, Luke.”
“Got it. The rain's not letting up anytime soon, is it?”
“Doesn't look like it.”
I'm cuddled against Tal's large body. He smells like the storm and the earth, and his scent automatically relaxes me after a very stressful couple of hours.
I'm so tempted to close my eyes and just sink into comfort, forgetting everything else.
Then, it hits me.
“Wait,” I call out. “What about my car?”
“I'll come get it once the rain stops.” Tal's voice is a rumble of sound. “I'm leaving my truck here as well.”
“You sure?”
He nods. “Trust me.”
I stare into his eyes. I do trust him. That's the problem, because I'm not supposed to. After everything that happened between us, after his avoiding me, I shouldn't trust him. Come to that, I shouldn't trust myself around him either.
“I'm sorry,” I tell Tal. “I think I blew it. The engine, I mean. I was going along fine, and then suddenly something went pop and the engine just stopped, and it wouldn’t start again, however hard I tried.”
“Shit!” Luke's voice sounds alarmed. Tal tenses up, too, and Reid throws me a sharp look in the rearview mirror.
“My God. You were lucky. What if there’d been another vehicle coming? Anything could have happened,” Reid says. “Did nothing look odd to you, Tal, when you were tinkering with it?”
Talon shakes his head. “No. But I didn’t really look. I just fixed the heat sensor. Should’ve given the whole damned thing a proper look.”
“Well anyway, I'm fine,” I say hurriedly. “Luckily, there were no other cars on the road at the time, so nobody got hurt. It’s an old car, I guess after all these mountains it just… gave up.”