Beyond the Horizon (Sons of Templar MC 4)

“Lily,” a voice bellowed.

I blinked and moved my eyes up. A blurry figure sprinted toward me.

“Fuck, fuck!” Asher’s beautiful voice cursed as arms gathered around me pulling me further from the flames.

“Someone check his pulse,” he barked, and I felt Lucky’s body slide away from me. I tried to crane my head to watch, to hope beyond hope that they’d find one. That my eyes had deceived me when I’d seen them kill him.

Asher’s hand stopped my head’s motion. “Lily, look at me,” he demanded urgently.

My lazy eyes moved to his, and my chest rose and fell frantically, a terrible sound erupting from it. The sound of my lungs giving out.

“Go to my saddlebags and get the inhaler out from there, now,” he barked over his shoulder. His desperate gaze moves back to me. “Baby,” he whispered. I watched a tear stream down his cheek.

I wanted to speak. To tell him how happy I was to have two months as his wife. How I wanted my lifetime, but two months was beautiful. How he helped me to breathe easy.

“I love you,” I choked out, spluttering.

“Don’t,” he rasped. “Don’t fuckin’ say goodbye. You’re not going anywhere, babe. You’re not leaving me,” he demanded.

A figure returned, and Asher reached up to snatch what an outstretched hand gave him. He expertly attached my nebulizer and held it to my mouth.

“Breathe,” he ordered. He pleaded.

I didn’t move my eyes from his as I tried in vain to catch my breath. I continued to watch those tortured eyes as the spots on my vision got bigger. I let them warm me up as those spots took over entirely. Then there was nothing.

He couldn’t move. It felt like his body was frozen. He feared if he did move he’d overturn every table in this fucking waiting room, smash the glass encasing him in it, separating him from his wife. So he didn’t move. He stayed with his elbows resting on his knees, his head in his hands. He couldn’t get it out of his head. The image of Lily dragging his brother out of a burning building.

Of her small form sucking at the air desperately, at that horrible sound coming from her chest. Of the burnt mess on her palm, the bloodstained wrists. She had fought. His flower had fought against the flames.

It wasn’t that that haunted him. No. It was the look on her soot-stained face as she rested in his arms. It wasn’t panicked like the faces of many men he’d seen facing death. It was calm. Peaceful. She accepted her fate. Her beautiful eyes said goodbye to him, and she faced death with a bravery he didn’t even know he’d have when the reaper came for him. Then there was nothing. Then he lost her. Her body turned limp in his arms, and he had placed his palm over her chest. Like he had many times when he watched her struggle. When she was asleep and he lay there, silent and sentinel, waiting for her body to betray her. Unlike those times, his hand didn’t move with the rise and fall of her chest. His hand didn’t move at all. His hands tightened on his head.

He felt someone enter the room. They stood in front of him. “Any news?” the voice asked.

Asher didn’t look up. Didn’t move. “No,” he clipped, struggling to keep his voice from shaking.

He felt the air move as the figure sat beside him. A hand rested on his shoulder.

“She’s going to make it through, brother. She’s strong,” Cade told him firmly.

“Yeah, she’s strong,” Asher agreed. Strength didn’t guarantee survival. Today was a grim reminder of that. “Lucky?” he asked with resignation. His brother had taken two to the chest, inhaled major amounts of smoke. The paramedics were performing CPR the moment they had arrived on the scene. Like they did with Lily.

“Still in surgery,” Cade replied tersely.

At this, Asher looked to his president’s tight face. “He’s alive?” he asked with disbelief.

Cade nodded. “For now.”

Some part of Asher that had been coiled tight relaxed a smidgeon. Enough that the vice around his chest made him feel like he could breathe, barely.

“Got the women at the club on lockdown, till we figure out who the fuck this is,” he continued, his voice hard.

Asher nodded, unable to usher up the required fury for those responsible. It would come. He’d rip the fingernails off every single person connected to this. For now, his energy was focused on his wife. On hope. That his beautiful woman would make it out of this.

“Whoever it is, they’ve got big balls,” Cade bit out. “I’m going to fuckin’ relish cutting them off.”

“You got word on Bex?” Asher asked. Things weren’t looking good for her, considering no one could get a lock on her, and it was her phone that lured Lily to the strip club in the first place.