The Defender (The Carrier Series Book 2) Read Free Page A

river
and my mind was flooded with memories of a summer filled with adventures with
Nolan. Falling in love with him had been easy and natural.   
    Nolan looked upriver toward the docks. “I realized that night that
you were the most important person in my life. I knew I needed to do whatever I
could in order to protect you, even if that meant harming you in the process.”
    Did he know I felt the same way?
    “That day,” I began, “when I knew something was wrong and I was
sure you were going to break up with me, I felt like my life was over. I had
been through heartbreak before, but nothing compared to the pain I went through
that night. That’s when I knew, I had given you my heart.”
    I leaned my head onto his shoulder and we continued to look
around, taking in the beauty of the environment around us. I looked down toward
the end of the rock ledge and couldn’t help but imagine the exact position I
was in when I lay here waiting for death to take me away that night. Then I
noticed a dark stain on the rock where I had lain.
    My blood.
    Of course, my blood had stained the rock. All of a sudden I
flashed back to that moment when I truly thought my life had ended. When
someone I loved and trusted purposely shoved a knife into my belly.
    I stood up, shaking. “Let’s get going. I think I’ve had enough for
one day.”
    “Absolutely.” Nolan rose and turned to leave. “Are you alri—” He
stopped abruptly, made a weird face, and scanned the area around us.
    “What’s wrong?”
    He put two fingers over my lips to silence me and whispered, eyes
on heightened alert. “Shh…Listen.”
    I heard it, too— a very faint beeping noise. Its high-pitched
warning tone was rapidly getting faster and faster.
    “Run!” he screamed, and pulled my arm toward the railroad tracks.
I begged my feet to go faster but I couldn’t seem to make them keep up with
Nolan’s. A wild scream escaped my lips as he leaped over the tracks and dove
into the ditch behind them. I followed his lead and right as I landed, Nolan
rolled over my body and an ear-splitting BOOM echoed out over the river and
through the baseball fields. My hands instinctively covered my ears and I
screamed again.
    Nolan waited a few seconds and then rolled off of me. We sat up on
our elbows and looked toward the rock. The whole cliff top had been blown away.
Thick, angry smoke took over the air, and fire began to eat the bottom of the
trees. My jaw was stuck in the open position.
    My Dells! My beautiful Dells blown away!
    Nolan stood up. “Are you okay?”
    My ears were ringing but I could still hear Nolan. I took a quick
inventory of the rest of my body, running my hands up and down my legs, torso,
and arms. All parts were accounted for and I could see no blood. “Yeah. I think
I’m fine.” My head stayed focused on the scene before me.
    “We have to get out of here!”
    Nolan held out his hand to help me up, but I was still in awe of
what had happened. My shock prevented me from realizing that Nolan was right:
We had to get away from there immediately.
    I couldn’t take my eyes off the scene at hand. “We have to call
911.”
    Nolan began yelling, “They won’t be far away! We have to go now !”
 
    “Who won’t be far away?”
    Nolan yanked me onto my feet and pulled me in the opposite
direction of his car, toward a grassy pathway parallel with the train tracks. I
kept looking over my shoulder, causing my body to twist and my legs to flail,
not being able to keep up with my top half.
    Nolan stopped and grabbed my face in his hands. He looked deep
into my eyes and said with great authority, “Ava Gardner. You have to trust me.
We need to run down this path as fast as we can. Now !”
    I stared with disbelief. Was I dreaming? It wasn’t until I heard
the police sirens behind us that I snapped out of my trance and began to run.
    Nolan led the way, sprinting through the forest. My heart was
beating out of my chest, and I didn’t think I could go much