The Three Fates of Ryan Love Read Free Page B

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    â€œGood girl,” he praised as the icy wet wind blasted into them.
    Ryan didn’t take the time to lock this door behind him. Filled with panic, Sabelle held on as they raced across the street, hail hammering them with vengeance. When they reached the shelter of the awning on the other side, Sabelle finally looked up.
    Inside, Ryan’s pub had seemed small, but outside on the street the world felt endless.
    Dark buildings stared vacantly down at the lights twinkling at street level. Happy Holidays banners flailed in the frigid onslaught. They passed in front of a bus stop with an advertisement pasted to its back wall showing a hotel nestled in a cove of towering red rocks. Someone had spray-painted black eyeballs over it and signed Wa Chu beneath in an elaborate font. She noted it grimly.
    Hail bounced against the street like clouded diamonds. Beside her, Ryan stood warm and strong.
    This was really happening.
    Ryan faced Love’s with a look of foreboding on his face that she’d seen before. She knew that as a boy he’d held his finger against the leaking holes his mother’s death had caused in the family. He had better methods as a man, but he was still patching the dike with his very soul.
    She couldn’t stop looking at him. Couldn’t keep her thoughts focused on anything but where he stood in relation to her. The rhythm of his breathing. His smell. He was the kind of man people depended on. The kind she hoped she could, too.
    He pulled her into a recessed doorway, dug his phone out of his pocket, and punched in some numbers. While he listened, a hot breeze whisked around them, tugging at the hem of her shirt, tousling his hair. It felt so good in the icy cold that Sabelle turned in to its warmth.
    A tinny voice answered Ryan’s call. “Nine-one-one operator. What’s your emergency?”
    â€œThere’s a gas leak at—”
    Lightning snaked from the sky with deadly purpose and struck one of the streetlights directly across from them. It blinded them but Sabelle heard the snap, the sizzle, the boom as the light exploded.
    â€œJesus,” Ryan exclaimed, turning to her as a fiery blast pressed against her eardrums, so loud it deafened. “Get down!” Ryan hauled her to the ground with him.
    They hit the concrete hard, Ryan beneath her, cushioning her fall before rolling on top of her as a blistering wind seared them. Hot debris shattered windows and impaled the buildings lining both sides of the street. It sucked all of the oxygen away with a shriek. Sabelle screamed—or at least she thought she did. She couldn’t hear her own cry over the destruction. It seemed to go on in never-ending waves and yet it was done in seconds, leaving an ominous silence in its wake.
    Ryan lifted his head and looked at her. “You all right?”
    At least she thought that’s what he said. She couldn’t hear, but she nodded anyway, not really sure if it was true.
    â€œBrandy,” he shouted, already on his feet and pulling Sabelle up with him.
    Brandy darted out of a doorway a few feet away, barking madly, wild-eyed.
    â€œIt’s okay, it’s okay,” Ryan said, hunkering down so she could smell him. Apparently, the dog needed Ryan’s scent as much as Sabelle did.
    She stared at the sidewalk, taking short, quick breaths when she wanted one deep one. Her hands shook and her eyes streamed from the smoke. Terror poisoned her bloodstream and blanked her mind. Some distant part of her noticed that the hail had stopped. Was that a good or bad sign? She didn’t know.
    â€œSabelle,” Ryan said. She thought it might be the second time. He stepped in front of her and took her face in his warm hands. “You okay? Are you hurt?”
    His gaze moved over her and he seemed to find his own answer. He drew her into his arms and gratefully she pressed her face to his throat as her body shook with reaction. He turned them both so he could