When he was better again, he would say all of this back to her, make sure she knew how much he cared for her. Just as soon as he could string a sentence together without slurring again.
“And I know I haven’t always made it easy for us, you know, since we’ve been back together again,” she continued. “But I think I was just scared. Scared that something was going to pull us apart again. I couldn’t have lived with that. It was why I left. Iknow it doesn’t make sense, but it just seemed safer to get out of there before either of us got too attached, especially with Ziegler and the others on our tail.”
She shook her head, her face dropping.
“And I wish I could have come back to you without bringing them with me,” she whispered, her voice cracking.
He reached up to cup her face, even though his body cried out with every movement. “You didn’t bring them,” he murmured. “They were always going to come find me. I’m just glad you trusted me enough to help you when you needed it most, even after what happened. I would do anything to protect you. You know that, right?”
“I know that,” she replied. “I can see it now.”
He smiled, dropping his hand back down to his side with a wince.
A silence hung in the air between them. The only sound was the wheels of the car bumping over the road. And then, he spoke again.
“And what about…our future?” he asked her. “You’ve covered our past. And our present. What do you think’s going to happen now?”
She parted her lips, trying to find the words to express what she wanted to say. Maybe it was unfair of him to ask her so soon after they had taken down the men who’d been chasing her. But he wanted to know—he wanted to be sure she saw the same future for them that he did. Up until an hour or so ago, they hadn’t been able to think past the immediate threat. But now? Now, they could do just about anything they wanted.
“I want to join the force again,” she replied firmly. “And do everything I can to make sure people like them are weeded out of whatever departments they’re infecting right now. I can’t stand the thought of more of them out there, and more people who are working with them and don’t even know it. If they hadn’t triedto pull me into it, I would have just worked with them without knowing. I’m never going to let that happen again.”
He could hear the certainty in her voice, and it made him proud. She had come so far since she had been a rookie, but she’d had the same determination and certainty since day one. She had always been ready to take on the world, and now she would. He could tell. And he wanted to be there to support her every step of the way.
“And what about the lodge?” he asked her, his voice weaker.
“What about it?” she replied, looking down at him and brushing another strand of hair away from his face.
“You think you’ll stay?”
She smiled slightly, cocking her head at him. “Hmm,” she murmured, tapping her finger against her bottom lip. “I don’t know about that. Would have to be some pretty good reasons to stay, right?”
“Wheatie?” he suggested, and she laughed.
She leaned down to kiss him again. “I can think of a few other reasons,” she murmured against his lips before she pulled back. “And there’s plenty of work I can do here. You said Sheriff Willis is a good guy, right? I’m sure he’d be willing to help me with a job.”
He gazed up at her, hardly able to keep the smile from his lips. It was exactly what he’d wanted to hear, what he’d needed to hear.
The car pulled to a stop.
“We’re here,” the driver called to them.
“You’re going to be okay,” Bailey murmured as she helped him out of the back seat of the car.
“As long as you’re here, I will be,” he agreed.
But as he stood, he slumped against her, and the last thing he heard was Bailey scream for help as the whole world went black.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Bailey paced back and forth through the hospital waiting room, still bleeding some from her arm. She had too much nervous energy to sit down even though she was exhausted.
As soon as Aaron had passed out in front of the hospital, nurses and doctors had whisked him away on a gurney and straight into surgery to remove the bullet from his torso. She had run alongside him until she wasn’t allowed any further, shooing away the nurses who were trying to fuss over her injuries.
“I’m fine,” she had insisted. “Go take care of Aaron, please.”
The surgeon had come out to tell her that the bullet had been successfully removed from his torso and that if the bullet had entered just a millimeter to the right, he wouldn’t have been so lucky.
Lucky.
