“But Perish doesn’t have a ring.”
“They’re probably not going to think about it that much. You look like crap. You’ve clearly been crying. You know his name and room number. They’re gonna let you in.”
“Why didn’t the club bring him to Hailstorm?”
Rune’s jaw tightened.
“The hospital was closer.”
But hospitals meant mandatory reporting, cops, questions. That meant that Perish was likely in even worse shape than I thought.
A little sob escaped me, making Rune’s gaze look at me in the rearview. “He survived surgery. That’s a good sign.”
I nodded, but that didn’t stop the tears as we drove to the hospital.
And Rune was right; they worked in my favor when I made my way onto the ICU where he was being cared for after surgery.
I triednotto think that meant he was at serious risk of death as I moved into the room and listened to the steady, slow beat of his heart on the monitor before I could make my way over.
He was an enormous guy. The bed looked too small for him. But he looked reduced, smaller, pale.
“Hey,” I said, my voice catching on a cry as I moved closer to take his giant hand in both of mine. “It’s me.”
I never got to see him still.
Sometimes, in bed, I would doze off for a little while. Each time I woke up, he was still wide awake, holding me, running his hands over me.
Maybe if I’d seen him asleep, seeing him in the hospital bed like that wouldn’t have been so upsetting.
“I, um, I guess I need to thank you. You know, for taking bullets for me. But, well, you shouldn’t have done that. Because now look at you.” A loud, ugly sniffle escaped me at that.
“I think he’s gone,” I told him. I heard mixed things whether people who were unconscious could hear you or not. But I figured if he could hear me, he’d want an update. “I think I killed him.” I nudged my hip onto the edge of the bed. “So, you can just wake up now. It’s safe.”
I paused, rubbing his hand, my gaze vacillating from his face to the monitor.
“Hey, so, I just really, really need you to be okay,” I said, my voice thick with more useless tears.
I knew I wasn’t supposed to, but I slid up onto the bed that wasn’t nearly big enough for him, let alone both of us.
My head rested on his chest, his big, familiar body comforting and horrifying at the same time.
“I think I might be in love with you,” I whispered. Then I gave in to the migraine stabbing behind my eyes and the bone-deep exhaustion in my bones and mind.
It was the sensation of an arm tightening around me that finally woke me up some time later.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Perish
It was the goddamn beeping that woke me up. Steady. Relentless. Annoying as hell.
And in my drugged mind, I couldn’t place what it was, just that I wanted it to stop.
I turned my head toward it and slit my eyes open.
It was like someone stuck those paddles on my chest and shocked me.
It all came rushing back once I realized where I was. In the hospital. That beeping? My own damn heart. It tripped faster as the events of the day before swirled around in my head.
