And again, he must have been able to tell what was on my mind because he blinked, and his tone went totally exasperated. “You want me to leave you?”
My neck felt too weak to shake my head. “No.” I swallowed, regretting waking up. “But I’m surprised you didn’t. This isn’t your business.”
His expression darkened. “I don’t go back on my word.”
I closed my eyes and leaned even more against him, totally fucking wiped out. “I wouldn’t want to be here without you.” I swallowed, flicking my finger against the soft material of the hoodie. “It makes me feel better that we’re both miserable.”
His chest made a strange motion against my cheek. “You like me being miserable?” he asked, his voice funny.
I liked him talking to me, even if it was sarcasm that came out of his mouth half the time. I still didn’t get why he was doing any of this—Ididn’t—but I appreciated it. So much more than he’d ever understand.
I tried to nod, and his chest did that same thing again that damn near felt like a hiccup. “I would be so scared here alone, but I don’t want them to get you.”
“They won’t.”
“How do you know?”
“Because there’s no one in the facility but a couple guards, and they don’t have any plans to come over here,” he said, almost quietly. “They’re waiting for someone to arrive. There was a problem with a shipment. The woman is gone too.”
I tried to think about that. “How… do you know? Super hearing?”
“And vision.”
I huffed, even though I wasn’t surprised. It took me a second to get my throat in shape to keep talking. “Were your hearing and vision messed up while you were injured?”
“Yes.”
That explained a lot, yet at the same time only left me with more questions about why there had been something seriously wrong with him in so many different ways. “That’s why… you’re still here?” I asked instead.
“You’re too sick to move,” he said, like that explained everything. “I’m not going to risk it when we have time.”
How much time though?
As if he could read my mind, he said, “They come in shifts between this facility and others spread out over a couple hundred miles. Those guards are hired help to protect the family, not to chop off a finger or two. We’ve got some time left. That missing shipment is worth a lot of money.”
I hadn’t been the only one concerned about me losing a digit. That was nice. Scary but nice. “But… you can’t wait too long because then you won’t be able to get out.”
He made a noise that almost sounded like a snort. “We’re getting the fuck out of here.”
It took too much of my energy to tilt my head and peer up at him. He was already focused down, and his expression said he was dead serious. Confident beyond belief.
“We are,” he insisted gravely. “I told you, nothing made on this planet can hold me back. Not once I’ve regained what was taken from me.”
I lifted my weak hand and touched the manacle on his thick left wrist. What the hell had been taken from him? His health? His power? I guess he had just brought up the hearing and vision thing, but the way he worded that….
He held his wrist closer to me. “This is nothing.”
“You can take it off?” That was dumb, of course he could.
“What do you think?” he confirmed. “But there’s a device in here that might go off once I remove it, and I’m not going to risk it until we’re ready to get out of here.”
“Oh.” That sounded so easy, but it couldn’t be.
“I’ll hear them before they come. We’ll leave then,” the man known as The Defender said, steadily.
I sighed, weakly, exhausted and feeling like total shit. “I’m sorry I’m holding you back.”
His broad chest did that funny almost-hiccupping sound. “You should be; it’s annoying.”
