Panic clawed up his throat.
He forced his head to turn, scanning past faces and equipment, but the room smeared and tilted.A crushing heaviness settled over him.
“No,” he muttered.“Not yet.Gotta—”
The world went dark.
The next time he surfaced, it was slower.Quieter.The beeping was steady now, distant but reassuring.The pain was dulled to a deep throbbing ache instead of the intense agony from before.He blinked, eyelids heavy as sandbags, and turned his head.
There she was.
Chloe was sitting in the chair beside the bed, arched forward, her fingers laced tightly around his hand.Her eyes were red, her lashes clumped, and her face pale, exhausted, and devastatingly beautiful.
He registered all of it in a rush that made his chest ache worse than the wound
“Hey,” he murmured.
Her head snapped up.
For half a second, she just stared at him, as if she was afraid he wasn’t real.Then her face crumpled and broke into a watery smile all at once.
“Oh, my God,” she breathed, standing too fast, then catching herself as she leaned over him.“You’re awake.You’re really awake.”
He hated that she’d been crying, that he’d put that fear on her.
“I’m okay,” he said, though it came out rough.“You okay?”
She let out a soft, shaky laugh.“You’re unbelievable.Yes, I’m okay, thanks to you.”
He lifted their joined hands as much as the tubes and wires would allow.“Didn’t mean to scare you,cher.”
Her lips trembled.“Well, you did.You scared me half to death.”
That cut deeper than the knife had.
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.
Her thumb brushed over his knuckles.“Don’t.You saved my life.Again.”
He wanted to tell her a thousand things.That he’d do it again in a heartbeat.That he’d blast through a hundred concrete walls if it meant getting to her.That he wasn’t built to lose her.
That he loved her.
But the fog was creeping back in.He felt it tugging at his thoughts and his eyelids, the drug cocktail doing exactly what it was designed to do.
“Stay,” he murmured, fighting it.“Don’t go anywhere.”
“I’m right here,” she promised immediately.“I’m not leaving.”
Her face blurred at the edges.He focused on her eyes and the warmth of her hand, anchoring himself to her presence as long as he could.
“That’s good,” he whispered.“I like that.”
The darkness pulled him under again, gentler this time.Kayne let it because Chloe was there when he went, and he trusted she’d be there when he came back.
#
Chloe cried as if herbody had been holding it in for years.Silent tears slipped sideways onto the hospital pillow as she sat curled in the chair beside Kayne’s bed, one hand wrapped around his, afraid to let go even now.Her body ached with relief so sharp it hurt.Fear finally loosened its grip now that the doctors had said the words she hadn’t realized she’d been holding her breath for.
