With a subtle lift of his chin toward Mallory, he added, “But after we got the call about Monroe? Wren’s been still. Has barely moved from her chair in the waiting room.” His jaw clenched. “I told her the threat, and she ignored it. Laughed it off. Argued with me even when she saw the proof of it. It tookthisto get her to understand, and Briggs still wants me to watch that infuriating girl.”
I’d never understood why Briggs assigned Evans to Wren Pearson, and as selfish as it might be, I really felt like all of thiswas the least of my concerns. But I still said, “If Briggs told you to watch Wren, he had a good reason. They made him a SEAL-team leader at a young age for a reason, and I’ve never known him to make a bad call.”
Evans grunted in response before we fell into a silence that was thick with worries and doubts and all the thoughts Evans was practically shouting at me.
“I keep wondering,” he began minutes later, “are we any better than my dad, if we’re working with those ARCK people?”
“That’s different.”
“How?” His dark stare shifted back to me. “These ARCK guys are apparently more dangerous than the Wreckers, and they’re only on our side because we’vebeenworking with them.”
“It’s different because your dad was helping the Wreckers with dark, evil things, Evans,” I said bluntly, but not unkindly. “What we do? What ARCK helps us do? It’s saving people.”
“It’s still working with the mafia,” he muttered as he looked toward the door, as if looking for an escape. If my mind hadn’t been so weighed down with a million other things that all led back to the woman beside me, I might’ve noticed the way that didn’t seem to bother him. I might’ve noticed how he seemed to be thinking over that in a way that was worrying.
But, again, I was too focused on Mallory and the cuff that was taking her blood pressure.
I tried not to let disappointment build and spread through my veins when there wasn’t any change. I tried to remind myself that all her vitals had gone up while I’d slept, and at least they were holding steady. But I wanted more.
“I haven’t been with all of you that long, I know. But I’ve watched you and Monroe for the last year. I’ve watched the way she’s practically ignored you since Aruba,” Evans said as he pushed from the chair and grabbed the back of it to drag it to the corner. Once he’d released it, he turned to me and let out a slowbreath. “So you know, that girl was looking at you like she’d just been given the world when y’all got married.”
The scattered remains of my heart clenched and threatened to knit back together at his view of Monroe that night.
Because I’d thought the same . . .
His head bobbed a few times before he roughed a hand through his hair. “Earlier, you said you still don’t remember anything from that night, so I wanted you to know that.” He held the same hand out toward us before letting it fall. “Y’all had been drinking, yeah. But whatever led to y’all eloping, and that excitement from her, had nothing to do with the alcohol. I remember thinking Monroe looked like she wasfinallygetting what she’d been waiting for.”
I tried to clear my throat when it swelled with emotion, but ended up just nodding in gratitude instead.
Evans left the room calmer than how he’d entered it, and, thankfully, no one was waiting to take his place.
Drawing in a slow breath, I held it in my strained lungs before releasing it and pressing a kiss to Mallory’s temple. Dropping my forehead to the same place, I let my eyelids shut, welcoming that flood of memories, and tried to focus on the positives. Tried to hear the increased heart rate of our baby in my mind. Tried to think of anything other than the fact that Mallory?—
“You’ve always said if anyone got to shoot me, it was you.” Each word was slow, rough, labored, and so soft, they were nearly inaudible. But they were enough to stop my heart for long seconds before it took off in a dead sprint. “Never said anything about someone stabbing me.”
A stunned laugh bled from me as I studied her beautiful face, eagerly taking her in as if I might be dreaming or hallucinating, because I’d been wanting this. I’d beenbeggingher to wake up.I’d been pleading with God, offering my life, so long as they got to keep theirs.
But there were those blue eyes, shot through with streaks of red as her heavy eyelids struggled to stay open. I wasn’t sure when I’d moved, only that I was suddenly sitting beside her to better see her, that call button in my hand that I’d been waiting to push for hours.
“You’re right,” I whispered as I gently curled my hand around her cheek, not caring about the tears building in my eyes, “I didn’t. And I’m not at all surprised that you would usethis—the most terrifying experience of my life—to shove that in my face.”
The corners of her mouth briefly twitched as a hum sounded in her throat, causing her to grimace.
Leaning closer to press my forehead to hers, I breathed, “I lost you,” letting her hear the gravity of my agony and grief in those words. Letting her understand exactly what happened in those moments before the medics had brought her back. “I didn’t think I was ever getting you back.”
Her head moved ever so slightly against mine before she spoke. Her strained voice even more stressed than before. “And the—I can’t. Gray, tell me if...just tell me.”
“Our baby?”
A hollow, mournful sound left her, as if she’d woken up preparing for the worst and couldn’t handle the thought of hearing the confirmation.
“A fighter like her mom,” I hurried to assure her. “She’s as okay as you are.”
Those eyes met mine for long seconds before squeezing shut as a pained sob wrenched from her, the sound obviously fueled by much more than just her relief. “Wait, we’re...it’s a girl?”
I slanted my head against hers before leaning back just enough to look over my shoulder when the door opened to the nurse, already asking, “Everything okay in—” Excitement lit herface when I pushed from the bed, giving her a clear view of Mallory. “Good morning, Mrs. Monroe, and welcome back. Let me just look over some things here, and then I’ll call for the doctor. Are you in any pain?”
Mallory continued watching me, waiting for my response, even as she forced out a tense “No,” for the nurse.
