I don’t deserve his comfort. Or his…love. But though I can’t answer him, he slowly wraps his arms around me and draws me against him. My hand rests over his heart, and the heat of his bare skin warms my palm. I’ve longed for this for twenty years. The man I was going to marry, the man I loved more than anything, with his arms around me, telling me everything was going to be okay.
Except, nothing will ever be okay again, and soon, he’ll realize that.
When I don’t have any more tears to cry, I sniffle loudly and swipe at my cheeks. Enough. Pull yourself together. Ford’s hurt. You’re a doctor. Examine your patient.
“Let go,” I whisper, my voice horse. “I need to…do something. Be…useful.”
Ford starts to protest, but I silence him with a pleading gaze, and he nods.
Peeling the shirt from his broad shoulders, I let my palms skim down his arms. He winces as he moves—though he tries to hide it. “Where does it hurt?”
“Left side and back.” His voice is so quiet, it’s almost reverent, and I lift his arm carefully. “Took some hard punches, but nothing’s broken.”
“I’ll be the judge of that.” The deep bruises are several shades of purple and blue, spreading out over his obliques before disappearing under the waistband of his pants. Tugging gently on the thin material, I expose a bit of his hip, then palpate the edges of the discoloration.
“No internal bleeding I can see,” I murmur, continuing my exploration of his body. All the way to his abs, then up to that circular scar. “What’s this from?”
“Got shot year before last. Another stalking case. The guy thought I was the client’s boyfriend.” He shrugs, which elicits another wince, and he rolls his shoulders.
His skin is so warm, and the scent of him…familiar and not. All of this…it’s the same. But so very different.
“Is this tender?” I ask as I press my fingers against his shoulder socket.
His eyes crinkle, and he clears his throat. “Yeah. Body this size isn’t meant to hang from the wrists.”
“Minor subluxation. No more of that, okay? No more sacrificing yourself for me or getting captured or beaten up or…” If I keep listing all the ways he could get hurt, I’ll lose it completely, so I shake my head as I swallow hard. “You always were stubborn.”
“I knew what I wanted. Still do.”
When Ford wraps his arms around me again, I melt against his bare chest, wondering how in the world I’ll survive when I lose him for the second time. Because once he knows everything? He’ll realize the woman he’s been pining for disappeared the minute Jefe and his gang of traffickers took me twenty years ago.
Ford
Having Joey in my arms…it’s heaven. But a tiny moan escapes her lips as she draws back, and she pinches the bridge of her nose.
“What’s wrong?”
“A little dizzy,” she says softly.
Shit. “You haven’t eaten. The kitchen should be fully stocked. Let me see what I can throw together. Lie down. Rest.” I grab my gun from the nightstand and slide the holster over my waistband.
“Ford.” Her fingers are cool as they wrap around my wrist, and the strength of her grip surprises me. “Don’t leave—”
The kitchen’s all of thirty feet away, but if she doesn’t want to be alone, she won’t be alone. “Come on, then. Let’s see if we have the ingredients for eggs-in-a-basket.”
Helping her up, I keep my arm around her waist as we shuffle into the main room. Her limp isn’t as pronounced as it was last night, but she still leans heavily on me, and with every step, she tenses.
In the center of the space, she stops, her gaze taking in everything. The single window with the curtains drawn tight, the wire stretched across the door, the black box hanging from the knob.
“You’re sure we’re…safe here?”
When she tips her head up to look at me, I brush a lock of hair behind her ear. “This place is owned by the CIA. One of Matt’s guys is monitoring the exterior cameras. The alarm will go off if anyone tries to open the door, and there’s a motion sensor on the window there. If there’s a threat coming, we’ll know.”
Her body goes rigid. “Are there…cameras inside?”
“No. Why?”
With a shudder, she turns her face into my chest. “Faruk had cameras…everywhere. The men who took us…they watched us. After they took Ivy and Mia away, they kept me locked in that dirty basement for at least another two days. The toilet was just out in the open, and I could see the light from the camera the whole time.”
