“Tomorrow’s the full moon,” Hardison says, his gaze locked on Connor. “They don’t have the luxury of waiting. Any move they make is gonna be soon. And if they’re that desperate…they could be that gullible too.”
Parker frowns, her eyes unfocused like she’s running the play in her head. “Good. Let them be gullible. We’ll use it. But Grace is off the board. No one touches her. Not now. Not ever. I’ll put an end to anyone who tries.”
I turn and look at Parker—really look at her. She’s all sharp edges and shadows. She inserted herself into my life when I had nothing. All because I asked her to keep an eye on Jasper after he got blown up and lost everything that mattered to him—including me. But she’s never let me in. Not really.
Grace though…she slipped past every one of Parker’s defenses. Hearing that determination—that steel—in her voice now, I breathe a little easier for the first time all fucking day.
Grace doesn’t just have me in her corner. She’s got all of us.
Every single one of us is willing to bleed—to die—for her.
I glance back up at the clock. Four hours, nineteen minutes.
“It’s a good plan,” I say, the words bitter on my tongue. “Connor, get Zephyr looped in. But make sure she knows… We ain’t doin’ a damn thing until Grace is awake. I need her to open her eyes. To feel me squeeze her hand. I need that.”
Fuck.
I scrub a hand down my face before meeting Connor’s eyes.
“Grace needs that before anyone leaves this hospital.”
One by one, our family nods.
And we wait.
Chapter Seventy-One
AJ
Five hours and twenty-three minutes pass before the double doors finally swing open.
Dr. Ellicott, dressed in green scrubs with a flowered cap covering her black hair, steps through the double doors and scans the waiting room.
“Mr. Stone?”
I’m on my feet before the words leave her lips. Connor, Isabel, Jasper, Emi, Hardison, and Parker form a wall at my back.
“Grace did very well,” she says with a weary smile. Her voice is calm and professional, the kind of tone meant to anchor panicked family members in the middle of a storm.
My knees threaten to buckle. “She’s okay? She’ll be okay?”
“She’s stable. The fragment was lodged in her left temporal lobe, only a couple of millimeters from her skull. There was some scar tissue starting to form around it, but we excised that as well.” Dr. Ellicott holds my gaze, as if she’s making sure her words are penetrating the haze of my worry.
Are they? I have no idea. I latched onto the word “stable.” After that…it’s all noise.
“No complications?” Parker steps forward, right at my elbow, her entire body rigid.
“There was a small amount of bleeding, but we controlled it easily. That’s not uncommon. Slight swelling, but again, nothing more than we expect. She’ll be in the neuro ICU overnight so we can monitor her closely, but if everything looks good in the morning, she can transfer down to the regular neuro floor.”
I grab onto Jasper’s arm, unsure I’ll be able to stay standing much longer otherwise. “How long until she wakes up?”
“She’s still under anesthesia,” the doctor says. “But we’ll start easing her off soon. She should be awake in the next couple of hours. I will warn you that she’ll be groggy and possibly nauseous. Headaches are normal as well. Given the location of the surgery, we’ll be watching for any speech and memory issues, but I don’t anticipate any permanent deficits.”
The relief almost takes me to my knees. If it weren’t for Jasper’s support, I’d be on the floor.
“I’ll have a nurse come get you in half an hour. Until Grace is fully awake and we can assess her condition, only one person at a time, please.”
I manage a nod. After five and a half hours of hell, I can survive another thirty minutes.
