As I raised my hand to feel what was underneath the gauze, August caught my fingers and towed them away. “Tomorrow. You’ll get the bandage off tomorrow. Now, where were we again? Right . . . I was just about to do this.” He kissed me gently, and it made me forget all about myinjury.
It made me forget about a lot ofthings. . .
Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in my head, and I skated my mouth off his. “You could’vedied!”
“What?” His voice was allraspy.
“When you bit me! I had silver in my blood. You could’ve died. How come youdidn’t?”
“That Sillin injection Greg gave me counteracted the silver I ingested. Counteracted the metal in your blood,too.”
I blinked but then snapped out of my daze. “Liam shouldneverhave told youabout—”
August pressed a finger against my lips. “When I bit you, I understood the risks, and I would take them a thousand times over to get youback.”
Tears welledup.
“Oh, sweetheart. Don’t cry. There’s been too much crying aroundhere.”
I inhaled a breath, trying to rein in myemotions.
“Between Mom, Evelyn, Matt,Sarah—”
I smiled, even though my cheek turned wet. “Sarah cried?” I scrubbed the tears away with the back of my hand. I could believe Matt had gotten teary-eyed; he had the gentlest heart. ButSarah?
“Don’t tell her I told you. She swore me to secrecy.” August tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. “You’re the most popular girl in this hospital. Every single Boulder has come to visit you, to the greatest pleasure of thenurses.”
I laughed, and again it tugged on whatever awaited me behind thegauze.
“I have morequestions.”
He sighed. “Let me get comfortable.” He scooted me to the side of the narrow bed so he could lie down besideme.
“I know Evelyn visited me here, so I imagine she’s okay, but did Cassandra—did she sendsomeone?”
“Are you sure you want to know everythingtonight?”
Inodded.
He splayed his hand against my ribcage. “After you warned Matt, Frank left with Derek. They found Morgan’s daughter lurking on hisproperty.”
Iblanched.
“Little J.—Frank made him stay behind—he managed to put a bullet in her leg with his dad’s oldshotgun.”
Dread creeped up my veins. “He’s onlyfourteen.”
August smiled. “Stood his ground like a grownman.”
“What about the girls? Were theyokay?”
“Thegirls?”
“Tamara, Amanda . . .” I didn’t add Sienna’s name to the list, since, to my knowledge, she wasn’t dating a Boulder, which meant she probably wouldn’t have beentargeted.
“Liam ordered two of our guys to stay with them before the fight began. They’re allfine.”
I was glad to hear Liam had guardedTamara.
