Tension eased out of Adria’s body.
They had found them.
Pain cracked into her safe place as memories weaseled their way into her mind.
She had tortured Jonathan. Eric could have done it. Elena would have been happy to do it. But instead, Adria had taken the job.
Insisted.
Adria closed her eyes. All she wanted to do was stay here forever. Bryson, Kaydon, and Seth were safe.
“Bryson needs medical attention. The doctor said he lost a lot of blood,” Elena said.
That got Adria moving. Pushing the covers off her, she knocked a bag onto the floor. The sound silenced all communication happening in the next room.
“Hey there, Tiger,” Kaydon said, hitting her with a huge grin that shook her to her very core.
“What’s wrong with Bryson?” Adria said, her voice hoarse.
“You okay to walk?” Kaydon asked, eyes tracking her movements as she got up.
Adria pushed past him.
Elena, Seth, and Eric were in the living space beyond her bedroom. Kaydon’s hand grazed her arm, and he led her to the adjoining bedroom.
Kaydon pulled a poorly hung curtain aside, revealing the source of the beeping.
Bryson lay on a table, in what looked like an operating suite. He had bandages all across his torso and left thigh. Adria watched his chest rise and fall in shallow spurts. She was shocked by how pale he looked.
Had he lost weight?
“He had a punctured lung. We had to get him emergency surgery,” Elena hissed from behind her. “The doctor said he needs time to heal and another transfusion of blood, and maybe a third.”
The small-framed woman paced around the room. “And who knows when the doctor will be able to come back with the blood he needs,” Elena said, voice cracking.
Adria looked at Eric. “You brought your first-aid supplies?”
He was hesitant, probably knowing what she was going to propose, but unable to hide the truth, he nodded.
“Bryson and I are the same blood type,” she said, rolling up her sleeve.
“Ma’am, you aren’t in any condition—” Eric started.
“Why not? I wasn’t hit,” she shot back, reading the worry in their eyes.
Kaydon cleared his throat. Adria waited.
Finally, Seth said, voice low, “You fainted back there. What you did with Jonathan…that would break anyone.”
Anyone.
And yet it was only her who had passed out.
“Well, I’m awake now. Bryson needs blood, unless someone else has a better idea,” she said.
Eric stared at her, his eyes assessing, but eventually he relented and went to grab his bag.
Bryson barely moved when Eric started the IV. and Adria’s heart squeezed. They connected a tube into Adria’s arm and she sat up, trying to help create gravity between her and Bryson.
