“Let’s get you to the hospital.” He stepped back, trying to rebuild the professional distance that had crumbled the moment he’d heard her voice behind that wall of rock. But the wall between them now was his own construction—a hasty barricade of self-preservation built on his own shattered expectations. “I’ll be right behind you.”
She let the paramedics help her into the ambulance. The doors closed, and the ambulance pulled away, leaving Noah standing alone in the canyon that had brought them together. The same canyon that had claimed Annie Ross. The same canyon where he’d first recognized the echo of his own intensity in Sabrina’s eyes.
He’d rescued Sabrina from the cave, but there was no one here to yank his heart from the labyrinth she’d left it in. He was stuck in the wilderness, with no clear path to follow. Just his own compass, spinning wildly, unable to find true north.
CHAPTER 22
Hospitals had a way of stripping away pretense. Sabrina stared at the ceiling tiles above her bed, counting the tiny perforations in each square for the hundredth time. Twenty-four hours of observation, the doctor had ordered. For mild hypothermia, hypoxia, dehydration, and what he’d diplomatically called “environmental stress.”
What he hadn’t diagnosed was the hollow ache beneath her sternum that had nothing to do with being trapped in a cave and everything to do with the look on Noah’s face when she’d tried to explain.
I’m not at a place where I can hear it.
His voice was on repeat in her head, drowning out the steady beep of monitors and the squeak of nurse’s shoes in the corridor. The Noah who had rescued her was not the same one she’d last seen when he asked her to move in with him—this version had caution signs stamped all over him, his usual enthusiasm extinguished like embers in a downpour.
She’d done that to him.
The door to her room slid open, and Sabrina’s heart leapt into her throat, only to crash back down when a petite nurse she hadn’t seen before entered with a clipboard. Not Noah. Of course not. He’d followed the ambulance to the hospital as promised, spoken briefly with her doctor, and then disappeared with a painful formality that felt worse than if he’d yelled at her.
“How are we feeling?” The nurse checked her IV line with professional efficiency.
“Fine.” Sabrina attempted a smile that felt like stretching plastic wrap over broken glass. “Any chance I can convince someone that I don’t need to stay overnight?”
“Doctor’s orders.” The nurse’s sympathetic look said she’d heard this plea a hundred times before. “Your body temperature is still lower than we’d like, and the doctor wants to monitor you for delayed symptoms of crush injuries.”
“I wasn’t crushed by anything.” Just the weight of her own mistakes, but that wouldn’t show up on any scan.
“Better safe than sorry.” The nurse made a notation on her chart. “Besides, it’s almost evening. Just one night, and you can go home tomorrow.”
Home. The word felt hollow. Her place would be empty. Ripley wouldn’t even be there unless someone had thought to take her dog home, but she didn’t have a someone. She had herself only, exactly the way she’d thought she’d wanted it. Only she didn’t.
“Do you know if my dog is okay?” The question scraped her throat raw.
The heroine of the hour deserved a T-bone steak and a nap on Sabrina’s pillow, not an owner who’d messed up everything.
“Ripley?” The nurse smiled. “She’s fine. Someone named Ryan Colton is taking care of her. He called to check on you earlier.”
Relief took over her whole body. Ripley was safe with Noah’s family. Which would make sense if she and Noah were still together. But Sabrina wasn’t a Colton, even by association. Why was Ryan stepping up to help with her dog?
When the nurse left, Sabrina sank deeper into the sterile hospital pillow, replaying every moment in the cave. The cold. The darkness. The even darker realization that Noah didn’t want to hear what she had to say.
She had been ready to die with regrets. Now she might have to live with them instead.
And live with the fact that she loved Noah Colton with every stubborn, terrified inch of her soul.
And she’d pushed him away before she could understand any of it.
A soft knock interrupted her spiraling thoughts. Expecting another nurse, Sabrina called a distracted “Come in.”
The woman who entered wasn’t wearing scrubs but rather dark slacks and a simple blouse beneath a white coat. Her ID badge read, “Ava Colton, PhD,” and something in her warm brown eyes immediately identified her as Noah’s family—the same directness, the same quiet confidence.
“Officer West.” She approached the bed with a smile. “I’m Ava Colton, one of the hospital psychologists. I’m not officially on your case, but when I heard a Sabrina West had been admitted, I wanted to check on you myself.”
“You’re related to Noah,” Sabrina stated, not needing the other woman’s nod to know she was correct.
“His cousin.” Ava’s smile turned knowing. “Ryan is my brother. The Colton family network is efficient. News travels fast.”
“Is he…” Sabrina hesitated, not sure what she was even asking. Is he okay? Is he coming back? Is he as miserable as I am?
