“No.”
“No?” She blinked in confusion. Jos didn’t seem like the kind of person to refuse to help.
“I’m absolutely not helping you get dressed, or undressed, any more than I already have. Gods, imagine the captain walked in while I was putting you into trousers.”
His look of genuine horror made her huff out an almost giggle.
“Val is sleeping,” Jos continued, “and I have strict orders that you need to rest.”
“I have to see him.” Nim grabbed one of the blankets off the bed and wrapped it around her shoulders, letting it fall to her knees as Jos let out another beleaguered sigh. But he didn’t argue, simply took her elbow and walked with her to a nearby room and tapped gently on the door. “Rafe?”
“Come in,” a low voice answered on the other side of the door.
The room was bright with lamps and heavy with the pungent steam of something herbal boiling over the fire. Mathos was there, and Tristan, both men working quickly under Rafe’s direction.
At a glance, Nim could see that Val had been cleaned, his wounds already wrapped in soft bandages and a smooth sheet draped over his body up to his waist. But gods, he was so thin, his face gaunt beneath the dark beard. And there were so many bandages.
He let out a choking groan of agony as his body shuddered, and Nim pushed past all the men to grab his hand, kissing him gently on his heated forehead as she murmured, “You’re safe, Val, you’re here. I’m here.”
His eyes opened, glassy and dazed. “Nimmy?”
“I’m here.”
“Where…?”
“We’re in a safe house.”
“No.” His frown deepened, the muscles in his neck standing out in long cords as he strained to sit.
“Shh, shh.” She stroked his hair from his forehead, helpless, trying to push him back to the bed without hurting him.
His voice was so thin and rasping that she almost didn’t hear him. “We left her.”
Oh gods, he didn’t know. “Keely’s here with us; she’s okay.”
He didn’t seem to understand, instead he became even more frantic, and he started pushing weakly once more. Then Rafe was there with a mug, directing Mathos to hold Val up as he tipped it against her brother’s mouth. Val swallowed reflexively, and again. And then, as if slipping into a dream, his muscles slowly softened and he lay back, eyes flickering closed on a long, broken sigh.
It was as if his collapse had given her permission, because, finally, the tears came. So many tears. She lay her head down on Val’s limp arm and sobbed.
Male voices whispered behind her. But none of them were Val. Or Tristan. So she didn’t really care.
She still didn’t care when Jos wrapped an arm behind her and another under her legs and lifted her like a baby.
But when she saw that he was carrying her back to her room, she started to wiggle to be let down. “I have to stay with Val.”
“No.” Jos’s voice softened. “He’s safe here, and Rafael is with him.”
“He needs me.”
“Rafe is doing everything that Val needs.”
“But I—”
“No. You’re dead on your feet. You’re no use to him like this. Sleep for a few hours.”
“What if—”
“I’ll get you. I promise.”
