“It is though.” She pushed forward, back into his arms, and he didn’t have the strength to hold her away. “It feels real to me. You feel real.”
“I’m not here. I landed badly. I’m lying in a hospital somewhere.” The bright white lights. The harsh smells. “This… I don’t know what this is.”
Her arms tightened around his waist as she laid her head on his chest. Her voice was low but determined. “I don’t care what this is. I don’t care if no one believes it or it doesn’t make sense.”
“You must care, Ellie.” He didn’t want her to care about making sense: he wantedher. He wanted her to hold on to him exactly as she was. But how could he expect that of her? Now, when he finally found the one woman he could imagine a life with, his life was already over. And he wanted more for her. “How can we have any kind of future? How can we ever be together?”
She leaned back, then, and looked up at him, and there was nothing but determination and strength in her gaze. “We’re togethernow. I’m not letting you go because I’m scared about the future. We’ll find a way.”
“Will we? Ellie… this…” Fuck. He’d known the truth would hurt.
But Ellie didn’t let him go. Her hands on his waist held him tethered to the ground. Her determination tethered her to him. He had learned to walk away—she had the strength to stay.
“Idon’tcare about any of that. We have to wake you up, and then you’ll… I don’t know—” She gave him a tiny smile. “You’ll float back together somehow.”
He barked out a rough laugh. A laugh of combined misery and joy. How did she do this to him? “I want to believe you,” he murmured.
“Believe, Josh.” Her smile grew more confident as she gave his words back to him. “Ibelieve inyou.”
He tucked her hair behind her ears before cradling her cheeks gently, looking into her eyes. Seeing her resilience, her trust, the truth of just how much she cared for him.
God. He could fall for her. He could fall all the way and never even care about the landing. He could love her forever.
“Okay,” he agreed softly. “I can believe in magic. Because I believe in you.”
She stood up on her toes to press a quick kiss to his lips. “Good. Because now we have to find Vic, and figure out exactly how involved she is—and just how much danger we’re all in.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Ellie calledVic again and again. Left messages. Tried her DMs. Called her home… and got nothing. She didn’t want to believe her closest friend in the world, the woman she saw as her sister, could have been actively working to hurt her all this time. She had to listen to Vic’s voice. Give her a chance to explain. And then she would know what to do.
Eventually, just as she was climbing in her car to drive there in person, Vic answered. “Hello, Ellie.”
“Thank God, Vic. I?—”
“I can’t speak to you now, Ellie, I’m busy,” Vic said. Her tone was distant, threaded through with irritation. “I just answered to tell you to stop calling me. I don’t want to speak to you.”
The words hurt, and, for the first time, Ellie didn’t hold back. “Did you try to kill me, Victoria?”
“Did Iwhat?”
“Did you try to kill me?” Ellie’s voice cracked. “I want the truth.”
“What? God! How can you…? Are you insane?” Victoria’s words were fast and high pitched. “Wait. When did someone try to kill you?”
“I’m talking about my cycling accident, Vic. It was intentional.”
“It was… what? I don’t understand.”
The shock, confusion, and horror in Vic’s voice was undeniable. And despite everything, Ellie had known her for enough years to know it wasn’t an act. Vic wasn’t pretending to be surprised. She was genuinely appalled. And that meant she was in danger.
“Just listen, okay. You’re my best friend. I love you. And I need you to listen.” Ellie paced through her cottage to stand at the living room doors, looking out at the garden. “I don’t know how to say this. Don’t put down the phone. Just let me finish. Please.” Ellie looked back at Josh where he’d settled onto the sofa to watch her with undisguised concern and tried to give him a reassuring smile. “Someone broke into my house while I was in London.”
Vic sucked in a shuddering breath. “God. Sorry, Ellie. Are you okay? Yes, of course you are. You just said you weren’t there. You should… I…” Vi’s voice trailed off, and when she spoke again her tone was firmer. “What does that have to do with your accident?”
“The intruder’s name is Liam Taylor. He came into my house. He used my name to try to hack my computer. And Vic, he was part of my accident. He was the one who pushed me to the front so the SUV could drive into me”—her gut tightened painfully as she told the story, but Vic needed to know the truth—“and he was working with Warren.”
“Warren?” Vic said roughly. “No. That’s just… No.”
