He got a troubled expression on his face. “That’s not coming out right.”
Kenzie wasn’t all that clear-headed, but she thought she knew what he was trying to say. Hope blossomed behind her breastbone. “I’m listening.”
“You were right. I need help. I called Esri.”
That was good news—but it wasn’t what she’d been hoping for. “I’m so glad.”
“I’m blowing this.” He leaned back, let out a breath, ran a hand over the stubble on his chin. “Shit. I had no idea it would be this hard.”
“Just say it.”
His gaze met hers, a muscle clenching in his jaw. “I love you, Kenzie. I’m so sorry about what I said and how I walked out on you. I want to be a part of your life—if you’ll have me back.”
Kenzie’s eyes filled with tears, her spirit soaring beyond the pain and fatigue in her body. “In my heart, you never left.”
His relief was palpable. “I was on my way to your place with flowers and ice cream to apologize when I heard you’d been abducted. I was so afraid.”
“Thank you for coming after me.” More tears. “If you hadn’t found me…”
“There is nothing in this world that could have kept me away from you.”
Kenzie told him what had happened from the moment Don had walked in until she’d begun to lose consciousness. “I tried, Harrison, really I did. I tried to keep going, but I had to crawl, and it was so cold.”
“You did enough. You hid that cellphone. You stood up to that son of a bitch, kept him off-balance. You stayed alive until we could reach you.”
“I thought I was dead. All I could think was that Gizmo would die because of me—and that I would never see you again.”
Harrison wiped a tear from her cheek. “That’s not how our story ends.”
He took over from there, telling her how Dree had seen and called the police and how he’d used the Find My Phone app on her laptop to find her. He told her how SWAT had called off the search and how he and the others had pulled together to go after her. He told her how Gizmo had found them and led them to her. He told her how they’d gotten her across the knife’s edge to the cabin and done what they could to stabilize her.
“I’m so glad I was unconscious.” Good freaking heaven! “I would have been terrified.”
“I wasn’t going to let anything happen to you.”
“What about the other guy—Don’s partner? That’s who Don made me track. He stole Don’s share of their money.”
“No honor among thieves, I guess. We didn’t find that bastard’s partner—but we did find the money they stole.”
“What?”
“It was there in the cabin stashed in ammo cans. We brought it back on the helicopter. Hawke turned it into the sheriff.”
A new fear niggled at her. “What if this guy comes after Gizmo or me? What if he shows up—”
Then Dr. Warren walked in. “Young lady, don’t take this the wrong way, but I’d like to see a lot less of you in the ER.”
Kenzie smiled. “Me, too.”
Harrison stayed with her, walking beside her as she was wheeled off to the operating room. “I’ll be right here when you get out.”
“Thanks.” Then she remembered.
How could she have forgotten?
She squeezed his hand. “I love you, too.”
* * *
