Page 96 of Saving Wyatt

When he settled back against the van wall, he winced and touched his chest.

“You okay?”

“My ribs,” was all he said, and as he passed the packet of gum to Slade, I glanced at him and pressed my lips together before I asked permission to unbutton him.

He nodded with a gentle but strained smile, and I could feel him watching me as I undressed him. I could feel his breath slow down as my fingers danced along his skin. I could feel his heartbeat as if it was under my very fingertips. He never looked away. Not once. Not even when Slade ripped the packet of gum and plugged it into his laptop and said, “Let’s see.”

I blinked.

“You scared the hell out of me,” I said in my head as if he could read my mind.

He blinked back as if saying, “I’m sorry.”

“Image is good. We got Wilson and Mitchell on camera. I just need to clear up the pixelation a little,” Slade said, and I felt his stare through the rearview mirror.

I pulled away on instinct and turned to face him, only to find Asher staring at me instead.

It was only a moment, but I could see something in his eyes. Recognition? Appreciation? Something.

Then he turned to Slade, and I turned to my bag so I could start cleaning Wyatt’s wounds.

“I can’t believe you came up with that. And that it worked,” Ash said.

“Did you ever doubt me?” I could hear the cockiness in his tone, and I didn’t even need to see his face to know he was being all smug about it.

And he had every right to be smug. Not only had he managed to create a discreet camera that didn’t need to be wired through a shirt, he had created a sort of remote battery for the camera button using radio frequency airwaves so it could record for longer. But the battery also served as storage for the recording. I couldn’t even begin to understand how he’d made that work, but if I knew one thing, that was how much advanced tech the military had access to that we were none the wiser to, so it shouldn’t surprise me that things like that existed or that Slade could build them.

“Let’s check the sound,” he said, and I helped Wyatt take his shoe off.

I passed the shoe to Slade, and he peeled the sole back to remove the microphone and plug that into the laptop too.

“I just can’t believe you came up with that in such a short amount of time,” I said.

That shoe had also saved Wyatt’s life by emitting a distress signal to Slade’s monitors so that when Wyatt was ready, they’d know to go in and rescue him. I could kiss the damn thing, but I saved myself the embarrassment.

Slade shrugged. “I’ve been working on these patents for a while. I knew we’d need something like this one day,” he answered and put his earpiece on, focusing on the laptop.

As we waited for his second verdict, I focused on Wyatt. “Do you remember those words I gave you?”

He nodded.

“What were they?”

Wyatt sighed and slumped back. “Eyes, van, sunset,” he said.

I smiled at him. That was a good sign. A very good sign. I still couldn’t be sure he didn’t have a concussion, but the fact his memory wasn’t affected was a good thing.

I took his hand in mine, using the dark back end of the van as cover so that if Ash did check the rearview again, he wouldn’t be able to see anything and mouthed “Are you okay?” to Wyatt.

He used his free hand to cup my face, and my eyes widened. What was he doing? Ash could definitely see that if he looked. Maybe he did have a concussion.

“I’m better now,” he said and smiled, and his hand slipped away back down by his side before he turned to the front and said, “I just hope angering him was worth it.”

As we reached Checkmate Road and Ash turned toward Duke’s sanctuary, Slade took the earpiece off and turned around to face us with a huge smile on his face.

“We got him,” he said.

I should have felt relieved. I should have felt lighter, but my chest tightened even more.