Page 82 of Bound

One word. My name. A command, a warning, a caress.

All at once.

I close my eyes. “I’m here.”

A shaky breath comes through the radio.

“I’m coming to you.”

My first instinct is no. But I need her. So, I force the word out. “Come.”

I stand in the old courier chamber beneath the rebuilt Village with Carlos dead at my feet and wait for Erin to come.

Mack appears first.

Then Erin.

Snow melts in her dark hair. Her cheeks are flushed from the cold. Her eyes find mine before they find the body.

She stops at the threshold. Her gaze drops to Carlos. Then to my hands.

Then back to my face.

I expect horror. I expect recoil.

Instead, she steps into the room.

Toward me. Every inch of me breaks.

She comes until she stands in front of me. “Are you hurt?”

A laugh almost leaves me. “No.”

She takes my hands. She lifts them one at a time and presses her mouth to my knuckles.

The room goes silent.

Blaze turns away first.

Rafe looks down.

Mack watches the corridor.

Erin keeps my hands in hers. Alive in front of me. Choosing me after seeing me at my worst.

I pull her into me. Too hard. I know it the second my arms close around her.

But she lets me anyway. “I’m here,” she whispers.

I bury my face in her hair.

Carlos is dead.

Gregory appears in the doorway minutes later, pale and shaking, laptop clutched like a shield.

He looks at Carlos.

Then at me.