Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Was that enough?
I wanted it to be.
I wanted to let go.
To just fully give in.
I didn’t have time to contemplate it further before River came jogging around the side of the house.
Hard breaths panted from his lungs and the air churned around his being.
The dread I’d felt all night swelled and expanded.
A thousand-pound weight that pressed on my chest.
Charleigh shot to her feet. “What’s wrong?”
River scrubbed a tattooed hand over his face, looking at her for one second before his focus drifted to me. “There was…an incident.”
Ice slicked down my spine.
“What happened?” It left me on a scrape of horror.
Grim sympathy coated his features. “Kane was shot.”
I staggered to standing, and my hand shot to the railing as I swayed to the side. Raven jumped up and wrapped an arm around my waist to support me.
“Is...” I croaked it, unable to get a coherent question out.
“Where is he?” Charleigh demanded at the same time.
His voice was hushed as he began to explain. “We chartered a flight to get him back here to Dr. Reynolds. Someone Cash knows who is a vault. You know we couldn’t take him to the ER. He should arrive in twenty. You need to get down there.”
“He’ll be fine,” Raven whispered, her voice quiet but frantic at my ear. “He’ll be fine. I know it. Dr. Reynolds is the absolute best. Charleigh is the absolute best. He’ll be in the best hands.”
I couldn’t even process what she was saying.
All I could hear was he was shot.
He was shot.
“I’ll stay with the kids. Take Emery with you,” Raven asserted, squeezing Charleigh’s hand in encouragement. “Take care of him. Make sure he’s okay.”
Charleigh nodded. “I will.”
“We need to go,” River urged.
My nod was lumbering, and I stumbled out into the yard. One second later, I was on my knees in front of Maci. With a trembling hand, I brushed back her hair. “Auntie has to run an errand really quick, but Auntie Raven and Nolan are going to stay with you.”
Maci beamed her sweet smile. “Okay, Auntie! Hurry it back fast because you know I’m gonna miss you.”
“I will, sweetheart.”
And I just prayed when I did, I wouldn’t have to break her heart all over again.
FORTY-NINE
EMERY
We burst in through the back door of the clinic. The same door that I came through when I’d been brought in by the ambulance. I should have known then that something was amiss. That there was truly something treacherous in the underlining of Kane’s life.
And the only thing I could think was, Please, be okay, please, be okay.
As if Charleigh could hear the prayers dropping from my spirit, she squeezed my hand as we ran inside.
“He’s going to be fine,” she promised.
Sickness boiled in my stomach and my head felt light, and it took everything I had not to crumble to the floor when River tossed open the door that led to the secret examination room ahead of us and I found Kane sitting up on the stretcher.
Awake and alive.
Hooked to a bunch of tubes and wires with the softest smile on his gorgeous face.
“Oh my God.” It wheezed out of me.
Supplication.
Praise.
I didn’t know.
The only thing I knew was I was pushing around River and Charleigh and throwing myself against him.
He grunted when I made contact, though those arms wrapped around me.
Strong and fierce and unrelenting.
A sob tore out of me. “Kane.”
A hand ran down the back of my head, his voice a gruff murmur at the top of it. “I’m okay. I’m okay.”
“I was so scared,” I choked around a sob.
He urged me back to look at him, his hands never ceasing in their caresses, those magic eyes flaring as he stared back at me. “I told you I would never leave you.”
Tears blurred my sight, and I could barely get the words out with the way cries clogged my throat. “You were shot.”
There were uncountable questions in the muddled statement.
How and who and what was he involved in? How was this possible? Because I didn’t understand the details of his life. Who he really was or if my niece or I were safe. If I was making a horrible mistake by allowing my heart to be right here with him, bleeding all over the floor.
His thumb brushed over a tear that slid down my cheek. “It’s okay.”
My brow knitted in the disorder of fear and relief. “Is it?”
Kane sent a wary glance at River who I felt hovering right behind. His own turmoil flooding out.
Kane’s regard dipped back to me. “We need to talk.”
“But first I need to make sure you’re stable,” Dr. Reynolds cut in. The man was probably in his mid-seventies, his hair completely grayed and a litany of wrinkles carved into the map of his face.
Kindness and care leaked out with what almost seemed irritation.
“Told Theo that I was fine, but he freaked out.”