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“I’m good,” Blake said, coming to his feet. After kidnapping and torturing Hallie and Skyla, he wasn’t surprised by anything Vivian Bennett did anymore, even pulling a gun on them. What did surprise him was the lack of guilt he felt for killing her. Maybe it would come later. Right now, his only thought was getting to Skyla.
“Go on,” Garrett said. “I’ll wait for back up out here.”
Blake offered Garrett a silent nod of thanks and rushed into the room Caden had disappeared into moments before. He found his friend on the phone with paramedics, cradling a bleeding and unconscious Hallie.
Skyla didn’t look much better. She was covered in smudges of bright red blood, and her skin was deathly pale. He wasn’t even sure if she saw him when he came in.
“Hallie, baby, I’m here,” Caden cooed to his fiancée as she lay lifeless and bleeding in his arms. “It’s going to be okay. You’re going to be just fine. I love you, Hales. Just stay with me.” Caden’s words broke Blake’s heart as he made his way into the room.
Skyla looked up as he approached the blood-stained mattress, her eyes so full of pain and defeat, that he nearly tripped over his own two feet getting to her. He didn’t miss the camera set up as he fell onto the disgusting mattress, and pulled her into his arms. “It’s okay,” he said. “You’re safe now.”
“I can’t,” Skyla whispered. “I can’t heal her. She’s bleeding so much, and I can’t heal her.”
Caden growled his anger and frustration, but Blake knew it wasn’t aimed at Skyla. The woman would’ve given her life to keep Hallie alive.
“It’s okay,” Blake soothed, stroking her dark hair. “Paramedics are on the way.”She gave a faint nod, but her eyes were already closing. “I got you.” Blake tightened his arms around Skyla, pulling her close to him, but his gaze went to Hallie and Caden. Hallie had more bleeding wounds than he could even count, and she’d already lost so much blood.
“I can’t lose you,” Caden pleaded, his clothes already covered in her blood.
“You won’t,” Blake said. He wasn’t a doctor, but Hallie was strong. Caden would get her the help she needed, and she’d be okay. She had to be. There was no way in hell Caden would survive anything less. The man needed Hallie like he needed air. Like Blake needed Skyla. He looked down at the woman in his own arms and pressed a soft kiss to her temple. Her skin was cold and still so pale. She’d given everything she had of herself to Hallie, literally keeping the other woman alive.
Blake loved Skyla so much. The words were on the tip of his tongue. It physically hurt to keep them in, but she deserved to hear them when she wasn’t half conscious after going through who knew what at the hands of an FBI Agent turned psychopath.
He wasn’t sure how she’d react to him telling her that he loved her. He’d barely gotten her to agree to the idea of dating him. But love - that was a whole other ballgame.
A few minutes later, two paramedics walked into the room and got Hallie ready to be transported to the hospital.
Caden looked to Blake, an unspoken question in his steel gray eyes.
“Go. Skyla’s unharmed,” Blake said. He knew what Skyla needed, and it wasn’t to wake up in a hospital surrounded by strangers and monitors.
“Call as soon as you know something,” Blake heard Garrett say from just outside the door.
Caden gave his friends an absentminded nod, his focus on the woman he loved. He rushed after the paramedics, and hopped into the back of the ambulance right before the double doors slammed shut, and it sped away.
The room grew eerily quiet as Blake looked down at Skyla in his arms. Her breaths were so shallow, he wondered if maybe she did need to go to the hospital to get checked out.
“I’m okay,” she croaked, as if reading his mind. “Can you turn off that light though? It’s too bright. I just want to go home. To your place,” she added, and he loved that she thought of his place as home.
He couldn’t reach the switch on the lamp, so he kicked out at it, knocking it off the rickety bedside table. The bulb shattered on impact, sending the room into a soft gray darkness. Skyla tensed momentarily at the sudden noise, then relaxed.
“Better?” He asked.
Skyla gave an almost imperceptible nod. “Thanks.”
Garrett came in then, no doubt responding to the ruckus Blake had just made. “Are you good here?”
“Yeah, the light was hurting her eyes. Any sign of back up yet?” Blake had to wait and follow protocol for discharging his weapon. It was just one of the reasons he’d made sure to stay at Caden’s side. There was no way he was going to let a kill land on that man’s shoulders tonight when he already had so much to deal with.
“Not yet. Tanner’s keeping an eye on the guy he apprehended. I should’ve been the one to take that shot,” Garrett said with a shake of his head. “Then you could be on your way home with Skyla. Taking care of her after everything she’s been through.”
As much as that sounded ideal, Blake knew it worked out exactly the way it was supposed to. “No. She was mine, and I’m not sorry I did it. She’s been gunning for Hallie…” he swallowed hard, the words like bricks in the back of his throat. “What she did here,” he drew in a ragged breath. “I’m glad it was me.” He hated saying it. Hated that his first kill was a fellow agent. But he still couldn’t bring himself to regret it.
The room grew quiet again for a long while. Blake listened to Skyla’s breaths even deepen and even out. Despite the rancid smell of blood, sweat, and dust, she was sound asleep. It only went to show just how exhausted she was. Garrett stood watch, just inside the door, his expression hard as he paced four steps this way, four steps that way.
Then he came to an abrupt stop, his gaze going to the peeling, moldy wall. “Did you hear that?”
The only thing Blake heard was Skyla’s breathing, and the sound of his own heart drumming in his chest. “What?” Blake asked, sitting up straighter and shifting Skyla slightly behind him as he reached for his weapon. They were still waiting for backup and CSU to arrive, but obviously those guys weren’t in any hurry, now that the situation had been diffused.
