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Jagger’s head darted up. His eyes were red-rimmed. “Hays,” he grunted.
“Ice chips?” Belinda asked. “Your parents are on their way. They went to a hotel for some much-needed rest, but we called when you woke earlier.”
Hays’s throat was raw. Had he been intubated? Not when Liz kissed him. Unless that had never happened.
“Thanks,” he managed.
Belinda spooned some ice chips into his mouth. It felt amazing on his raw throat. They didn’t incline his bed, and he felt pain now. In his abdomen.
There was a fight. Him and Peter? A knife.
He’d kept Elizabeth from being taken. Right?
“Liz?” he asked.
“Why don’t you rest.” Jagger said it like a command.
“Jag.” He drew a breath, closed his eyes, and prayed for strength. “Liz?”
“I don’t think …” Belinda started.
Hays’s eyes fluttered open. Jagger was giving Belinda an admonishing look. She raised her hands. “Fine. Put him back in a coma. He’s only your best friend.”
Hays wanted to smile at their bickering, but he couldn’t right now. What was wrong with Liz? Where was she? His panic made it impossible to breathe or speak, and that didn’t help clear his head.
“Slow breaths,” Jagger counseled him.
Hays closed his eyes and tried. In and out. In and out. But more than oxygen, he needed … “Liz?”
“She had to go into hiding,” Jagger said.
Hays pried his gritty eyelids open again. Jagger’s dark eyes pierced him. “Her father escaped.”
He groaned.
“The good news is most of his assets have been seized, and his associates have been imprisoned or are doing everything they can to distance themselves from him. Of course the public outcry against him is huge. He wouldn’t dare show his face. Quaid and Anna, Jacey and Cade aren’t out in public, but they’re not in deep hiding like Elizabeth. Aiden believes she’ll be Benjamin’s primary target.”
She was alive, but she was still in danger and she’d left him. Did she think she was protecting him? His heart hurt.
He closed his eyes again. Liz was alive. She was safe. He just had to find her. “Where?”
“Nobody knows,” Jagger said.
“Quaid knows.” He opened his eyes again.
Jagger shook his head solemnly.
“She’s alone?” The panic increased again.
“Paul Braven is with her. Aiden insists he doesn’t even know where they are.”
Paul. He’d protect her. What if she fell in love with the handsome pilot? No. She loved Hays. But she’d left him. Had they gone to some remote location? How would he find her?
It hurt down deep that she was hiding from him. She still afraid of her father. What if she didn’t want Hays in her life? She’d kissed him and said she loved him. Had that been a mirage from the medication? His head hurt from all the questions and concerns.
“How bad am I?” He closed his eyes again. The stress was keeping him awake, but barely.
“Bad. The knife wound took your spleen and some of your large intestine. Barely missed your kidneys. You lost a ton of blood.”
