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I placed my fingers on her wrist, feeling the beat of her heart. It was there, low and steady. She was here. “Hey, baby.” I leaned down close so she could see me. “You’re going to be okay.”
She reached up for me and didn’t quite make it. I wrapped my hand around hers, and with the other, I brushed the hair back from her face. I wanted nothing more in the world than to kiss her, but I wasn’t going to deprive her of any more air. “I love you.”
The words settled easily in the space between us, as if they were always meant to be there. “I’d planned to tell you tomorrow when I came back, but I never should have waited. I love you, and I’ve loved you for a long time, Lena.”
“I love you too.” She was smiling, eyes watering, but she was still groggy. Who knew how much of that stuff was still inside her and what it would do? “Of course I love you. I tried to tell you, just in case.”
“No just in case. You’re still here. You’re with me.” The ambulance siren reached me, coming toward us fast. “You’re going to be just fine.”
I didn’t look away from her eyes even as the paramedics came and I had to move aside as they checked her heart and lifted her onto the stretcher. An oxygen mask appeared, but Lena didn’t look away either. I was her anchor.
Someone waved, and I flicked my eyes up to Charlie. He raised his eyebrows in question, and I nodded. “They’re going to take you to the hospital.” I pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’m going to be right behind you, okay? Just going to talk to Charlie, and I’m driving to you. You’re not going to be alone for a second.”
“Okay.”
She closed her eyes, and I looked at the paramedics. “Is she okay?”
“She will be. You did well bringing her back. Now we need to get her in the ambulance.”
I squeezed her hand, and it took every bit of my will to release it. “Daniel?”
“Lucas is going,” he answered. “Evie and Grace are already on the way. They’ll probably be there before you will.”
Hauling in a breath, I let myself fall into a crouch and scrub my hands through my hair. She was alive. I wanted to throw up all over the sidewalk. If I’d called Ellen even a minute later, I might have been too late, and she would have been gone.
Daniel’s hand touched my shoulder again. “You made it,” he said quietly. “You got to her. She’s safe. Don’t dwell on the almosts.”
“Yeah. Easier said than done.”
“Don’t I know it.”
Charlie came and stood in front of me, hands on his hips. He gestured to the cops who’d followed me through town. “They told me what they saw, but I need to hear from you because it’s definitely not the whole picture. What the hell is going on?”
I told him about Ben and his connection to me. I was still trying to wrap my head around it and force my mind to release the terror and adrenaline still soaking my system.
“You’re sure it’s him?” Charlie asked.
I blew out a breath. “As sure as I can be. I think I can get a confession out of him. Especially if we don’t let on that Lena survived.”
He blinked in shock. “You want to fake her death?”
“Of course not. But I want him to think he won. If he thinks he did, then he has no reason to run.”
“If he finds out on his own?”
“Then it doesn’t matter.” I shook my head. “It’s just a precaution. He wants me to know who did this. One way or another, I’ll be talking to him. Let him enjoy his last night of freedom, and tomorrow, I’ll get you everything you need to put him away.”
Charlie looked at me until I sighed. “I’m not going to kill him, Charlie. But at least allow me the grace of saying I want to.”
A smirk appeared and disappeared in a moment. “Fair enough. Let me know what you need. I’m going to get this area cleared and taken care of. There was a generator around back, but it’s off now. It was hooked up to the ventilation and blocking the back door. Very cleverly done and fucking heavy too. Given the air conditioners and that, Ben makes sense. We’ll want to look for physical evidence to back up the confession when you get it.”
“Of course.” There was one more thing. Lena had said she tried to tell me she loved me. “Just one second.”
I pulled my shirt up over my nose and ducked back into the bakery through the broken window. The air was clearer now, the remaining smoke hovering near the ceiling, though things were still hazy.
Looking around the kitchen, I saw the vent near the ceiling. Things were shoved into it. Towels, and what looked like the string of an apron.
Fuck. The deep terror of almost losing her came roaring back to the surface. She’d been in here, knowing she might die, and she’d tried everything she could think of. It cracked something in my chest.
