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Leaving him and Lila alone out here.
Dropping down to his knees at her side, Surf immediately touched his fingertips to her neck in search of a pulse.
Which he found.
At least she wasn’t dead.
But she could have neck or spinal injuries, she could have broken bones, internal bleeding, or any number of injuries that would make moving her risky, and the chances of him getting her back to the house any time soon were non-existent.
For now, it was just the two of them.
“Lila, honey. Can you hear me, mama bear?” he asked as his fingers brushed a lock of hair off her cheek. She was dirty, there were leaves and sticks in her hair, bruises and scratches on her face, but the pressure in his heart touching her, seeing her, told him there was nothing in this world that could drag him away from this woman. He would protect her with his life, do whatever it took to keep her safe. Whatever it took to make her smile.
When he got no response, he began to run his hands over her body searching for injuries. There were two lumps on her head, one on the right side near her temple. The bruising around it suggested she’d sustained it in the explosion the day she was abducted. There was also a lump on the back of her head, and when his hands touched it, they came away wet with her blood.
Moving on, he worked down her torso, along her arms, and then down her legs. When he reached her left ankle, Lila suddenly jack-knifed up, a weak scream falling from her lips.
“Lila, it’s Christian, sweetheart. You’re okay,” he said, immediately releasing her ankle and placing his hands on her shoulders to steady her.
With his night vision goggles on he could see her eyes glazed with pain and fear, it took a second for them to clear, and then she looked at him, hopeful relief in her expression.
“Christian?”
His name on her lips made his eyes blur with unshed tears. This woman had him all tied up in knots but in a good way. In such a short space of time, she’d become everything to him, and even though they had both kept a lot of secrets and had a lot to talk through, he already knew everything would work out.
“Right here, darlin’,” he murmured.
“You came for me.” With a sob she launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck in a way that reassured him that while she might be hurt, she wasn’t going to die on him.
Her death wasn’t something he thought he could handle.
His very lifeblood was tangled up in Lila Angeletti.
Because he needed this moment just to hold her every bit as much as Lila needed it, he shoved aside the NVGs and buried his face in her hair as he held her tight against his chest. There were so many things he needed to do, tend to her injuries, worry about how he was going to get her out of there when it was obvious she had an injury to her leg, ask her what Zara and Ross Duffy had done to her, but right now, all he could do was hold her and thank God that she was alive and in his arms.
After a full minute, he carefully eased her back, slipping the NVGs back on so he could see her better. His hands on her shoulders gently kneaded, and he could feel her shaking beneath his touch. She didn’t have a coat on, and winter was fast approaching, he wouldn’t be surprised if snow wasn’t very far away. Hypothermia was added as another concern.
One of many.
“Thank you,” Lila whispered, her hands lifting to curl into his tact vest.
“Baby, there is nowhere in the world you could be that I wouldn’t come for you.”
“We’re in Switzerland,” she said like she couldn’t quite believe it.
“I know, sweetheart, and I’ll get you back home, but right now I need to know how badly you’re hurt.”
It took her a moment to answer, and he wasn’t sure if the sluggishness was because of the head injury or the cold. “I … hurt all over, but … my ankle.”
Even if it wasn’t broken, it was hurt badly enough that she wasn’t going to be ambulatory, or at least they would have to move very slowly. Staying out here wasn’t an option, even if Zara and Ross were long gone, his team was hurt, Lila needed a hospital, and hypothermia couldn’t be staved off forever.
Her shaking was intensifying, likely shock as well as the cold, and there was no way he could expect her to walk out of here tonight. What she needed was some rest. If they were lucky, after elevating her ankle overnight, it would be useable in the morning.
“Christian?”
“Yeah, honey?”
“So tired,” she mumbled, and he could see she was fighting to keep her eyes open. Her system was crashing and what she needed more than anything else right now was sleep.
