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Her lighthouse in the storm.
Her safe place.
Her everything.
She wanted to tell him again how much she loved him, how grateful she was he hadn’t left her to face death alone, but it was getting harder to think.
“Christian, I need to go to sleep,” she murmured.
“All right, baby.” He brushed a lock of hair off her cheek. “You close your eyes, sleep. I have you.”
“You always have me,” she mumbled.
“Forever,” he agreed.
Unable to fight the darkness tugging at the corners of her mind any longer, Lila succumbed to it.
At the back of her mind, the thought registered that Zara was still out there.
Still a threat.
Chapter Twenty-One
November 23rd
8:41 P.M.
He couldn’t take his eyes off her.
Couldn’t stop touching her either.
Surf hadn’t left Lila’s side since he found her chained up in that shed, a bomb strapped to her chest, her naked body pale and littered with bruises.
An image he would never be able to wipe from his mind’s eye.
At least she was alive and mostly in one piece, and he was determined to keep it that way.
“Hey, man, we’re ready for you,” Arrow’s quiet voice spoke from the door of Lila’s hospital room.
He had to leave her now, just for a little while. He hated doing it, but it was his job, and the threat wasn’t eliminated yet.
Even though he was only going to be down the hall, debriefing with the rest of his team and their boss, the thought of not having her in his direct line of sight left him feeling anxious and shaky.
He’d come so close to losing her.
Close enough he still felt that terror down to his bones.
Lila had passed out back at the shed before Arrow had even administered a sedative, and she was yet to regain consciousness. After she had been treated and was comfortable and settled in a bed, he’d allowed a doctor to check him over, but in the same room as her. He’d dozed in a chair at her bedside, confident in the knowledge that his team was watching over them and he could let go and focus on his woman.
Since she’d been out since they got the bomb disarmed, they hadn’t had a chance to question her on what had happened after Zara found her in the forest. But Surf had seen the bruises on her thighs, and he could make a pretty good guess on at least one thing she’d been forced to endure.
“She’s doing okay, stable. Her body just needs rest,” Arrow assured him. The medic crossed the room, picked up Lila’s wrist, and checked her pulse. “Stable,” he said again.
“I don’t think I can leave her,” he admitted. “Don’t want her waking up alone and scared.”
“Chances are she’s going to be out for at least a couple more hours. She’s been through a lot in the last week with zero time for her body to even begin recovering. What she needs now is exactly what she’s getting, uninterrupted sleep. You’ll be back before she wakes.”
Surf knew all of that was true. Still walking away from her while she was vulnerable in sleep felt wrong.
