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26
It was the second most horrifying event of Alyssa’s life. The sight of Sebastian sprawled on the kitchen floor as Summer tried to keep the blood from flowing from his chest completely terrified her.
God, how she loved him. Him and Shane both. Why had she tried to deny it? Why had she tried to hold back something that was already so much a part of her? What had she thought she was protecting? Her heart? Her soul? They already belonged to these men. So much so that she had shut down every part of her that belonged to them to ensure she was able to wait for them.
“’Lyssa?” Sebastian whispered her name as she hurried into the seat next to the gurney the EMTs
secured in the back of the ambulance.
He wasn’t going anywhere without her.
“Yes, ’Bastian.” She caught his hand as he lifted it to her weakly.
“I love you, baby.” He stared up at her, the blue of his eyes barely discernible they were so black. “I always loved you.”
“I know that,” she told him, trying to smile. “I always knew that, ’Bastian. If I hadn’t known, I wouldn’t have been here, waiting for you.”
His gaze was almost feverish, pain and the loss of blood finally affecting his incredible strength.
“I was there when you left,” he told her then. “I watched you board the plane. The way you kept looking back, the hope and pain on your face, destroying me. I stayed drunk for weeks. Shane and I both did. We couldn’t have let you go, couldn’t have protected you, otherwise.”
She leaned closer to him, determined to keep the EMTs from hearing her, just as determined to tell him what she remembered.
“After I lost the baby, I dreamed of you and Shane,” she told him softly. “It was very dark, but I could hear you. Both of you. You were talking to each other. Assuring yourselves that I would wait for you. That I loved you enough to know you would never willingly let me go. Just as you felt me in your heart, I would feel you in mine.”
Surprise widened his eyes, tightened his fingers around hers.
“The loss of our baby would have been too much for me if I hadn’t made myself believe that dream was a bond to you and Shane.”
“You’d been gone for over two months,” he said faintly. “The nightmare…” He swallowed tightly. “Both of us heard you crying. Screaming for us.”
Tears fell from her eyes now. “Don’t make me live without you. Please, ’Bastian. Don’t make me do that.”
“Hold on to me,” he sighed, his voice so weak, faint. “Don’t let me go, ’Lyssa.”
“Never, my ’Bastian,” she swore. “I’ll never let you go.”
*
She wasn’t a crier. Alyssa often thought it was the only trait she shared with her mother. Margot, to her knowledge, had only cried once in Alyssa’s life. The night she’d sat beside Alyssa’s bed just after Harvey’s attempt to kill her.
“I didn’t protect you as I should have,” Margot whispered as Alyssa fought to keep her eyes open. “Now, I’ll protect you the only way I know how.”
“He knows,” Alyssa whispered, so weak. She had never been so weak.
“What does he know?” her mother questioned then. “What, Alyssa?”
“Spain … he knows.”
“Don’t worry, darling.” A tear slipped from Margot’s eye as she touched Alyssa’s cheek gently. “He’ll not tell a soul. I’ll make sure of it.”
Her mother had given her life to protect Alyssa, and now, Sebastian may well do the same.
As the ambulance raced into the emergency entrance, Sebastian’s eyes drifted closed, but his grip on her hand remained until the EMTs rushed him from the emergency vehicle.
Following, she found Shane waiting as she went to step from the ambulance, his hands gripping her hips and lifting her out, placing her gently on her feet before they rushed into the emergency entrance behind the EMTs.
Alyssa was only barely aware of the crowd that followed them. And it wasn’t a small crowd.
