Alonzo steps aside automatically. His hand reaches back and rests on Miles’s shoulder.
My eyes burn. “I thought you were dead.”
Miles’s throat works as he swallows. “I know.”
I take one step forward, then another. When I reach him, I drop to my knees right there in the entryway.
My hands find his arms. My forehead presses against his chest.
“I’m sorry,” I choke. “I’m so sorry. I saw you get shot and I thought I left you there.”
Miles’s hand comes down on my shoulder. “You didn’t leave me.” His voice shakes, “You survived.”
I pull back, wiping my face with my sleeve, embarrassed and wrecked at the same time. “You were shot.”
“I was, I couldn’t move my legs at first. I thought that was it.” He glances at Alonzo, then back at me. “I played dead. I waited. When it got quiet, I crawled. I found one of their cars and drove until I passed out.”
A broken laugh slips out of me and turns into a sob. “Oh my God.”
Miles’s mouth twitches. “Yeah.”
Alonzo crouches beside the chair, eyes bright. He looks between us like he’s trying to understand the whole story.
I nod. “Your husband is amazing. He saved my life.”
Alonzo’s hand tightens on Miles’s shoulder. “Thank you.”
Miles looks up at me.
“Are you okay?”
The question almost breaks me again.
“I’m alive,” I reply.
“Good.” Miles nods slowly. “I’m glad you made it out.”
I swallow hard.
“There’s something else you should know,” my voice hardens. “I made them all pay for what they did. Every one of them.”
Miles holds my gaze for a long moment. Then he nods.
“Good,” he murmurs. “They deserved it.”
I look at him, still half convinced I might wake up and find this is a dream.
“You were right.”
“About what?”
“That we would survive.”
Miles nods once. “We did.” Then he glances down at the wheelchair and back at me with a tired smile.
“And the bastards who did this didn’t.”
Chapter 81
