Page 118 of Playing With Love

“Liza.” Lenox leaned deep into my space. So close I could see the dark striations cutting through the green of his eyes. “I don’t know how you and Allyson did it. I’d say it was a miracle but it wasn’t. It was all you. You and Allyson and sheer force of will, the two of you got Tucker up those stairs and saved his life. There’s not one damn thing you should be apologizing for. If you’d listened to me, Tucker would be dead.”

Would be dead.

Did that mean he was alive?

“His throat,” I whispered.

I knew it wasn’t the drugs that time when Lenox’s face went hard.

“Mostly superficial. A clean slash across the throat but not deep enough to damage his trachea or jugular. Two stab wounds to his right side. Probably due to the angle of attack, the knife missed Tucker’s kidney and liver but nicked a rib. Contusions and lacerations on his face from the beating he sustained. No broken facial bones. Orbital socket intact. But the swelling is being monitored. Last update was an hour ago. He’s out of surgery but hasn’t regained consciousness.”

I took a breath, my first full one that didn’t feel like my lungs were on fire since Dylan called to tell me Tucker had been separated from his phone and taken off the compound.

“Now you,” Lenox continued. “Minor scrapes and cuts from the glass on your palms. A deeper laceration on your hip that required three stitches. You have second-degree burns on your back. One is high—shoulder blade diagonal across your spine, stopping right above your left hip. Another is down your right side. The other is lower middle back. You’re also being treated for smoke inhalation.”

I twitched my nose feeling the nasal cannula tickling my nostrils.

“Allyson was looked over by paramedics on the scene and was again checked for smoke inhalation here at the hospital.”

My attention went to Ally. She was in clean clothes, and looked like she’d recently had a shower.

Then Lenox concluded with, “She’s fine. Now that’s a miracle. Allyson got out the door right before the explosion. Firefighters were coming in the front, more were preparing to pull off the back door when she opened it. That’s how they got to you and Tucker so quickly.”

“Why?”

“Why?” Lenox asked back.

I shook my head and focused on Allyson.

“Why’d you come in after me?”

At my question, Allyson looked offended.

Offended and pissed.

“You’re my friend,” she angrily explained.

Well, that had been our cover.

But…

“You’re my friend, Liza,” she affirmed. “I couldn’t let you go in there alone.”

Most people would’ve.

Or at least I thought they would.

I wouldn’t let a friend go into a burning building alone but I knew nothing about friendship being reciprocated. No, that wasn’t true, Tucker had always been my friend.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“You don’t thank friends for being your friend,” Ally haughtily educated.

Yes, Allyson could be vicious in the best of ways.

“How long have I been asleep?”

“Seven hours,” Lenox said. “Give or take.”