Page 51 of Finding English

Chapter 20

Her chest ached, her whole body hurt as Cassie fought to open her eyes, feeling weighed down by a lead blanket. Lifting her hand, she touched soft hair and smiled, as Henry’s scent hit her nose. Her lids fluttered open, and she saw she was in a hospital bed. Confusion swam in her mind as she took in the cannula in her hand, and felt the nasal oxygen tube on her face.

Why was she here? Henry had been the one shot, not her. As confusion swamped her, Henry lifted his head and beautiful, tired gray eyes shone back at her. His immediately filling with tears when he saw her awake.

Stroking his hair, she let him cup her face, knowing he needed this but not knowing why.

“I thought I’d lost you.” His voice was heavy with emotion, thick with tears.

“No chance.” Her throat was raspy and dry as she spoke, as if she hadn’t used it for days.

“Do you remember what happened?” He sat up a little but kept his hands on her as if trying to make sure she was real.

Cass shook her head. “Last thing I remember you were in the hospital after getting shot.”

Her eyes flew to his shoulder, and there was no evidence of a wound. His shirt was clean, if a little wrinkled.

Henry nodded, his jaw hardening, and she knew he was hiding something.

“Is Michaela okay?”

“Yes, yes. God, she’s fine. She’s at home with my parents,” he quickly added, his hand stroking her arm.

“Then what?” Cass squeezed his fingers lightly, weaker than a kitten.

“Bunce grabbed you. He managed to get you to an abandoned restaurant. Jack, Calder, and I got to you before he could hurt you, but he gave you the drug we’ve been working on.”

Cassie’s head swam, she couldn’t remember any of that and part of her was glad, but equally, she hated not knowing what had happened to her.

“How?” Her brain was so foggy and not able to work as fast as usual. “I feel so confused.” Tears hit her eyes at her lack of control.

Henry rubbed her tears away. “I know, beautiful, but we can fill in the gaps for you.”

“How am I alive? That drug kills almost everyone it touches.”

Henry nodded. “It nearly did you. You went into V-fib in the ambulance, your heart rate was through the roof and totally out of rhythm.”

“Then how?”

“The doctors were amazing. They gave you beta-blockers and shocked your heart, but it kept going into V-fib. Then I remembered an article I’d been reading on the plane about a new drug used for anesthetic. It works similar to how dexmedetomidine does with cocaine damage. Anyway, they tried it and it worked. Your heart stayed in normal rhythm. They’ll want to do a follow up though.”

Cassie was trying to wrap her mind around it all. He’d saved her from Bunce twice. First finding her and then finding a cure for the drug.

“Is Bunce dead?”

Henry shook his head. “No, he’s in a maximum-security jail awaiting his hearing. He’s more than likely going to get the death penalty. They found so much evidence of his crimes, including your parents, he won’t be seeing freedom ever again.”

Cass let the tears flow. So many years of not having justice for them, of knowing he was still free to kill and hurt innocent people, and now it was over. The tsunami of emotions were too much, and Cass cried.

Cried for her parents, cried for her younger self, for her child who never knew her grandparents and then tears of relief that it was finally over. Through it all, Henry held her, the British hero she hadn’t known she needed.

* * *

Henry carried the last box inside and set it on top of the other thirty or so boxes in their new home. Cassie had been out of the hospital a month, and had no ill effects from the drug that had nearly taken her away from him.

She occasionally had nightmares when fragments of memory from that day filtered through, but she was getting better with the help of a therapist.

Cruz was still working through the mountain of evidence found at multiple locations throughout Europe and the US. Luckily, with the drug now having an antidote that worked, fewer people were dying, but they still had to find the source and the FBI were bringing in a new division to work on that.