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Her eyes widened in horror. “It went through him?”
I nodded. “It did. But the doctors say his surgery was a success. He’s being watched carefully. I’ll have the first call when he’s awake,” I assured her.
“I want to see him. I need to thank him.” She jumped from the bed. “I have to go to the hospital. He has to know he saved me. He has to know what he did for me. He has to.”
The pain circled my ribs, suffocating me. She was on the verge of hysteria. The shock began to settle in. Her brush with death. The memories of yesterday morning. It was starting to catch up to her.
“You can’t go to the hospital.” I looked at her. “I’ll make some calls and get an update on Tristan for you. But this is the safest place in the world you can be right now. If you go anywhere near that hospital the press will be all over you. You can’t risk it. I won’t allow it.”
“You can’t hold me here against my will, Asher, not when I’m starting to remember. I have to thank Tristan for what he did. You’re not going to stop me.”
“Want to test that theory?” I taunted.
I wasn’t letting her out of my sight. She didn’t need to know I slept in the chair in her room last night. That for twenty-four hours, I hadn’t been more than twenty feet away from her. That I was holstered and ready to shoot at the first sign of danger.
There would be time for that. Her life came before anything else.
“You can’t be serious.” Her eyes flared. “I have my memory back. I don’t need your recovery cabin or whatever you call this place.”
“You’re not leaving.”
She crossed her arms. “And I was almost going to say thank you for the hot shower and soft bed, but I’ve changed my mind.”
I arched my eyebrows.
“You want to thank me for something else instead?”
She groaned. “No. I want to go home.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
“Then you go with me. You can take your old room. I don’t want you to, but I’ll give you that if you insist on this arrangement.”
“That’s generous of you. But I think I’ve outgrown the security quarters.”
“Oh right. Because you’re a millionaire now.” She rolled her eyes. “This is all insane. You’re not a bodyguard anymore. Why are you acting like one?”
“I’m acting like a man who is putting your life above everything else right now.”
“Why?”
I saw the way her face fell as if a soft shadow had crossed her. She let go of the hostility and aggression.
“Why are you doing this, Ashe?”
“My first answer wasn’t enough?”
“No. I don’t think it is. I want the truth. All of it.”
If only she knew. If only I could tell her. But my confession was a selfish one. I wasn’t going to put that on Journey. Not with everything she still had to face.
“That’s all I have. Are you going to be able to go back to sleep or should I call Agnes?”
She placed her hand on the door. “You’re an asshole. Do you know that? A bastard.”
She slammed the door. I didn’t exhale until I heard her last footsteps disappear into her room.
Eight
