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Not just in this moment, something nagged at him. But for life.
‘No,’ he ground out. ‘You must go. You know more about the snake that bit her. I’ll get Raoul and Fabio to lead Brady and me back out.’
He barely waited for Cesar to agree before he resumed his continual monitoring of Flávia—checking her vitals, making sure she was still alive—and with each moment that ticked by, the reality of the situation rammed home inside him and words scraped against the roof of his mouth, paring away at it.
This wasn’t something he’d ever thought he could, or would, say to anyone. But he needed to say it. Here. Now.
He covered her smooth hand with his, before sliding his other hand beneath it, too. As though he could protect her from every possible storm, when the real truth was that he couldn’t protect her from anything, because Flávia Maura was that storm.
And he told her that she was a glorious, wild, terrifying monsoon. And that he...loved her for it. If this flawed, terrifying thing he felt could even be called love.
Although if it was love, his voice cracked at that point, how would he even know?
Abruptly, Cesar’s radio crackled into life and a voice alerted him to the fact that the ambulância aérea had arrived. And Jake stepped back, waiting for them to come through the doors.
* * *
It was just over twelve hours later when Flávia stirred from sleep in her hospital bed as the doctor came in to check on her. Jake’s neck was killing him from the awkward position he’d been sleeping in in the wingback chair, but he didn’t care.
Maria and Eduardo were still asleep—Maria on the couch, and Eduardo in a similar straight-backed chair. They had only dropped off around three in the morning, and he was loath to wake them, but he knew they wouldn’t miss this moment for a second.
He tried to follow as the doctor chatted with Flávia, and from Maria’s tearful laugh and vigorous nodding, and Eduardo looking slightly less pale than before, it seemed to be good news. He clenched his hands in his pockets; it had never been this hard to be patient before, but they’d been good enough letting him join them in the room. The least he could do would be to bite his tongue.
Still, it felt like an eternity before the doctor left and his heart lifted a fraction more as he watched Maria and Eduardo hug each other, then Flávia, then each other again. And then they both hugged him.
‘We’re going for breakfast,’ Maria told him, patting his arm. ‘Give Flávia a chance to tell you...the news.’
He waited for them to leave before crossing the room. Lowering his head, he stroked her hair and planted a soft kiss on her forehead.
‘I take it it’s good news, then?’
‘There’s some localised swelling and oedema, and they want to keep me in a bit longer for observation, but the preliminary assessment is that I am going to be all right.’
‘That’s good,’ he managed. It was impossible to articulate how relieved he felt. Nonetheless, his mind was whirling. ‘How is that even possible?’
‘They can’t say for certain, but there are a few theories. First off, it was a very young bushmaster. Also, it didn’t deliver the kind of bite that I know it could have. And because I’ve been bitten so many times during my career—not just by bushmasters, but by other snakes, by spiders, bullet ants, there’s quite a list—my body has built up some immunity to toxins. Enough that, when combined with the antivenom I received, and the fact that it was administered so quickly, I seem to be remarkably okay.’
‘So there won’t be any long-term effects?’
For an instant, he thought she hesitated, as though there was something more to say, but then she smiled. A tight, tired smile, but a smile nonetheless.
It had to be just his edginess which had him seeing things that weren’t really there.
‘They won’t know for certain until all the test results come back,’ Flávia told him, and this time he was sure her voice sounded odd. Strained. ‘But as I said, preliminary findings look good.’
He wasn’t sure he could take her lying to him.
‘Is there something you aren’t saying?’ he bit out.
She hesitated again.
‘Is it true that you were in that room with Cesar? That you took charge like it was one of your operations?’
‘Anyone would have,’ he managed gruffly.
‘I remember hearing certain things...’ she managed after a while. ‘At least, I think I did. It’s kind of hazy.’
It took him a moment to realise that it was a question.
