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I nodded, but I was already standing in the door of the room, ignoring everything he said. As I stepped over the threshold, I scanned the dirty faces. Sunny had been sitting on the wall behind me and saw first, because she had her arms around my waist before I even realized she was in the room.
“Oh gods, I was so worried, Tallulah. They insisted I get checked out before they’d let me see you. And this is taking forever, and no one would tell me anything except that you weren’t in serious condition. I’m just so glad you’re okay.” This all came out in one long epic stream of words, and I could barely process them all they were spoken so quickly.
I managed to say, “I’m fine.”
A TV on the wall behind her was showing the local news, and the top story was Car bomb explodes at Luxor.
“A car bomb?”
I glanced from the TV set back to her, but she was too busy fussing with my hair and wincing at my stitches to pay any attention. The other people in the room looked exhausted and vaguely annoyed with us. I pulled her into the hallway so we wouldn’t interrupt the doctor.
“Sunny.”
“Mm?”
“It was a car bomb?”
“That’s what they’re saying, yeah.” She touched my bandage and made a little tutting sound. “No one was seriously hurt. Some stitches, cuts and scrapes. Another cleric has a broken arm that needed to be set. No one died.”
“And you’re okay?” My gaze raked over her, making sure there were no secret bruises or cuts she had been too stubborn to report.
She looked as flawless as ever. Compared to the other people she’d been sitting with she hardly even looked dirty.
“You protected me.” Her eyes were wide, damp with tears. “You jumped in front of me.”
I didn’t remember doing any of that. But of course I would have. I’d lay down in traffic for her. She was my other half. If I ever lost her, I could never be whole again.
“Can we go?” I pleaded. “I hate hospitals.”
“Sure. You might want to call Cade on the way.”
I blanched. Why would she suggest that? What did she know? The guilty expression on my face must have told her a lot more than I’d intended because she gave me a soft smile and touched my cheek.
“Lula-Belle, no man calls a girl forty-seven times in one night just to make sure she’s okay.”
I flushed. “Did you talk to him?”
“I answered on call forty-eight. I pretty much had to threaten him with death to keep him from coming down here. He feels…well, he feels very strongly about your safety, doesn’t he?”
Safety. “Oh gods, do you know if Sawyer called her foster mom?” This news would be all over the airwaves in Nevada. I had no doubt Yvonne was sitting at home right now looking up phone numbers for the National Guard.
“Everyone is taken care of. Leo and Sawyer weren’t anywhere near the lobby, and that man is a lot more responsible than you give him credit for. They’re already back at your hotel, and I’m sure she called her mom.”
We made our way outside, and the warm night air smelled of dust and gasoline, but even that was better than the antiseptic stink of the hospital. I knew, deep down, the chemical reek meant the place was clean, but that smell would only ever make me think of death. Hospitals did not leave me with any warm, fuzzy feelings.
We took a cab back to the hotel. She offered to come to my room with me, but I insisted I was fine. The doctors didn’t think I was concussed. Sawyer was safe with Leo for the night, and truthfully I just needed a little time to be alone with my thoughts.
I stepped through the doorway, kicking off my boots and shedding my jacket before the door was even closed behind me.
The living room lamp snapped on, and I shrieked, grabbing one of my boots and hurling it across the room.
Cade deflected it easily. “What are you doing?”
“What am I doing? You’re the one skulking in my bedroom. You’re lucky I didn’t shoot you.”
“You don’t have a gun with you.” He got up, collecting the boot from where it had fallen, and crossed the room until he was standing only inches from me. He took my chin roughly between his thumb and forefinger and tilted it up so he could see the damage better.
Turning my head slightly to the right, he narrowed his eyes at the stitches as if they had personally offended him.
