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“Okay,” I said.
“No fight?”
“About safety? Never.”
“The cabins have everything. Food, water, all the medical supplies you’ll ever need. We’ve had the cabins for years, and they’re always stocked and ready to go. You can never have too many escape plans. You can never have too many backups.”
“When you say off the grid…”
“Generators and solar for power and a pump for the well. It just means we’re completely independent of the system. We don’t need anything from the outside world. Lots of bugs if you’re outside, but AC and running water inside. Comfortable beds, all of it. They’re quaint, but clean and in good condition.”
“What about you?” I asked him. “Will you be safe? I know you like to take risks, Boxer. And I know this is about so much more than just the women and children. Because it’s about me now. It’s personal for you. Please, please, keep your head. Keep your cool. Keep calm and for the love of God, come home to me. Because I swear to God, if you die—”
His lips covered mine before I could even get the next words out. His tongue slipped into my mouth, effectively obliterating any words or thoughts or feelings I had. That was one thing that was always the same between us. Lust came roaring back. Blazing through my veins. But my body was in no shape to enjoy him. Not the way I wanted. Not with the violence that I was ready to unleash inside me. That would have to wait until I was healed.
He pulled back and cradled my cheeks in his hands. “I’ll come back to you.”
“I won’t survive your death. I’m not being dramatic I—” His mouth covered mine again effectively shutting me up. A few moments later, he lifted his lips from mine.
“One thing that hasn’t changed,” he grinned, “your inability to stop thinking.”
“I won’t survive you dying. I won’t,” I vowed again, as though I could ward off his death by admitting I was too emotionally fragile at the moment to live through it.
“You won’t have to survive that,” he promised. “I’ll be careful. More careful than I’ve ever been in my entire life because, damn Linden, I have to come home to you. There is no other option. And I’ll bring him to you. I’ll bring you Dante.”
The hospital door opened, but Boxer didn’t move away from me even though we’d been caught in an intimate position.
“Sorry to intrude,” Peyton said. “But I have your discharge papers.”
“Finally,” I muttered.
“Chief Nelson wasn’t taking any chances. So he kept you here a little longer than normal.”
Thirty minutes later, Boxer was helping me into a dress. Nothing fancy. Black and cotton that barely touched my skin and allowed me to move comfortably.
“I’m not letting you push me out of here in a wheelchair,” I protested. “I’m not an invalid. My legs aren’t broken. Just my hand.”
“You’ve been supine for days,” he reminded me. “I don’t want you to get lightheaded.”
“Boxer,” I warned. “Did I give you grief about your limitations when you were my patient?”
“Actually, yeah. You did. You gave me a lot of shit about my limitations.”
I glared at him. “Well, stop giving me shit about mine.”
He smiled. “Alright, woman, alright. Let’s just take it slow, okay?”
Boxer grabbed the plant Freddy had brought me, and then we left the room.
I smiled in surprise when I saw Acid sitting in a chair in the hallway. He rose when we came out.
“Hey,” I greeted. “I didn’t know you were here. I thought you went back to Waco when the Old Ladies did.”
“Nah. A few of us stayed behind and traded shift watch,” he said.
“Shift watch?” I looked at Boxer. “Have I been guarded this whole time?”
“Damn right,” he said gruffly.
