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“What do you mean?”
“I went to parkour with the guys, and then for a drink afterward. Then I started feeling really odd, and it just got worse and worse. I had to sit down. I think I must have passed out on the sidewalk.”
“You didn’t take anything?”
“No.”
My heart clenches. “Are you sure?”
He frowns at me. “Kate. I’m not going to lie to you about something like that. I promised I won’t hide stuff from you and I won’t. I’m not that guy.”
Okay then.
His jaw shifts like he’s grinding grass in his molars. “I was followed.”
“What?When?”
“After I left the bar and before I passed out. I’ve no idea who he was. I jumped him, and he didn’t put up much of a fight. He was some goon, not great at the following gig. He got away from me, and I started to feel really odd and woke up here. The only thing I can think is that he put something in my drink at the bar.” He lets out a long sigh. “Darren said someone was asking around about me at parkour, months ago.”
My eyes widen. “Why didn’t you say something? Do you know who it was?” He grimaces. “No idea.” Then a small smile twists his mouth. “You and I have had other things going on that seemed more important.”
Oh God, the wedding and my awful family.
He must see something in my face because he squeezes my fingers. “I meant the nice things, Kate.”
“But beingfollowed, Fabian. Why would someone do that?”
He raises his eyebrows, clearly amused. “I can think of a lot of people I’ve annoyed. I just don’t know how anyone would find out who I was from my hacking; I’m very, very careful. But this has to be something to do with the hack on Janus’s company.”
“Are you going to tell Janus?”
“God, I don’t know.” He blows out a long breath. “I’ve not forgiven myself for bringing that problem to his front door, and I really don’t want to worry him. He’s got enough on his plate. And what could he do anyway? Put a security system in my apartment. Which I can sort myself.”
“God, Fabian, putting something in your drink, though ... that’s pretty serious.”
“I’ll do some digging: online, on the street. At least I know what this guy looks like.”
Some pressure sitting below my ribs eases. “Okay.”
His mouth curls up at one corner. “Come here,” he says, and I lean forward as he wraps his arms around me. The scent of hospital mingles with warm male, and something that’s been frozen inside me since I saw who was on the stretcher starts to thaw. Without warning, a huge lump forms in my throat.
“I thought I’d lost you,” I whisper into his collarbone above his green gown.
He groans. “Kate.”
He tips his head down to look at me, and his hand comes up to brush over my cheek, pushing tears across my skin. I pull back and turn away, and he makes a small noise in the back of his throat.
“It was touch and go and …” I say.
“Whatever this is, I don’t want to put you through something like this again. No more trips to the ER,” he says, taking my chin and turning my head back to his, eyes soft like feathers.
His eyes roam over my face, and he rolls his lips together. “I love you, Kate,” he says, and my breath disappears, the floodgates opening in earnest now as I collapse forward onto his chest.
“That bad, hunh? Thought as much.” A smile threads through his voice, and I sit back laughing with a strangled huff, wiping at the mess on my cheeks and smearing wet everywhere.
I look at the curly hair and long nose, the scruff on his chin, those damn eyelashes. Air inflates my chest, and I spread my wings, wind rising under them.
“I love you too,” I say, and his eyes widen and light dances over his face before he crinkles into a broad grin. He tips his head back, blinking at the ceiling and then his glassy eyes meet mine.
