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He loved me.
Loved…me.
He cupped my cheek, tilting my face toward his, and kissed me hard and brutal. My lips throbbed, my jaw throbbed. Agony carved through me, lingering in my belly and my side. And I didn’t care about any of that. I didn’t care about the pain or the past. I didn’t care about anything other than the future…chasing it a heartbeat at a time, as long as I had him.
There was a low clearing of a throat, drawing my focus away from us. and I realized suddenly that we weren’t alone. “Now that we have that cleared up...”
The familiar growl was etched with happiness.
Lazarus pulled away to turn his head.
From the gloomy corner of the room rose Benjamin Rossi. He glanced at Lazarus, then fixed his gaze on mine. Then he smiled, a big smile. “Kat. So good to see you, honey.”
I smiled at him as Lazarus took my hand. “Mr. Rossi.”
“Benjamin.” He laughed and shook his head. “I’m no Mr. Rossi, kid. Just Benj or Benjamin…or…”he let the last part trail off as he looked at Lazarus. “You want to tell her, or should I?”
Fear moved through me.
My hand dropped to my belly, fingers splayed, desperate to hold on.
“Hale is…making demands,” Lazarus murmured.
I glanced at him as my breaths deepened. Cold moved into the edges of my world.
“He’s doing a lot more than that,” Benjamin added. “He’s tearing the entire fucking Commission apart, working on Dominic Salvatore, pitting him against us in an effort to find you.”
I glanced around the room. The room that should be clinical and white, filled with the best doctors and medical staff. Instead, I was in some kind of bunker, a hidden bunker in a makeshift hospital.
“Don’t worry,” a voice came from the other side of the room. A guy dressed in combat fatigues strode forward, his kind brown eyes fixed on mine. “I’m Kirkland Greenhouse, specialist with the US Navy and a trained emergency doctor. Not quite what you need, but I’ll do in a pinch.” He glanced at Benjamin, then Lazarus, and nodded. “Given your…circumstances,we couldn’t risk taking you to a hospital.”
“Where am I?” I whispered.
“A safe house…” he answered. “Don’t worry, I just moved you in here for privacy. Through those doors is a fully equipped, sterilized operating room. When you’re strong enough, we need to talk about what happened to you.”
I swallowed hard, driving down the thunder in my chest and followed his gaze to a set of double doors. It was a makeshift hospital. Hale going after Lazarus’s family. It was all because of me…all because of me…
“You’re not going back there, Kat,” Lazarus stated. “Not now…not ever.”
“No, you’re not,” Benjamin added as he took a step toward me, his dark eyes fixed on mine. I shifted under the focus, now knowing where Lazarus got the intensity from. “Not if you don’t want to. So, if you don’t want to, Kat, then we’re going to need to make it so you don’t.”
Make it so I don’t?
Lazarus slipped from the side of the bed, staring down at me as though somehow, I should understand what they were saying.
“Kat,” he started, and with a trembling breath, finished. “Will you marry me?”
54
Kat
Two weeks later…
“Not quite whatyou had in mind, is it?” the familiar murmur came from behind me.
I turned, watching Anna step closer. She was beautiful, dressed in a pale pink dress that reached her knees and holding a small, simple bouquet of bloomed white roses and bohemian pampas grass.
She smiled, but it was a sad smile, one filled with torment and regret. But she didn't need to feel like that, not for me. A low ache spread through my side as I turned toward her. “No, it isn’t. It’s better.”
