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“No,” she said, flinching back from him. He’d taken a few steps into her cell, and the sight of her retreating from his presence caused him to falter.
“Please,” he urged. “Please, let me make this right.”
“You can’t.” Tears filled her eyes again, and it killed him to know that he had caused them.
“I’m so sorry. You have to believe I never wanted any of this. I never wanted that to happen. I will do anything, anything for you, Ali. Just give me a chance.”
“Anything?”
He struggled to swallow the lump in his throat. She was considering the price he would have to pay to earn her forgiveness. And he would do anything she asked of him.
He nodded eagerly, dropping to his knees at her bedside.
Ali took his cheeks in her hands, and they locked eyes.
“Eli can’t be here anymore. This place…it’s going to kill him.”
Nik shook his head, unsure of what she was asking. “What do you need me to do?”
“I want you to get him out. Get him out of Rysburg.” Tears streamed down her face and Nik clutched at his chest. He felt her pain as if it were his own. “Please.”
“And what about you?” Nik asked, not sure he wanted to know the answer. She wouldn’t let Eli walk off on his own.
She brushed her thumb over his face. Her lips trembled and she inhaled sharply, preparing to give him his answer.
Before she could, he leaned forward and closed his lips over hers. He didn’t want to know.
“I’ll fix this.”
***
Chapter Twenty
Eli swung his legs over the side of the bed and gritted his teeth when his side throbbed in pain. It felt like someone was stabbing him repeatedly. He’d been told that he’d likely cracked a few ribs in the beating and that they’d take the longest to heal.
He’d been in his bed for over a week and he was fucking tired of it. He wanted a hot shower. And food. And a walk in the fresh air. He admitted he was grumpier than normal but being cooped up would do that to a person.
Ali still checked on him daily, sometimes two or three times and he continued to ignore her. It was easiest to pretend to be asleep, but he knew it wasn’t believable. No one slept that much in a day. She just couldn’t take a hint. There would be a day when he would move on, but he wasn’t ready to do that yet.
Eli slid his toes over the cold concrete. It felt foreign. He hadn’t stood up in so long. The poor healer had been on bathroom duty the entire time, and Eli had never felt more helpless or mortified. He wanted his independence back. What semblance he could have inside a prison, at least.
He started to stand and clutched at his stomach when he shifted his weight to his shaky legs. It was amazing how much muscle and strength one could lose in just a week of immobility.
“What are you doing?” a voice squeaked from outside his cell.
Eli rolled his eyes and ignored Ali, just like he had every other time she’d shown up.
“Can I get some help over here?” she yelled down the hall when he didn’t respond to her.
He muttered through gritted teeth, “I don’t need help.”
But his heavy breathing said otherwise. It was a chore to place one foot in front of the other. He didn’t even know where he might go—he just knew he wanted to move. He grabbed a fresh set of clothes from his bedside table and glared at them. There was no way he’d be able to lift a shirt over his head or step into new pants, not with each muscle in his body screaming in resistance.
Ali rushed to his side and gently wrapped an arm around him. She retreated when he groaned, unsure where to touch him, where she was least likely to hurt him. She didn’t realize the pain she had inflicted ran much deeper than his bones.
The healer was quick to respond and opened his cell with a look of exasperation. “What are you doing? You’re not cleared to be out of bed yet. You’re going to injure yourself even further.” The healer gently pushed him back toward the bed and forced him to sit back down. Then he grabbed the clothes out of Eli’s hands and began undressing him. “If you wanted help, you should’ve called for me.”
Eli’s eyes burned and he swallowed against the lump in his throat. He felt so weak and defeated. Nothing was going right for him. He caught Ali’s look of pity and couldn’t even blame her. He pitied himself too. He allowed the healer to change his clothes without a fight.
