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Torres shook his head. “He’s a bit roughed up, but I can assure you that he’s well and truly alive.”
Before I could say anything else, the door opened, and Jensen stepped inside. My eyes widened even more, and I practically flew across the room to embrace him. His strong arms wrapped around me, and a mix of relief, love, and joy surged up inside me, breaching with the power of an entire ocean.
“I can’t believe you’re really here,” I murmured against his chest, eyes watering with tears of joy. “I thought they shot you.”
Jensen released me from the bear hug and drew back to look at me. His jaw was bruised and his lips were split in multiple places, but he managed to smile anyway. “I’m fine,” he said. “They shot a hole in the ceiling to try to intimidate me. That’s all.”
“What happened after that? How did you end up at the beach?” I hurriedly asked, voicing just a couple of the myriad questions buzzing around in my brain.
Jensen glanced over at Piper. “Your parents wanted to hide in the sea caves after the post went viral. They thought everyone would be coming for them, and they figured hardly anyone would think to look in there,” he said. “They took me with them at gunpoint as a sort of hostage. That way, if anyone happened to find them, they could use me to negotiate a way out of it.”
“And then?” Piper said, giving him a hard look.
Jensen’s jaw tightened. “The rocks were wet. Your dad slipped. He was a couple of feet behind me and your mom, so neither of us could grab him in time to pull him back up.”
I gnawed on the inside of my cheek as I watched him speak. I had a feeling the incident at the cliff didn’t happen exactly the way he was claiming, but if that was the story he needed to tell when the police were around in order to keep them off his back, I was a hundred percent willing to support him.
He stepped over to Piper and lay a hand on her shoulder. “I’m really sorry,” he said softly. “It was a horrible accident.”
She looked up at him with a probing gaze, hands twisting on her lap. I could tell she was thinking exactly what I was thinking—it was no accident.
For a second, I thought she might voice that concern right in front of Sergeant Torres. Instead, she dipped her chin in a brief nod. “Those rocks are always slippery in the afternoon,” she said. “It was only a matter of time before someone got hurt down there.”
Sergeant Torres glanced at his watch. “I have to go,” he said. “Ms. Prescott, once again, I’m very sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you,” she murmured.
“I’ll be back in a while to update you all on the safe house.”
With that, Torres exited the room, quietly closing the door behind him. Piper rubbed her temples and looked over at Jensen and me. “I’m really tired all of a sudden,” she said. “Do you mind if I pull the divider so I can go to sleep?”
I nodded. “Sure.”
She gave me a weak half-smile and pulled the curtain across. I heard a loud sniff a few seconds later, followed by a tiny sob.
I looked back at Jensen. “Do you think she’ll be okay?” I whispered.
He nodded. “Yeah. She’s strong. Almost as strong as you.”
“I think you’re the strongest one out of the three of us,” I said. “You risked your life to save us.”
“I’d do it again if I had to,” he said softly, squeezing my hand. “You know that.”
“Yes. I do.” I sniffed back more tears and smiled. “By the way, the doctors ran a bunch of tests on us when we arrived earlier, just to make sure we’re both okay. I told them about the confusion with the baby’s exact age.”
“What did they say about it?”
“They did an ultrasound and agreed with Dr. Carmichael’s size assessment. Then they did a blood test to confirm the progression by measuring the amount of HCG in my system. It was definitely conceived at the very end of October.”
Jensen smiled back at me, eyes glimmering with adoration. “You know it wouldn’t have mattered either way,” he said, pressing a hand over my abdomen. “Like I said earlier… that’s my baby in there. No matter what.”
I arched a brow. “Just yours?”
His smile widened into a grin. “Ours,” he said. “All ours.”
Amerie
May 23rd, 2023
