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Someone was at my side, taking my hand into his strong, warm one. I knew that hand; I knew that presence.
“Taz?” I opened an eye, squinting into the sunlight coming in from a window somewhere.
I looked up and there he was, the sunlight framing his beautiful face as if he were an angel. And I saw his smile, and he truly was my angel, and I thanked the God I presumed had been ignoring me.
“I’m alive?”
“Yes, baby girl, you are alive and awake.”
I saw the IV tubes stuck in various places in my arms. There appeared to be a feeding tube in my stomach, as near as I could tell. It was obvious I was in the hospital, but how long had I been here?
“Do you remember what happened?”
“Of course I do, Taz. That son-of-a-bitch Kyzer tortured me beyond anything you could imagine.”
I saw his smile fad into a grim line. Apparently, Taz had been clued in as to the extent of the torture.
My voice was hoarse and raspy. Taz grabbed a Styrofoam cup from the bedside table and poured water from a pitcher into it. He placed a bendy straw in it, and held it to my lips.
I drank and drank and it tasted so good, so soothing to my throat. I stopped sipping, feeling quenched. He was staring at me so intently, so seriously. He looked so tired.
“Before you say anything, Taz, I know I need to apologize. You were right, I was wrong. He was a monster, pure and simple. If I had listened to you-”
“Stop,” he all but shouted, causing me to jump. “Oh, I’m sorry, baby girl, I didn’t mean to raise my voice. I won’t have you blaming yourself or apologizing for anything. Do you understand?”
I nodded. He was strangely calm and quiet.
“If I had been allowed to share with you the Intel that I had, you might have taken it all more seriously. I couldn’t, so you didn’t. You have no reason to apologize. I am the one that needs to apologize, baby. I didn’t keep you safe.”
I wasn’t going to let this fight for blame continue. The bottom line was that monsters like Kyzer Stanfield needed to take responsibility for the things they did.
“Taz, please tell me that Kyzer has been arrested.”
“He has,” he replied.
I breathed a sigh of relief, mentally thanking the God who had been watching over me once again.
“And Susanne?”
“Yes.”
Another “Thank you, God.”
“Then, I guess I have a lot to be thankful for, Taz. Those are really the important things, right?”
“The most important thing, baby, is that you woke up and you are still alive, because you don’t know how close it was at times.”
“I think I might have a clue,” I said, squeezing his hand. “I made my intentions known to the higher-ups while I was out.”
He cocked a beautiful eyebrow at me which reminded me of some unfinished business I had with him.
“Taz?”
“Yeah, baby?”
“Come closer, please?”
“Lindsey, honey, there’s all this stuff,” he said, indicating the tubes and IVs that were like spaghetti going in and out of my arms and stomach.
