Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
On instinct, I hugged him, gripped him hard, and squeezed. “You okay?”
He flinched at my touch, his arms at his sides like he didn’t know how to reciprocate my affection. But then his arms moved and closed around my body. “Yeah…I’m okay.” He gave me a squeeze before he pulled away.
“Where is he?” Bastien was the first person I’d expected to see, but he wasn’t there. Maybe he was in the restroom or the cafeteria. But I couldn’t imagine him leaving until he saw me first.
“He’s getting stitched up.”
“Stitched up?”
“Guess he didn’t tell you that.”
“Tell me what?”
“He got stabbed in the arm. But he’ll be fine.”
“He got stabbed?”
“He’s been shot, so this is nothing.”
“What?”
“Not now, but a couple years ago—”
“Luca.”
I heard his voice behind me and immediately turned to see his face.
He gave Luca a cold stare. “You have the worst bedside manner I’ve ever seen.”
“I told her you were fine,” he argued.
“You told her I was shot,” Bastien snapped. “She did not need to know that.”
I moved into his chest and hugged him tight, smelling the rain that had dampened his clothes. He was alive and well, and I squeezed him as I treasured that fact.
His arms circled my shoulders, and he held me there, let me hold on to him like a life raft. “It’s alright, sweetheart.”
Luca silently excused himself.
I pulled away and looked at Bastien’s arm, seeing the thick bandage that had been wrapped tightly around his bicep. “You kill the asshole who did this to you?”
He gave a slight smile. “You know I did.”
“Where have you been shot?”
The smile disappeared. “That was a long time ago.”
“Where?”
His hand moved to the back of his head, and he rubbed an area behind his ear. “It grazed me. It’s the one spot where I can’t grow hair.”
“You were shot in the head?”
“I said grazed.”
“Jesus.” He was right in front of me, alive and healthy, probably healthier than he’d have been if none of this had happened and he’d been able to eat that steak. But I still felt winded, like the action continued even though the end had arrived. “Where is he?”
“With the ER staff.”
“No updates?”
He shook his head.
“What did they do to him?”
Bastien never answered the question. “You want to wait for him here or head home? I can have my guys call with an update.”
If I went home, I would just pace the room and wish I were at the hospital. “I’m going to wait here. I understand if you want to go home and clean up.”
“I go where you go, sweetheart.” He guided me to one of the chairs and sat down. “It’s probably going to be a while, so get comfortable.”
I sat there and crossed my legs, still in the same outfit I’d worn to dinner, a low-cut sweater with tight jeans and boots. The ER was packed with people who were waiting to be seen or waiting for an update about their loved ones. The TVs in the corners showed sports or soap operas.
Having to sit there and wait was anticlimactic after all the fear that had gripped me for the last hour.
Luca took a seat beside Bastien.
“Did you get him?” Bastien asked in a quiet voice.
He shook his head. “Disappeared into the crypt…like a cockroach.”
Bastien said nothing else.
I wasn’t sure who they spoke of.
Luca continued. “By the time I reached the caverns, it would have been too late.”
Bastien remained quiet.
Luca slouched in the chair and stared at the TV.
“You don’t have to wait here,” Bastien said. “You don’t have to pretend to care about this shithead.”
“I don’t care about him—but I care about you and Fleur.”
I was scared for Adrien, but Luca’s words broke through the fear and made me smile. “Best friends…”
The doctor finally gave us an update.
Adrien had lost a lot of blood but was able to get a transfusion soon enough to survive the ordeal. It sounded like he’d been stabbed all over his body. We were invited to visit him in his room, but I was the only one who went in because Bastien didn’t seem interested in seeing him.
I walked into the empty room and found him asleep in bed, the monitors beeping quietly, the streetlights shining through the closed blinds. It was a private room, so he was the only one in there.
I approached the bed and looked down at him, his skin so pale, his body so lifeless. He looked like he’d lost ten pounds even though he’d been fit the last time I’d seen him. It was either the loss of blood or the stress…or he really had lost that much weight since the last time I’d seen him.
As if he knew I was there, he opened his eyes slowly. It took him a second to focus on my face and another second for him to recognize me. “Fleur…” His voice cracked like he’d been asleep for a long time, when it’d only been a few hours at most. He slowly moved his hand across the bed and inched closer to mine to take it.