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Ignoring her, he forges on. “I was in, you were in. I should have stayed away. I know better. Not your fault.”
A nurse knocks on the door and pops her head in. “He shouldn’t have visitors for too long.”
“Of course,” Dai Qing replies.
I take an extra moment to stare at Malik, really let myself see the damage Lorcan and Finn inflicted. His face is a mangled mess, and every time he speaks, his missing teeth make it difficult to understand him. The rest of his body is peppered with bruises and cuts. And there must be serious underlying issues for them to put him into a coma while they assessed him.
How can I be with someone capable of doing this? How can Ilikebeing with someone who does this to another human being? To Malik.
“We should go.”
“Yeah.” My gaze trails up to connect with Malik’s.
“I’ll be okay.”
Tears prick my eyes at how he almost wasn’t. And it would have been because of me. “I’m sorry.”
He squeezes my hand. “I’m glad you’re out.”
“Yeah. Yeah.” I extract my fingers from his grasp. “I gotta go, but I’ll try to come another time to see you when you’re better, when things slow down for me.”
“The job comes first.” There’s no bitterness in his voice.
His words ring in my head. It used to be the job came first; I didn’t think I had a reason to put anyone ahead of it. Now, I’m not so sure.
Once we’re out of Malik’s room and on our way, I say, “Am I going to make it home before Lorcan?”
Dai Qing takes out her phone, presses a few icons, and scrolls through. “Yeah. They’re detaining him under some bullshit reasons. It’s weird he isn’t lawyering up.”
“It’s not weird.” I push my hair off my shoulders, wishing I’d put it into a ponytail. My fingers fumble for the elastic I keep on my wrist, but it’s missing. “If he lawyers up, Finn will realize he was here. Lorcan thinks he can beat the system, keep other people out of it.”
A chuckle escapes her. “Confidence for days.”
A wry smile twists my lips. “Neither of them has a self-confidence problem.”
“Will Finn be an obstacle for you?”
I ease my hands into the back pockets of my jeans as we come to a stop where we’ll part ways, so I can catch my flight home. “Only if he remembers.” I rub my cheek. “I need to play him better. He’s tough to get a beat on.”
“SOS as soon as it looks like it’s going south, okay? Malik will drag himself out of bed to murder me if you’re hurt.”
Tears spring to my eyes again, and I glance away from her.
“We can still pull you out. You’ll disappear.”
I shake my head, scooping up the couple of tears that manage to sneak out. “No. No. I’m fine. It’s been a long few days.”
She observes me for a moment. “I will trust you know what you’re doing here.” She shakes her head.
“I know what I’m doing.” With that, I push open the door and head for the landing strip to catch a ride to Boston.
It’s late when I get back to the house, and Sean is at the entrance to greet me.
“I’m going to pretend I know where you’ve been because Lorcan will be pissed if he finds out you went out on your own without protection.”
“I was hired as a bodyguard.” I dig my hands into my pockets as I wait for Sean to open the front door.
“You know that doesn’t matter to him at this point.”