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I don’t tell him I have other places that also need attention. When the bomb exploded, I was able to spin us at the last second, which left me to take the brunt of the blast with my back. I wish there had been enough time to keep her head from hitting the ground when we landed, but I’ll never regret using my body as a shield—just like she was trying to do when she launched herself at me a few seconds before the explosion went off.
Evangeline tried to save me.
Me.
The man she put in prison.
My head is spinning, trying once more to fit the puzzle pieces together that so blatantly don’t want to fit.
From the looks of it, they keep getting more mismatched.
The nurse takes me to an exam room where she asks me a bunch of questions I mostly answer with a grunt. She eventually takes the hint and leaves me alone to change into the hospital gown she handed me.
For a moment, I consider ignoring her instructions, butthe unpleasant bite on my back changes my mind. I’ve only managed to remove my suit coat—or rather, what’s left of it—when there’s a knock at the door.
A man pokes his head in, gives me a once-over, and says, “Sorry, I thought you had already changed. I’ll come back in a few minutes.”
“Stay.” I start unbuttoning my shirt.
“Are you sure?” The doctor sends me a pitiful look when I try to peel the shirt off and flinch.
I nod, and he steps inside. He seems young and might only be a few years out of medical school.
“Let me help.” He puts his clipboard down, washes his hands, and puts on gloves.
We get the shirt off together, and the doctor curses under his breath at my exposed skin.
“I take it your back took the brunt of the explosion?”
I push a “Yeah” through clenched teeth and try not to cringe. But to no avail. He probes a skin patch, and searing pain slices across my shoulder blade where some shrapnel from the car must have cut me.
“That one will need stitches. Thankfully, most of the wounds aren’t deep, and the burns appear to be first- and second-degree. You got really lucky.” He scrutinizes the damage for several minutes, occasionally prodding at my skin, before he walks to the cabinets. “I need to clean your entire back first to see what needs sutures, but let’s start with your face.”
Several stitches and butterfly bandages later, I’m putting on the shirt Holden gave me. I think he said he had a change of clothes in the car he followed us with. Since it’s Holden’s, it’s too big on me, but I don’t even care. Nothing can keep mefrom going to Evangeline now that I’m all patched up and green-lighted to see her for more than just a glance.
Sometime during my exam, they brought her to another level. I catch up with Holden and what happened with the detective, then finally step past two of our security guards into Evangeline’s room.
I step up to her bed and take her in, noticing all the things I couldn’t see earlier from afar. The bandage wrapped around her head, the red gash at the corner of her lip, the streaks of dirt across her nose and temples. My fingers twitch, my hand halfway in the air, wanting to touch her, brush away the dirt, and make the wounds disappear.
But I stop and pull back, forcing myself to move away from the bed and to sit in the chair by the window instead.
Although I want to see those gorgeous brown eyes so badly, she needs her sleep more.
Later, I will get my answers.
Because Evangeline has secrets.
Possibly lots of them.
And she’s going to tell me every single one.
My phone buzzes in my pocket, reminding me I still have a text message waiting from earlier.
Canary
What a wasted opportunity to make her pay for what she did to you. It seems like the tables have turned.
I read the message several times, a sense of dread pooling heavily in my stomach.