Page 61 of Once Vanished
The sound of approaching footsteps reached them.“I didn’t come alone,” Riley said.“There’s nowhere for you to run this time, Leo.”
She lunged forward, keeping her weapon trained on Leo with one hand while checking Bill’s pulse with the other.
“Hands where we can see them!”Officers swarmed into the room, weapons drawn, converging on Leo who stood with his hands raised, the knife clattering to the floor.
Riley barely registered them taking Leo into custody.Her entire focus narrowed to the man before her.She tore the hood from Bill’s head, removed the gag from his mouth, and loosened the noose around his neck with trembling fingers.
“Bill,” she whispered, cradling his face between her hands.“Bill, can you hear me?”
For a terrifying moment, there was nothing—no response, no movement.Then a shuddering breath rattled through him.His eyelids fluttered, and he coughed weakly, a rasping, painful sound that was nonetheless the most beautiful thing Riley had ever heard.
“Riley?”His voice was barely audible, abraded by the rope’s assault on his throat.
Relief cascaded through her, so powerful it left her lightheaded.“I’m here,” she said, her thumbs gently stroking his cheekbones.“I’m right here.”
His eyes, bloodshot and disoriented, focused on her face.A faint smile touched his lips.“You found me.”
“Always,” Riley whispered, her heart swelling.Behind her, the officers were reading Leo his rights, but all that mattered was the steady strengthening of Bill’s pulse—the tangible proof that she hadn’t lost him after all.
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
The antiseptic smell of the hospital room burned Riley’s nostrils as she slipped inside, her body heavy with fatigue.Dawn light filtered weakly through the half-drawn blinds, casting Bill’s face in a pale glow that accentuated the violent purple bruising around his neck.She had visited twice already during the night, but each time he had been sleeping, his chest rising and falling in a rhythm that had reassured her even as she’d silently retreated.Now his eyes were open, finding hers as she closed the door behind her with a soft click.
“You’re awake,” she said, the words catching in her throat.
“So are you,” he whispered, his voice ragged.“You look terrible.”
Riley laughed—a broken sound that was half-sob.She moved to his bedside and lowered herself into a chair , her hand automatically reaching for his.
“The doctor says your larynx isn’t permanently damaged,” she told him, her eyes cataloging the dark circles beneath his eyes, the raw abrasions where the rope had dug into his skin, the lingering pallor.“But you need to take it easy after …”
Riley couldn’t finish that sentence.The memory of finding him hanging there, the noose cutting into his throat, his body limp and seemingly lifeless—it would haunt her for years to come.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.“I’m so sorry, Bill.”
His brow furrowed, confusion evident in his gaze.
“For what?”
Riley swallowed hard.“For what I said to Leo.For telling him I chose Jilly over you.”Her voice broke on the words.
Bill’s hand tightened around hers.“Riley,” he began, then paused to swallow painfully.“You said what you had to say.”
“But you heard me.You were conscious when I made that call.You heard me choose Jilly’s life over yours.”
Bill shook his head slightly, wincing at the movement.“What I heard,” he said, “was you playing Leo while you figured out how to save us both.”
The simple truth of his words warmed her.He understood.Of course he understood.This was Bill, who had stood by her through a hundred impossible choices, who knew her better than anyone else.
“He wanted to break us,” Riley said after a moment.“To force us to relive our failures.Chen.Pope.All of it.”
“He nearly did.”
“I felt it happening,” she admitted.“The doubt.The way I started questioning everything—even us.”
“Me too.”Bill’s thumb traced small circles against the back of her hand.“But we’re still here.”
Those four words contained a universe of meaning.Still here.Still together despite Leo’s best efforts to tear them apart.