Page 47 of Valor (Long Hot Summer: Christian Romantic Suspense #2)

GIBSON

Lani is sleeping softly beneath the dim light above the hospital bed. Her expression is haunted though, and it kills me to see it. Every now and then, she whimpers in her sleep. I try to ease her fear even in sleeping by holding her hand in mine, but it doesn’t soften the line between her brows.

Her agony cuts me to the bone. I want to take all of it. I would cut the beating heart out of my very chest and give it to her if it meant she’d never feel like this again.

The door opens softly behind me. I expect it to be a nurse coming to check her vitals, but it’s Dylan who steps into the light. He takes a seat in the chair beside me, his haunted expression trained on his younger sister.

“How is she?” he asks.

“Broken.” I don’t see the sense in softening it. Not with her brothers, who all carry their own weights—Dylan more than most.

He nods. “Any idea who put her in that hell?”

“Someone who has access to hospital equipment,” I tell him. “That’s all I’ve got so far. The crime scene unit ran the prints we found at the cabin and they all belong to Lani. Whoever took her was careful. They wiped the place down before and after.”

“What about the guy who owns it? Need me to track him down?”

He would too. Without hesitation. Unlike the other brothers, Dylan doesn’t fully fight the darkness in him. Truthfully, I believe it’s what brought him through the hell he suffered at the hands of enemies overseas. The youngest Hunt brother would never hurt an innocent person, but if the life he’s taking is an immediate threat to the people he loves, I don’t think he’d think twice.

“He’s been in the Bahamas for the past three weeks. An extended vacation. His assistant patched me through, and I spoke with him. He told us to do whatever we need to do and that he wishes he’d leveled the cabin as soon as his grandfather had willed the place to him. Apparently, there was no love lost between them, though he didn’t go into that particular drama.”

“You don’t think he had anything to do with it?”

I shake my head. “No. I’ll revisit it if something else pops, but I think focusing on him is a mistake.”

“We can’t make any of those,” Dylan says. “If they get their hands on her again, she won’t get away. Once you’ve escaped once, a captor will do everything they can to ensure you don’t a second time.”

It’s a dagger to my heart because I know there’s some truth to those words. Though I also know there is no chain God can’t break. And according to Lani, that’s exactly what happened.

“Lani still doesn’t know how she got out.” I lean forward, her hand still in mine as I glance over at him. “She says the strap securing her right wrist just came loose.”

“She must have worn it down.”

“That’s the thing.” I recall the image of what I’d seen. “The strap that connected her wrist to the bed was still secure. As though she slipped free of it. But it was tight enough to leave this burn on her wrist.” I look at the red ring branded into her skin.

“Maybe she loosened it enough to slip free?”

“Then she would have had to retighten it. I checked.”

Dylan processes what I’m saying, and I see the words sink in as he checks off every other explanation. “God freed her.”

“That’s the only explanation I have. I doubt she would have taken the time to reconnect it, and whoever took her wouldn’t have resecured that one and not the others.”

“They were still open?”

I nod. “Just as she left them. He saved her, Dylan. And He sent me to that road where I found her.” Emotion burns in my throat. “What I can’t understand is why He let her be taken in the first place.”

Dylan is quiet a moment. “What I’ve learned is that some things are not for us to understand. As angry as I am that she suffered, I have to believe He has a plan for it. That something good will come of her pain. It’s the only way I survive every single day.”

I turn toward him. His focus is on Lani, though his gaze is distant. I imagine he’s years in the past, countries away, reliving the worst moments of his life. His day-to-day may be much happier now, but those moments—those memories—will likely haunt him forever.

“She’s so strong.” I shift my full attention back to Lani, trying to imagine her fighting her way free from that cabin out in the middle of nowhere. It’s not hard to do now that I’ve seen the place. “She’s always been so strong.”

“I’ve always believed she was the strongest of all of us,” he replies. “To have gone through what she did as a child and still be such a ray of sunshine even in the face of it. God blessed our family when He brought Lani into it.”

“He blessed my life with her,” I say. When Dylan doesn’t respond, I glance over, surprised to see him eyeing me with a grin on his face. “What?”

“You’re just finally being honest about it. It’s about time.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’ve known for years how you felt about Lani. I think the only people who couldn’t see it were the two of you.”

“I’m not denying it anymore.” I turn back to her. “She’s everything to me.”

* * *

“No!” Lani screams and shoots up off the bed, eyes wide and wild, fists raised. I lean forward, catching her right before she rolls off the side of the bed.

She swings—her fist catching my jaw. Pain radiates through the side of my face. “Lani! Easy!”

“I— Gibson?” She freezes, giving me the chance to look into her eyes.

“You’re safe.”

“I—” She starts, but trails off, eyes filling. “I don’t know why I can’t stop being there. Every time I close my eyes.” She covers her face with both hands, so I take a seat on the edge of the bed and reach for her, but she withdraws.

“You’re okay. It’s going to take time.” I don’t reach for her again, but I don’t move either.

“I don’t want to be this person. I don’t want to be a victim.”

“Lani—”

“No, Gibson. I can’t even sleep without going back there. It’s pathetic. ”

“It’s trauma,” I tell her. “And it’s going to take time for you to feel okay again.”

She shakes her head. “I won’t be this. I won’t be a burden.”

“Hang on.” I take her hands and pull them away from her face. “What do you mean a burden?”

“You’re literally sitting here at my bedside.” Her gaze narrows on my face. “I hit you. Oh, Gibson, I hit you!” She tries to cover her face again as tears begin to flow again, but I keep her hands in mine.

“I will say, best right hook I’ve ever taken,” I tell her, hoping to bring at least a half smile to her face. It doesn’t work. “Lani, it’s okay.”

“I won’t be weak. Not again.”

“You’ve never been weak.”

She doesn’t respond, just keeps her eyes shut tightly and shakes her head.

“Lani. Talk to me.”

Lani takes a deep breath but avoids my gaze. “It’s stupid.”

I gently grip her chin, tilting her face to look at me. “Nothing with you is stupid. Talk to me,” I repeat.

“I never felt like I wasn’t a part of the Hunt family.”

Realization dawns on me, and even as I want to stop her now, tell her that she is a Hunt, I sense her need to vent. So, I keep my mouth shut—for now.

“They treated me like one. Ruth and Tommy took me in like the daughter they never had, and Bradyn, Elliot, Riley, Tucker, and Dylan always treated me like their little sister. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t blood. But—” She trails off and takes a deep breath. “I’ve always known that I had a different start. There are times when I think I can even remember, which is crazy. I was two.”

“It’s not crazy.”

“I think I’m afraid to be a burden because I don’t want to be left behind. If that makes sense?” Her bottom lip quivers. “My brothers are all so strong. They’ve literally been to war and back. They fight monsters on every mission, but I spend three days in a closet and it feels like I’ve been to hell.”

My heart breaks, the tightness of grief returning. This time for the woman Lani refuses to see when she looks in the mirror. “Do you really think your brothers didn’t come back unscathed? That they managed to walk away without any lost sleep?”

She closes her eyes as tears continue to spill through. She shakes her head. “Of course not. But it’s different.”

“You’re right. It is.” She looks at me now, and I know she’s expecting me to agree with her. “Because they chose to be in those situations. You were kidnapped. Abducted. Yet you still fought. I stood in your apartment. I saw the damage.” My throat constricts. “And I saw where you were held. I witnessed the horror of what you went through. You didn’t give up because that’s not who you are.” I reach forward and cup her cheek. “I wish you could see the strength I do when I look at you. I wish you could feel what I feel when I’m near you.” I take her hand with my free one and place it on my chest, right over my heart. “You were in a living hell, Lani. Trapped in a dark room with no idea as to who put you there or why. You had no idea if you’d ever see the sun again, but you still called out to God. You still fought your way home.”

“You were there?” she all but whispers it. “You found it?”

I nod. “I saw it. All of it. And I have to tell you, Lani, the strap that held your right arm down—the one you said came loose?” She nods. “It was still closed, and far too tight for you to have slipped your arm free.”

She stares at me, eyes widening. “I don’t—I don’t understand.”

I lean in and rest my forehead against hers. “God was with you. While I can’t understand why He let you get taken, I do know He was there. Right beside you the entire time. You were never alone.”

Her shoulders shake, and she breaks again, tears flowing freely as she tightens her hand in the fabric of my shirt. She grips me close, and I wrap my arms around her, pulling the woman I love more than life itself closer to my chest.

I’d tell her now. Just how deeply I love her. But I don’t want her to ever think I’m only saying it to make her feel better. So even though it physically hurts to hold it back, I do.

For now.