The Shadows (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #13)(93)

With her hand in his and that beautiful face of hers staring across at him, he was transported away from it all.

“I love you,” he said, rubbing his thumb on the inside of her wrist. “No one could do this to me.”

“Do what?”

“Make me forget all my fear.”

She flushed. “I didn’t want to bring it up, but why didn’t you tell me you don’t like heights? I thought you were going to jump out of your skin in just the elevator. We could have gone somewhere else.”

“This was where you wanted to go. And like I wouldn’t suck it up for you?”

“I want us to both enjoy tonight.”

He lowered his lids. “I had fun in the car. Already looking forward to the trip home.”

As her scent flared, she let out something that sounded like a purr.

Later, much later, he would remember this moment between them … the way it seemed to last forever, stretching into the divine infinite. All of the details would stay with him, too, from the sparkle in her eyes to the shine of her hair, from the way she smiled at him to the flush on her cheeks.

Memories were especially dear, when they were all you had left of a loved one to hold on to.





THIRTY-FOUR


“What’s happening! What is … what’s that alarm mean?”

Layla was right behind Qhuinn as he burst into his brother’s hospital room and started talking. Over his shoulder, she saw Doc Jane standing by the bed, and Luchas down flat, his johnny ripped down to his waist, the covers shoved off his prone body, the pillows scattered on the floor.

Some piece of medical equipment had been rolled over and Ehlena was initiating something on its computer as Doc Jane grabbed a pair of handles that were connected by curlicue cords.

“Clear!” she barked, and then put metal paddles directly on Luchas’s chest.

There was a juicing sound, and then a mini-explosion on the bed, his torso jerking upward.

And still the alarm sounded, a single note that was a mechanical kind of scream.

“Luchas!” Qhuinn yelled. “Luchas!”

Something told Layla to hold him back, and she wrapped her arms around his broad torso, pressing her belly into him. “Stay here,” she said in a voice that croaked. “Let them do…”

“Clear!” Doc Jane called out.

The bed shook while Luchas’s torso seized again, and as he flopped back down, Layla’s own heart thundered. She couldn’t believe she was seeing this once more. Yesterday, it was Selena, now it was—

Beep. Beep. Beep—

“I have a heartbeat.” Doc Jane ditched what had been in her hands, throwing the paddles at the machine. “I need you to…”

Ehlena responded to the commands as fast as the physician gave them, providing medicine-filled syringes one after another before slipping an oxygen mask over Luchas’s face and adjusting even more equipment.

About ten minutes—or it could have been ten hours—later, Doc Jane came over. “I need to speak with you.” She nodded toward the hall beyond. “Out here, please.”

As they all stepped from the room, Doc Jane rushed the door shut, even though it was trying to close on its own. “Qhuinn, I don’t have time to sugarcoat this. I’ve barely got his blood pressure and heart rate stabilized, and he’s not going to stay this way. If he’s going to survive, I need to take that lower leg, and it’s going to have to be now. The infection is killing him and that’s the source of the problems. Hell, even if I do amputate below the knee, it may be too late. But if you want to give him a chance, that’s what I’ve got to do.”

Qhuinn didn’t blink. Didn’t curse. Didn’t argue. “All right. Take the goddamn thing.”

Layla closed her eyes and put her hand to the base of her throat.

“Okay. I want you to stay out here. You don’t need to see this.” As Qhuinn opened his mouth, the doctor cut him right off. “No. Not an option. If it comes to it, I’ll let you say good-bye. Stay out here.”

This time the door closed on its own, easing back into place.

Closing her eyes briefly, Layla could not imagine what they were doing in there. There had been plenty of surgical equipment with them, though—as if Doc Jane had been prepared for this.

And given Qhuinn’s quick response, so had he.

“He’s going to kill me,” he said roughly. “If he survives.”

“You don’t have a choice.”

“I could let him die.”

“Could your conscience handle that?”

“No.”

“So there’s no choice.” She put her palms to her face and tried to get the image of Luchas on that bed out of her head. “God, how has it come to this?”

“Maybe I should tell her to stop it.”

“And then what?”

“I don’t know. I don’t f*cking know.”

They were out in the hall forever, and Layla tried not to hear the sounds from the other side of that door, especially when there was a subtle whrrrrring that seemed really close to a miniature chainsaw firing up. Whereas she stayed still, Qhuinn paced back and forth, his head down, eyes on his boots, hands on his hips. After a while, he stopped and looked at her.