“Shouldn’t we wait?” she asked. “For, I don’t know, the fire department or someone? Don’t they get people out of disasters?”
“All kinds of people rescue others from disaster, honey. It’s a hundred and ten degrees outside. Without the air conditioning, plastered together like this, without air circulation, we’re going to be smoldering soon.“We can’t wait.”
The scrape and thump of rock invaded their tiny space. The trickle of sand slid into their only fresh air. A sliver of light penetrated the darkness and seemed cuttingly bright to Giselle’s eyes, and it gave her a view of the small, rubble-filled space surrounding them. The sight flipped one of those terror triggers inside her brain. It didn’t matter that there were people outside trying to help her. It didn’t matter that Troy was in this with her. She felt the life getting squeezed from her body. Saw gray edges lining her vision.
“I’ll be good,” she whispered. “I’ll be good.”
“Hold on,” Troy said, his voice soothing now. “Just hold on.”
“Duke,” Zahara said, “help me with this big one.”
The sound of scraping rock seemed to rip at Giselle’s skin. She pressed her face to Troy’s shoulder, dug her fingers into his arm. “Pinkie promise.”
“Just a little longer,” he said.
But when they lifted that rock out of place, the opening destabilized and sent the far wall falling against Giselle’s back. She screamed as the mass forced her against Troy, and she found herself layered with dirt, sand, and rock from the back of her head to the backs of her heels. Her face smashed against Troy’s chest, and dust darkened the cave again.
“No, no, no. Can’t do this… Can’t do this.” She coughed hard as the dust filled her lungs. “Gotta get out. Out, out, out.”
“I’m sorry, baby,” Troy said, “I know this scares you, but we’ll come out okay.”
He would. She wouldn’t. She could feel her sanity taking that last thin slide out from under her.
She curled her fingers into his biceps hard, digging her nails into his skin. This was that moment to say what needed to be said before she never got the chance.
“Nothing’s been the same since I walked away from you, like half my soul was missing. But it was better for both of us. I must have known it would be somehow…”
The darkness swept across her vision, and she clutched Troy tighter.
“Giselle, don’t talk. You’re going to be fine.”
“I never stopped loving you.” Fingers of darkness invaded her brain. “Never stopped thinking about you. I’m sorry it ended so badly…”
And unconsciousness dragged her under.
Troy sat on a chair beside the gurney next to Ellie in her room in the emergency department and stroked her hair. He’d unbraided the honeyed strands once all her urgent care had been finished, planning to brush out the dirt, but he’d found it surprisingly clean from the braid. The nurses had focused on sterilizing her wounds, but Troy had cleaned the grime from any exposed area with paper towels and hospital soap after the nurses had gone.
Now, he heaved a sigh and pulled the chair closer so he could sit beside her. Then he pulled one of her hands from beneath the blanket and curled her hand into his. Emotion welled inside him as he stared down at her long, slim fingers and felt her chord-calloused fingertips against his.
“I never stopped loving you.”
“I never stopped loving you.”
“I never stopped loving you.”
It just played over and over in his head and heart like a skip in a record. The words brought hope and fear, joy and pain. So much confusion. She’d said them under duress, when her mind was twisted, when she’d believed she was going to be crushed to death. Not exactly a profession of free will.
And what if it was? That didn’t mean she planned on acting on those feelings. She’d loved him when she’d walked away before. The fact that she’d never stopped loving him—yet never contacted him over the years—didn’t give him any sort of hope anything would change now. That she’d want to try again.
The room’s curtain moved, drawing Troy’s gaze. Zahara motioned to him. When he stepped outside the room, he found his makeshift family of Renegades and their women clogging the ER’s corridors, including Jax Chamberlin, Renegades’ owner, and worse, Ryker.
Ryker’s presence at this fragile time between Troy and Giselle could ruin everything.
“Jesus Christ,” Troy said to Jax, exasperated. “I told you we could handle this.” To Ryker, he said, “You’re supposed to be in Syria.” To Rachel, he said, “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”
“Good to see you too, bro.” Ryker stepped forward and pulled Troy into a quick hug. And just like always, Troy’s frustration melted.
Maggie, the nurse who’d been taking care of Giselle gave Jax a stern look. “Take this int