Her body immediately tried to turn toward the being that made the sound, but hundreds upon thousands of noises came alive.
The comforting voice, along with another, immediately apologized as the deafening sound lessened.
“Savannah, can you hear me? Baby?” That voice she’d grown to love beckoned.
“Mmmm.” The groan sounded foreign to her ears, but Savannah did her best to respond even if it wasn’t legible.
A gathering of sounds approached the place she was resting, and soon, she was poked and prodded while completely unable to understand where she was. All Savannah knew was that she was comforted by the hand that held her fingers tight.
Questions were thrown at her, but all she ended with was confusion. Her heart started pounding and Savannah wondered if heaven was really the wonderful place everyone had always mentioned to her.
“Savannah,” the voice from earlier whispered. Closer now, with much more intent. “I need you to open your eyes, beautiful. I need to see that you’re with me.”
The fog she’d been stuck in began to lift and dissipate as she forced her body to respond to the voice. And then suddenly, she was free.
A plastic tube was stuck between her lips and a cool liquid filled her mouth. She swallowed as much as she could before someone pulled it away. The figures surrounding the bed were blurs of colors. Her eyes tried to follow them but only made her dizzy.
There was one voice, in particular, she wanted to find, the voice that had been her life raft, her beacon of hope.
“You’re okay, sweetheart.”
There it was. That’s the voice.
She recognized it and Savannah forced herself to close her eyes repeatedly, blinking until her vision cleared.
A man stood there. Someone she knew, deep within her soul. He was her other half. He held her heart in his hand.
“Look at me, babe. I’m right here.”
He became clearer. Savannah could make out his body, eyes, nose, and hair. She knew his name. It was on the cusp of her memory, right there within reach, but she couldn’t quite touch it yet.
Then everything flooded all at once. Her memories. The kidnapping. The drugging. Her death.
She gripped the hand clasped with hers, terrified to return to that place. Warm arms wrapped around her body as best as they could with her lying on the bed.
“You’re safe. I promise. You’re safe now.”
Through it all, his name burst from her lips.
“Beau.”
***
She was safe. She was alive. She was here.
Beau continued to repeat the mantra over and over as she wept in his arms. There was something both terrifying and comforting to know that she sought out his touch. He could only assume that the memories from five nights ago were overflowing in her memories.
The doctor tried to look over Savannah, but she wouldn’t loosen her grip of him. Beau was perfectly fine with that, but she was almost to the point of hysteria and gasping for air.
“Sweetheart, let the doctor look you over, and I’ll do my best to get you out of here.”
It had surprised him that her parents hadn't stayed longer than a couple of hours. They seemed nonplussed about the incident and he imagined they rolled their eyes during the call when her grandfather reached out. As if the kidnapping had been a burden for them.
Beau couldn't understand parents that had no concern for their children. Even his own mother, as flighty as she could be, would have been at his bedside. Hell, she had already stopped by the hospital twice to check on the woman she had never met.
The entire town had shown up at some point to check on the woman they considered their own.
Savannah settled back against the bed as the doctor looked her over. Her grip on his hand never weakened, even as he tried to step to the side.
Her grandfather cut his vacation short when Beau called him, letting him know what had happened. The man immediately booked a flight home and arrived at the hospital a few hours later. He’d been in the room with Beau the entire time. Neither of them had plans to leave Savannah, taking turns to shower in the attached bathroom.
Thank goodness Alexis brought Beau his duffle from Savannah’s house and offered to keep Belle until Savannah was discharged.
For the first two days, Beau was certain that wouldn’t ever happen. Her body continued to seize from the overdose of what he learned was Rohpynol; disintegrated down to a heavily concentrated liquid form. If it hadn’t been for Preston’s quick thinking with the use of the Narcan, Savannah would have died before the ambulance arrived at the cabin.
“Everything looks good,” the doctor told her as he shone a pen light toward her eyes.
“How long was I out of it?”
“Five days. That was your body’s way of dealing with the withdrawals,” he told her as he listened to her heart with his stethoscope. “You may have some temporary memory loss, but don’t worry, it should return.”
“Can you tell me what happened after I-” Savannah began to ask, but Beau quickly cut her off by shaking his head.
“Preston and I arrived not long after you were left there. They tried to make it look like a suicide.”
A shiver passed over her body, and the nurse that stood back while the doctor worked, reached over and added a blanket at the bottom of the bed over Savannah’s body.
“Where are they now?”