41
Arjen
The multiple levels of guard protection Silvia Cardenas had around the resort she called her home didn’t bother checking our vehicle or taking our weapons like they had before. It was a sign that the matter was one of strong urgency.
We stormed the front door, causing the poor maid to jump out of our way as we crossed into the living room, no doubt looking like two ravenous hounds that had escaped from hell.
Silvia stood staring at us, her expressionless face, not giving away a thing. The woman had the ability to stare down the devil without so much as a twitch.
“Follow me,” she said before she turned and headed down one of the many wings in her house. She pointed at the door of one of the two huge bedrooms on the west wing of the first floor, not bothering to open it before she stepped away and left us standing there.
Khane and I stood in the hall and watched her walk away with the same empty expression she greeted us with. What were we going to find on the other side of that door?
After Mecca, Silvia had become a mother figure, in a twisted sort of way. She was who had helped us find the men responsible for breaking our father out of a prison that was supposed to be impenetrable.
My shaky hand gripped the doorknob, but I found myself unable to turn it. Khane sat his hand on my shoulder, his way of urging me to take the next step. My grip tightened, and I twisted the knob with a quick flick of my wrist.
The first person my wide gaze landed on was Desiree, her big eyes meeting mine as a huge smile broke out on her face. She sat at Mecca’s bedside, clinging to her limp hand. Khane and I crept up to the bed, our steps light and cautious.
“She opened her eyes,” Desiree informed us as her eyes immediately flooded with happy tears.
My eyes closed after the update, and I aimed my head towards the ceiling.
“God, I know you have no reason to give someone like me anything good in this world, but thank you for my wife. Thank you for letting her open her eyes. Thank you for giving her breath after she couldn’t do it for herself. Please continue to pour your healing strength into her. Amen.”
Shaky steps put me at her side before Desiree handed her warm soft hand to me. I took a seat on the bed, staring and praying that she would open her eyes again.
I remained at Mecca’s bedside for three days, refusing to leave her room. I was forced to endure Khane and Desiree ganging up on me to eat something, and take a nap, and get some fresh air.
When my eyes drifted closed, my awareness tanked, which caused my head to drop at Mecca’s side. Her deep breaths, aided by the machine, mingled with the ones I could hear myself taking. My mind was still processing, and although I could hear myself breathing, I couldn’t shake myself from the slumber I was in.
Movement!
Something had moved and bit into my awareness. My eyes flew open before I jerked awake to find the most wonderful gift in the world.
Mecca was squeezing my hand. Her weak grip held mine, as her breathing grew deeper. Her eyes shuttered back and forth under her closed lids as her free hand jerked like life was being breathed back into it.
Mecca
A jittery anxiousness was flowing through my body, and the rapid flutters of my eye lids heightened my awareness. Pain and pressure came alive with my emergence of consciousness and had me fighting to move what felt like a mountain sitting on my chest and pinning me down.
I recalled hearing Desiree’s voice. I remembered the sound of Arjen whispering into my ear. The ghost of his voice had somehow made its way into my memory banks. Was he who was with me now, squeezing my weak hand?
“That’s it, love. Come back to me.”
The sound wasn’t distant like it had been for the past, days, weeks, or months. How long had I been out? If I could move my mouth to smile, I would have at the beautiful sound of his voice, so close to my right ear.
I was shot, that much I knew. I recalled choking on my own blood and getting lost in the quiet as my hearing aid had stopped working. I remember thinking that I had reached my tragic end.
My next memory was hearing Arjen’s voice before a long period of silence took me back. Desiree’s voice came to me next. She knew that she was my sister. Arjen must have told her.
Now, I was swimming between some level of consciousness, hearing my husband again, trying to squeeze his hand and peel my eyes open to see his handsome face. The fluttering sensation gave me as much hope as my twitching fingers were feeding me energy.
“Open those beautiful eyes. Keep squeezing my hand. That’s it. That’s it,” Arjen coached me.
Finally, like a fresh purifying rain washing away the darkness, the quick flutters gave me a peek at his face. More fluttering and another longer peek. The light pushed at my focus, but I fought it, desperate to see him.
My dark grave had finally been unearthed as my eyes focused and brushed the light aside to see my husband smiling down at me. He was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen.