Owl. He was alive?
“Princess!”
No. My head spun with hallucinations as I bled out.
“Princess! I got him!”
Life sprang through me against all odds. I pushed myself up, grunting in pain, hoping beyond hope it was real. “Owl? Is that you?”
“I got him. Let’s get you out of here.” The smoke thinned, and I could see Owl, holding Dusty’s unconscious body under his shoulder, dragging him and himself toward me.
“Oh my God. Dusty!” I wiped my eyes fast. “Is he breathing?”
“Yes. We gotta get out of here.”
My heart fluttered as my mind worked fast. “The SUV. You gotta make a run for it before the parking lot explodes, too.”
“And you?” Owl asked, already started to the parking lot.
“I’ll get Carter and find you. I have my bike.”
In the next hour or so, I felt as if I was out of my body. I had no recollection how I reached Carter or rode down the road with him. But I did.
We ended up at the clinic of Vet, our backup doctor—he was literally a vet but he knew his way around stitches and bullets—and Owl’s bunk-mate when they were in the military, right outside the borders of Sacramento. Vet closed his clinic and patched the three of us as best as he could, while Carter waited with the one sick puppy in the clinic.
Owl and I weren’t as badly hurt as Dusty. He was the one in danger. I waited by his bed, monitoring his breathing and heart rhythm as if my life depended on them.
It did.
Without Dusty, I had no reason to survive. I wouldn’t be able to get over what I’d done.
I held his hand and cried through the night, letting all my regressed feelings out. I prayed and begged him to wake up. I told him how sorry I was and how much I wished I’d told him that I loved him when he asked. Now, I might have no chance to make him hear it again.
I spent the rest of one of the longest nights of my life in silence and anticipation. The early rays of dawn shone through the shutters of the clinic’s windows and danced on Dusty’s face. I planted a little kiss on the back of his hand and his forehead. “I love you, Dusty. More than you’ll ever know.”
Tears stained my face again. “You gotta live, baby. For me. For everything we’ve ever dreamed of. For our life together. For the family we’ll start and all the babies we’ll make.” I bent my forehead to his hand and pressed it. “Please, Dusty. I need you. You can’t leave me. I know you gave up on me, and you wanted to break things off when you came to the strip club. After what I’ve done, you wouldn’t want to see my face ever again, but I can’t live without you. Please.”
“How many?”
My head snapped up at the slur, and the bright green eyes glittered at me. “Dusty,” I rasped, squeezing gently at his hand.
“How many babies?”
I laughed through the tears. “As many as you want.”
“Promise?”
“Yes.” I giggled, kissing his palm. “Yes, Dusty. There’s something I haven’t told you. That night when we broke up and you were so adamant about putting a baby in me, I’d told myself I forgot to take the morning after pill, but I didn’t forget. I didn’t take it on purpose. It was as if I wanted to stay tied to you even after we broke up. Despite everything, I was so happy when I found out I was late. I wanted our baby so much, Dusty.”
Faintly, his fingers twitched around mine, and tears sparkled in his gaze. “I didn’t give up on you. I have a confession to make, too. Before I came to you, I went to Enzio.”
“What? Why? He could have killed you after what Beth did.”
“I was telling him we were leaving whether he liked it or not.”
“We?”
“You and me. I was going to kidnap you, if I had to, and take you so far away from Rosewood. I couldn’t just watch you lose another piece of your soul until there was nothing left.”