Page 56 of Enemy of the State

I giggle. “You should see the other blokes. I hear mywrathis pretty vengeful,” I reply with a wink, glancing at Sean, who snorts.

“Yeah, well, you’ve still got one waiting on that wrath.”

Honey Eyes jumps down from the table and reaches for the butterfly bandages and begins working on the cuts that aren’t deep enough to need stitches.

“You knock him out?”

Honey Eyes glances at Sean before resuming his task on my stomach. “He’s back in the playpen. I held on to him until you left, but he’s unconscious andhanging outuntil you’re ready for him.”

The stitches on my bicep tug at the skin, and I curl my lip despite the lidocaine. Sean replies, “Untilshe’sready for him. I promised her.”

Honey Eyes just nods in understanding, and the three of us fall into comfortable silence, before I finally ask, “What happens now?”

Now that I know that Sean is firmly on my side, I need to know what that means for me. For us.

How the hell am I going to get out of here? Is he still going to help me? He already killed for me—twice—so I assume he’s not above murder and mayhem in order to help me escape.

Deafening silence fills the room, seemingly louder than the heavy metal music that blares through the cell block. When Sean finishes the last of the stitches, he sighs. “One thing at a time, Lou. I don’t know how much blood you lost, so for now, you need some rest.”

Honey Eyes leaves the room for a moment, and when he comes back, he tosses Sean a pillow, who slides it under my head. As Honey Eyes drapes the additional blanket over me, panic starts to bubble in my stomach all over again. Are they going to leave me here? I can’t stay in this room alone. Iwon’tdo it. They’ll have to knock me out to make that happen.

The knuckles of Sean’s large, veiny hand drift across my cheek.Thank fuck, I didn’t need stitches on my face.“I told you I wouldn’t leave you. I’ll be here when you wake up,” he assures me.

Honey Eyes begins to tidy up the supplies as Sean sits in a chair next to me, threading his fingers through mine. Curling my fingers over his knuckles, I relish the steady warmth of his palm. The white-hot realization that this small, intimate gesture is a first for me bolts across my brain. I know it’s quite the shock to hear thatI’m not the romantic, hand-holding type. But with Sean, I find myself wanting things I’ve never considered before.

Things like truths and intimacy.

When I finally close my eyes, I drift off to the calming sense of safety the man next to me provides.

Sean

Jace hauls a second chair into the room and takes up sentry on Lou’s other side, across from me. Silence settles over the room as Louhi’s chest rises and falls in accordance with a deep sleep, the sound of the air conditioning whirling to life slicing through the quiet. This is always the coldest room on base, and I touch Lou’s toes every once in a while to make sure she’s still warm.

Fuck me, I really have gone soft. The version of me from even a year ago would be kicking my ass, but I can’t seem to care enough to harden back up around Lou.

Chills break out over my bare chest as the cool air assaults me, but I ignore it, admiring the serenity Lou has captured in her sleep. She looks so at peace like this, despite the distress this room seems to bring her. Jace and I stay quiet for a long time, until he finally speaks in a hushed tone. “You let her see your face.”

I swallow thickly. Not allowing the prisoners to see your face is a big rule around here. At best, it’d get me sanctioned, for sure. More than likely, I’d end up faced with something far worse. It’s a matter of our safety—and our families’—that we don’t reveal our identity.

“She knows my name, too,” I tell him, laying all the cards on the table. I know there are cameras in here, but no microphones, and I’ll override the recording tomorrow.

“Fuck, man. That’s not good.”

“About as good as killing two of my own men,” I explain.

“I know this may make me as fucked as Lou, but I would’ve done it if you hadn’t.”

He didn’t have to say it for me to know whose side he was on here. I don’t know how she’s weaseled her way into both of our cold fucking hearts, but she managed it. Though he doesn’t look at her the same way I do. Even as he sits across from me, studying the venomous, gorgeous creature lying on the bed, he doesn’t have the gleam in his eye that I know anyone would find in mine.

“I’m glad we got there when we did. Who knows how much longer they’d have kept her alive,” I state.

Anger threatens to surge within me all over again, and I’m starting to regret that I told Lou she could kill Borman. I wish I could do it. I’d light that motherfucker on fire, watching as he burned to death. Something tells me that Lou will be far more creative, though.

Jace and I are quiet before he whispers, his lips hardly moving. “How are we getting her out of this?”

Ah, the million-dollar question.

I shake my head since I don’t fucking know, and it’s not as if I haven’t thought about it ad nauseam. I’m running out of time.Louis running out of time.

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