Page 135 of Valor

Him and me.

He pulls back, breaking the kiss first and resting his forehead against mine. “You will always have me. And I will do whatever I can to keep you safe.”

The pain I’m carrying lifts slightly. “I know.”

Gibson’s fingers brush my hair behind my ear. “I hope you know how much you mean to me. How much you’ve always meant to me.”

Before I can respond, he kisses me quickly, then reaches over to retrieve the bag of food. We’re crowded in this hospital bed, with me pinned beneath the blankets and him stretched on top of them, but I’m so glad he doesn’t leave. The closeness of him helps me to feel not so lost.

“Now let’s get some real food in you.”

“I’m sorry it’s not warm.” I wipe my eyes.

“It’s perfect,” he replies. “And so are you.”

GIBSON

Lani is sleeping softlybeneath the dim light above the hospital bed. Her expression is haunted though, and it kills me to see it. Every now and then, she whimpers in her sleep. I try to ease her fear even in sleeping by holding her hand in mine, but it doesn’t soften the line between her brows.

Her agony cuts me to the bone. I want to take all of it. I would cut the beating heart out of my very chest and give it to her if it meant she’d never feel like this again.

The door opens softly behind me. I expect it to be a nurse coming to check her vitals, but it’s Dylan who steps into the light. He takes a seat in the chair beside me, his haunted expression trained on his younger sister.

“How is she?” he asks.

“Broken.” I don’t see the sense in softening it. Not with her brothers, who all carry their own weights—Dylan more than most.

He nods. “Any idea who put her in that hell?”

“Someone who has access to hospital equipment,” I tell him. “That’s all I’ve got so far. The crime scene unit ran the prints we found at the cabin and they all belong to Lani. Whoever took her was careful. They wiped the place down before and after.”

“What about the guy who owns it? Need me to track him down?”

He would too. Without hesitation. Unlike the other brothers, Dylan doesn’t fully fight the darkness in him. Truthfully, I believe it’s what brought him through the hell he suffered at the hands of enemies overseas. The youngest Hunt brother would never hurt an innocent person, but if the life he’s taking is an immediate threat to the people he loves, I don’t think he’d think twice.

“He’s been in the Bahamas for the past three weeks. An extended vacation. His assistant patched me through, and I spoke with him. He told us to do whatever we need to do and that he wishes he’d leveled the cabin as soon as his grandfather had willed the place to him. Apparently, there was no love lost between them, though he didn’t go into that particular drama.”

“You don’t think he had anything to do with it?”

I shake my head. “No. I’ll revisit it if something else pops, but I think focusing on him is a mistake.”

“We can’t make any of those,” Dylan says. “If they get their hands on her again, she won’t get away. Once you’ve escaped once, a captor will do everything they can to ensure you don’t a second time.”

It’s a dagger to my heart because I know there’s some truth to those words. Though I also know there is no chain God can’t break. And according to Lani, that’s exactly what happened.

“Lani still doesn’t know how she got out.” I lean forward, her hand still in mine as I glance over at him. “She says the strap securing her right wrist just came loose.”

“She must have worn it down.”

“That’s the thing.” I recall the image of what I’d seen. “The strap that connected her wrist to the bed was still secure. As though she slipped free of it. But it was tight enough to leave this burn on her wrist.” I look at the red ring branded into her skin.

“Maybe she loosened it enough to slip free?”

“Then she would have had to retighten it. I checked.”

Dylan processes what I’m saying, and I see the words sink in as he checks off every other explanation. “God freed her.”

“That’s the only explanation I have. I doubt she would have taken the time to reconnect it, and whoever took her wouldn’t have resecured that one and not the others.”

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