Page 73 of The Vigilant

My head cocked and one of my brows slowly lifted, a small smile curling my lips along with it.

“How the tables have turned,” I muttered wryly.

Her scowl sent a thrum through my blood. “I’d say babysitting you is worse than babysitting me.”

“Guess it depends on how you look at it,” I grunted and let out a deep breath as I settled into my different position. Unfortunately, it didn’t help the sharp bind around my chest.

“You almost died.” She opened the water bottle again and pushed it to my mouth. “Not really another way to look at it.”

I took another long gulp, not realizing how thirsty I still was until the drink sounded like it landed inside a cavern in my stomach.

“Then I guess I’m just glad you didn’t take my bike and leave me at the house,” I retorted as a joke, but it couldn’t have fallen flatter the way hurt creased her brows and her full lips tightened. I cleared my throat. “I’m surprised Rorik left you in charge of me. Usually, he won’t leave until his patient is conscious.”

“He didn’t put me in charge,” she replied, crinkling the empty bottle and taking it to the trash. “I refused to leave, and I don’t think he appreciated the company.”

Something different—something not painful but still aching—pulled tight in my chest, knowing that she’d wanted to remain here. In my house. With me. Watching over me.

“So, you volunteered to babysit me…” I rumbled low.

Her lashes fluttered, kissing the tops of her cheeks and seeming to dust them with pink. “I’m hard, not heartless,” she murmured, her chin dipping.

“Never thought you were either, little wasp.” I reached my right arm out as though she were close enough that I could fit my fingers under her chin and lift it.

She wasn’t, yet her head lifted all the same. As though there were still an invisible string tying me to her. One that should never have been tied in the first place. One I wished I could see so I could make a clean cut.

She was my best friend’s daughter. Eighteen years younger than me. The fact that there was a legal lifetime separating our ages should’ve made it so I never wanted her in the first place.

My thoughts scattered like marbles when Sutton pulled out a phone and tapped out a message.

“Whose phone is that?” If she’d found her phone?—

“Mine. My new one.”

“Where’s my phone?”

She frowned. “I think Robyn took it.”

Rob…

“Sutton, we have to talk,” I said and let out another hiss of pain. “And I have to call Creed?—”

The door opened then, and voices filled my cabin, Robyn and Rorik appearing in the doorway, their discussion fizzling as soon as they saw me upright.

“I take it our patient didn’t follow instructions,” Rorik murmured as he moved efficiently around Sutton to check the portable monitors hooked up at the side of the bed.

“I sat up. Not signed up for a marathon,” I grumbled.

“With how much blood you lost, those are basically the equivalent,” he replied low like he didn’t want the others to hear.

I swallowed my reply, wondering just how worried Sutton had been if Rorik was trying not to advertise just how bad my injury was.

“Did I do any damage?” I asked after he looked like he was finished checking all my vitals.

“We’ll find out,” he muttered, reaching for the edge of the bandage to undo it. “I’d say you probably would’ve felt if a stitch tore, but with your pain tolerance…”

I made a low noise, watching him slide my left arm out of the sling and then start to unravel the bandage.

“Tynan, we need to talk.” Rob stepped forward and echoed my sentiments to Sutton, who now lounged with one shoulder propped against the window directly in front of my makeshift bed.

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