Page 91 of Tango
“That’ll happen when you come back from the dead,” Lani replies. “I’m going to head back into the waiting room so I can send Dylan in. He’s a mess too. He did chest compressions on you until the paramedics arrived. Riley packed your wounds. The two of them are the only reason you were loaded into an ambulance instead of a coroner’s van.”
My mom chokes on a sob, so I reach up and gently cover her hand with mine.
Riley would have handled that fine. He goes into work mode and blocks out everything else. But Dylan. What did that cost him? Those moments of uncertainty? Of pain?
My brother has already suffered so much, and I hate that he thought that—even for a moment—I was gone.
“Okay. Thanks.”
“I’ll go too. That way Alice can come see you.” My mom leans down and kisses my forehead, lingering there for just a moment. “I love you so much, Tucker Hunt.”
“Love you too, Mom. Love you, Lani.”
She squeezes my hand again then heads over toward the door.
“Love you,” Lani says. “Glad you didn’t die.”
I smile as they leave the room. Once I’m alone, I close my eyes for a moment. Everything is so hazy that I can barely keep my eyes open. The room spins a bit, but it subsides the longer my eyes are closed. As I drift, I think I hear the door open again, but I’m already too far under to open my eyes again.
By the time I surface again, I’m feeling a bit better. I open my eyes and note that it’s dark outside now. Dylan is sitting next to the bed with a book in his hand.
“I didn’t know you could read.”
His gaze lifts instantly, locking on me. “I like to look at the pictures,” he replies.
I grin. “It’s good to see you.”
“You too, Tuck. You had us all scared.”
“Me too. How are you?”
“I’m not the one who was target practice. Two bullet holes. Man, when you do something for the first time, you go all out.” His tone is sharp, strained.
“Dylan.”
He leans forward and sets the book down on the table. “I’m better now,” he says. “But I really thought you were gone. When I came in and saw her clinging to you, when you had no pulse—” Tears burn in his gaze. “I can’t outlive you, Tucker. We have a deal.”
I reach over and take his hand. “We go out together in a firestorm of bullets while we save the world. That’s the plan. I remember.”
He snorts and rubs tears from his eyes with his free hand. “Your girl is a tough one.”
My girl.
“She is.”
“She went completely feral on Ramiro. Riley had to drag her away from him.”
Pride warms my chest. “Really?”
He nods. “She stayed with you on the way here too. They had to nearly restrain her to keep her from following you into surgery. It wasn’t until I got here that she even let herself get checked out. Physically, she’s fine.”
I take a deep breath and smile, imagining Alice putting up a fight when they asked her to leave. I can picture her charging after Ramiro the same way she went after those bruisers in her parents’ house.
“You love her.”
His words are a punch to the gut. A reminder of the promise I made to myself all those years ago. Yet, here I am, breaking it because I fell head over heels in love with her. “Yeah.”
“So, you caught those pesky feelings after all.”
