Page 84 of Incomplete
“Jesus, Boden, what were you thinking?” the paramedic at my side chastised him. “I need to take a look at you.”
“No.” He brushed her off. “I’m fine. Just check my girl.”
“Boden, don’t be stupid. You inhaled a lot of smoke back there,” the firefighter who rushed to aid us chimed in.
“I will, but first . . . I need to know Lakelyn here is okay.”
I clutched his shirt tightly. “You found me. You saved me.”
“I almost lost—”
“Don’t, don’t go there.” I sobbed. “I’m here, and more importantly, so are you.”
Boden’s hold around me tightened as he nodded with understanding.
“Ari, are you good?”
“Yes,” she replied sternly with a telling glare toward the firefighter.
“I’m trusting you with these two.”
“I said I’ve got it, now shut the door so we can be on our way.”
With a shake of his head, he did just that, then thumped with his fist on the window, and the ambulance pulled away from the scene.
* * *
“Do you hear that?” I sighed and kicked my shoes off.
“Ah, what am I listening for?” Boden asked.
“Silence.” I smiled despite feeling like I could sleep for days since the flurry of constant commotion at the hospital didn’t allow for such a reprieve.
“Are you sure you’re all right with being here? I can grab some things, and we can head across the street?”
Having been mostly separated for the past day while we took turns in the compression chamber to aid our healing from the smoke inhalation and having had very little privacy or time to talk with the revolving door of nurses and doctors checking our vitals and running tests, and police questioning us, I just wanted to be alone with him.
I reached up and slowly drew my fingers down the side of Boden’s three-day-old stubble. “All I have are fond memories of being here inside your home. I just want to be surrounded by everything that is you.”
“Oh yeah?” His arms circled my hips as he rested his chin on my head.
I nodded with surety.
Boden locked the front door before swooping me off my feet and carrying me down the hall toward his bedroom. To say he’d become ultra-protective and adamant, I take it easy, was an epic understatement, and I couldn’t say I was surprised. I just needed him to remember those same rules applied to him, but I knew he felt guilty. His extra attentiveness was just something he needed to do. It was a way of distracting himself from the constant blame game waging a war within his soul. A coping mechanism. A way to atone for his actions, which he strongly believed, allowed Anthony the opportunity to make his move the other night.
I, however, did not share that same belief.
My sister’s husband was a calculated monster who knew no bounds. One who I learned poisoned her over time with over-the-counter eye drops and took out a life insurance policy on her to cover his old debts. Thankfully, Anthony hadn’t escaped the fire unscathed as the team sent in to inspect the scene afterward for arson recovered his body. Police had me identify what was left of him from a photo. Only then did I find solace in knowing he couldn’t hurt anyone else, even if justice hadn’t been served in the traditional sense for what he had done to my sister.
Standing in the master bath, we slowly undressed each other in silence. I struggled to swallow the lump forming in my throat from the grimace that flanked Boden’s expression each time his fingertips trailed softly over my bruises. At that moment, the distance between us felt more than just the space in which he held my hands, eyeing the bandages wrapped around my wrists.
My chest seized, wanting nothing more than to soothe his worries.
Once Boden removed the gauze covering my rope burns, I quickly pushed up on the tips of my toes and brought his focus back to me.
“You saved me, Boden.” Our breaths blended into one as I linked my fingers behind his neck and tugged him closer. “You.” I brushed my lips against his. “You did that.”
The outside world all but disappeared when we were together.
