Page 66 of You for Her (The Edge of Retaliation 2)
“Tanner?” I whisper again, meeting his eyes.
“I don’t want to fuckin’ leave you, I’ll stay with you and Ethan can go.”
“No,” I croak, grabbing his head. “No, you have to be the one to go. You deserve this as much as anyone. You need to do this, for yourself, but also for Celia. I know you need it.”
“What I fuckin’ need is you,” he says, his voice tight. “Do you understand me?”
“Then come back to me.” I smile weakly. “But first, you go and you make them wish they never laid hands on her. Give her the rest she deserves. Give your heart the healing it so desperately seeks. Give me a reason to breathe again. Please.”
He closes his eyes for a moment, taking a deep shaky breath, then looks to Ethan. “You don’t leave her side, no matter what.”
“I haven’t left it yet,” Ethan says.
My beautiful friend.
“Okay,” Tanner agrees. “Okay, we’ll do it.”
Thank god.
They’re going to do it.
For Celia.
She deserves that much.
“YOU’RE AFRAID,” ETHAN says, his voice soft and low.
I glance over at him from my hospital bed. It has been three hours. Three long hours since they dropped us off at the emergency department and went to finish things once and for all. The doctors put me under for just over an hour and removed the bullet, which was still lodged in my shoulder. They said I was lucky not to have any more damage. They also said I had to speak to the police about how I got shot.
I told them a friend of mine had gone missing and the drug runners had him. I went to try and get him back and got shot. It worked out well for us, mostly because it looks even worse for the guys in the house because not only are they going to be done for kidnapping and running drugs and guns, but for shooting an innocent woman. Ethan gave them the address, and they are going to be raiding the house where Chase is being held in a matter of minutes.
I’m nervous and afraid.
I’m still in recovery; I have to be in here to be monitored for another hour or so. They were worried about the blood loss and wanted to make sure I was on the up and up. Ethan is sitting with me, after a long argument from me about how I didn’t want him to leave my side. They agreed and he has been by my side ever since, just like he promised Tanner.
I can’t take my mind off Tanner.
I can’t stop thinking about him.
“Callie?” Ethan says when I don’t answer.
“Do you think they’re going to be okay, Ethan?” I croak, my voice shaking.
I’m on some seriously good pain medication, and it has been hard for me to keep my eyes open, but the idea of going to sleep and missing a single thing isn’t something I’m willing to do right now.
“Hey,” Ethan says, reaching over and taking my hand. I look over at him, studying his handsome face, and it only makes me feel even more hurt inside. “It’s going to be okay, do you hear me? Tanner is tough, so is Jo and the other two. They know what they’re doing.”
“What if it goes wrong? What if something happens and they don’t make it back? I can’t live with that. I can’t let that be how this story ends.”
“It’s not goin’ to be how this story ends, I promise you that.”
I swallow and glance up at the ceiling.
“Ethan?” I whisper.
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I’ve treated you so badly in the last few weeks. You didn’t deserve that. I was just so hurt, and so angry. You really were my shining light when I was away, and I couldn’t have done it without you. The thought of that not being real, it really bothered me.”
Ethan is silent for a moment; he’s still holding my hand and his thumb strokes over my skin. “You know,” he says, his voice low and gentle, “it was real. I should have told you what Tanner and the others had planned when you got out, but I was torn. My loyalty was torn. I didn’t think they’d hurt you, and if they had, I would have made it stop. The thing was, the rest of it was real. I did protect you. Our friendship was real. I used to look forward to coming to work so I could hang out with you, Callie.”
I close my eyes and take a deep, shaky breath.
“I fucked up,” he goes on. “I know that. I shouldn’t have kept it from you. I should have been honest, and I wasn’t. I look back now and it seems so obvious what the right thing was, but at the time I was truly torn. Tanner and his family, they saved my ass so many times. I owed them so much …”
