Page 113 of The Gift
My phone, still in her hand, rings again. And almost at the same time a tiny red light starts flashing on her ID card.
“The hospital silent alarm has been triggered,” she says, unfazed. “They must be freaking out about now. But even if they were sitting in this room with you, they wouldn’t have been able to stop me from getting to you. Honestly all they did was save me time.”
“You should go.”
“I don’t think you should be telling me what to do, actually. The only reason you are not lying dead at my feet, is that bite on your throat. Which means me whispering words in your ear while I pin you down would be as ineffectual as your bravado. Perhaps they can try to analyse the meaning of that, and the reasons I was in your room, after they figure out how I got in here in the first place, and where I disappear to.”
“I’ll let them know.” I shake my head, agreeing with her, the bitchy purse of my lips as patronising as I can be. I’m currently erring on the side of I don’t think she’s going to hurt me, but you know facing a nutter like not Nurse Amanda, keeps you on your toes.
She takes a lunge at me, her arms reaching out over the bed. I can’t stop the whine of fear that falls from my lips, no matter how hard I try to keep up my fake fearless façade. And the bitch laughs. She fucking laughs at me.
“Best finish that documentary of yours. Would be a pity not to watch after all that work you’ve done, immersing yourself in every aspect of it too.”
She takes a step in the opposite direction watching me the whole time, her amusement still plastered over her face. Leaning down to one of the lower drawers on her trolley, she pulls out a small black bag, swinging it over her shoulder before turning back for one last time, “Have you ever felt like a hero?”
Her eyebrows are flicked up high as she waits for my answer. I can’t keep up with her, and don’t even try to.
“I’ll let you feel like a hero. Get them to check the supply cupboard in the women’s toilet, and the air con duct in the staff room. I find it such a worry that they’re so caught up looking for threats, they’re missing what’s right in front of them. And you my dear, should have been the catalyst for them learning that lesson already.”
Without another word, a backwards glance, anything at all, she runs out of the room responding to the call out on her radio, like every other staff member in the hospital would be doing.
Standing there with my feet glued to the floor, staring at the closed door, I will myself not to run too. It would be so easy to do. Without looking at the clock on the wall to confirm, I know I have probably three minutes before the A-team are back. I could be gone long before that.
My eyes move from the door to the hands on the clock, each passing second is like a spike in my thoughts. I have my bag on the floor next to me, I have enough cash out at my storage shed to let me vanish. I could lose Reno’s hoodie and the sling and look like any other patient in the hospital.
Ten seconds is all it takes.
The door is kicked open, like it literally blows off its hinges and even before I can scream in fright, I’m in Henley’s arms. And the whine I make isn’t one of fear, or anger that I didn’t run, it is in sheer relief that I stayed.
There is no storm of conflict, no whispered words of self-sabotage, nowhere in me is there anything but sheer joy that he’s here and I am too. Not one tear falls from my eyes, and we don’t say a thing. We don’t need to—I feel everything in the way he holds me and the steady beat of his heart.
We stay wrapped in each other, quietly in the corner of the room, as the others rush inside.
I was so sure they would be in here screaming at me, throwing all my words back in my face that I would be safe, that they should go, but no one says a word. Instead, they come over to kiss me on my head and join our huddle.
After a few minutes, Ashton speaks, “I think it’s time for us to go home, Bailey girl.” His voice is steady and happy like it always is.
I take a huge inhale of their scents. Filling myself with so much of them that they’re all I can smell. And then a low deep vibration rattles out from Henley’s chest, a different kind of purr but equally nourishing.
“I’m moving in with you?” I ask all of them, my brain finally catching up. Admittedly, I was a little scent struck and a lot freaked out after my run in with not Nurse Amanda.
“Did you say what I think you said?” Henley asks slowly as he pulls me off his chest, looking down at me. His blue eyes are full of ghosts but he’s got this wicked growing smirk on his face too.
Reno’s hands fall around my hips, but they’re super relaxed. Koda is shaking his head in disbelief, a teasing smile on his face.
Reno leans down and whispers in my ear, “Bailey, you are in so much trouble.”
“What? Why?” I whisper right back at him, though my smile drops away as Henley lowers his face to mine, right in close too, making my eyes go blurry.
“You can’t seriously think we won’t be all living together?” he asks, his head tipping to one side, his eyebrow up in question. He’s super stunned.
“Huh?” is all I get out before he repeats himself again.
“You didn’t even ask me, Henley! How was I supposed to know!”
He growls. He fucking growls at me. His eyes flash, like they’ve got little bolts of lightning in them. It takes me a bit to catch up that I am not spooked by what I see, if anything, me, and my romantic heart get a bit turned on. And then my eyes get all misty when he drops to kneel in front of me, his hands wrapped around mine.
“Bailey Henderson, will you please come live at our house, with us as pack, as our omega, as our lover and troublemaker? We’ve got everything ready for you. We’ve got a whole other floor for you and us to share, a nest waiting for you to decorate. I forgot to ask nicely, but I was always going to.”
