"I'm here," he assured her, carefully taking her hand in his. "I'm right here, baby girl."
"Told you... I'd come... back," she managed, each word clearly requiring immense effort.
A choked sound escaped him, something between a laugh and a sob. "Yes, you did. Now you need to rest and let these people help you."
Her fingers tightened weakly around his. "Jose?"
"Don't worry about him," Blade said firmly. "Just focus on staying with me, okay?"
Her eyes drifted closed again, but her hand maintained its tenuous grip on his. "Kay... Daddy."
The word, spoken with such simple trust despite her pain, nearly broke him. He pressed his forehead to their joined hands, fighting for control.
"Sir," one of the medical team interrupted gently, "we need to move her now. The helicopter's ready."
Blade nodded, understanding the urgency, but found himself unable to release her hand. Unable to let her go, even for the time it would take to transport her to the hospital.
"I'm coming with her," he stated, his tone making it clear this wasn't a request.
The medic glanced at his blood-soaked shirt. "You need treatment yourself."
"I can be treated there. But I'm not leaving her side."
Something in his expression must have conveyed the absolute non-negotiability of this point, because the medic simply nodded. "Alright. But you'll need to let us work during transport."
"Understood," Blade agreed, finally allowing himself to be ushered back slightly as they prepared to move Lily's cot.
Savage appeared at his side as the medical team began the transfer. "Jose escaped," he reported quietly. "Three of his men are dead, two captured. But he slipped away in the confusion."
Blade absorbed this information, a cold, deadly calm settling over him. "He won't get far."
"We'll find him," Savage agreed. "But right now, you need to focus on Lily. On getting yourself patched up too, from the looks of it."
Blade glanced down at his shirt, now thoroughly soaked with blood from his reopened wound. The adrenaline that had carried him this far was beginning to fade, allowing the pain to resurface with vengeance.
"I'll live," he said dismissively. "Unlike Jose, when I get my hands on him."
Savage didn't argue the point, just clapped him carefully on his uninjured shoulder. "Go with her. We've got this handled here."
Blade nodded, already moving to follow as Lily's cot was carried toward the waiting helicopter. The rotor wash whipped dust and debris around them as they approached, the noise making communication impossible except through gestures.
The medical team loaded Lily first, securing her cot in the specially designed interior. Then, with surprising gentleness given his size and intimidating appearance, they helped Bladeaboard as well, settling him in a seat adjacent to Lily where he could maintain contact with her without interfering with their work.
As the helicopter lifted off, carrying them toward the trauma center, Blade kept his eyes fixed on Lily's face. On the gentle rise and fall of her chest that confirmed she still fought. Still lived.
His baby girl. His warrior.
Jose had tried to take her from him. Had very nearly succeeded. For that, there would be a reckoning. The club would hunt him down, would make him pay for every drop of Lily's blood spilled today.
But that was for tomorrow.
Today, all that mattered was that she lived. That she healed. That she came back to him fully, as she'd promised.
Everything else; vengeance, justice, the future they'd begun to imagine together, all of it hinged on her survival.
"Stay with me, baby girl," he whispered, the words lost in the helicopter's roar but the sentiment burning like fire in his chest. "Just stay with me."
And as if she somehow heard him despite her unconscious state, despite the noise surrounding them, Lily's fingers twitched against his. The smallest response. The greatest promise.
