Shivers quaked through her. What if this was his last moment? What if he died believing she’d orchestrated this catastrophe?
Gingerly, she took his hand and lifted it to her lips, kissing his scraped skin over and over. “I should have supported you. I should have listened, love. Please, don’t leave me.”
His dusty lashes fluttered. “Gus?”
She thrust her face closer. “No, it’s me, Hannah.”
“Hannah left me.” His ragged cough turned into a sob. “She hates me.”
“No, I don’t. I love you, do you hear me? I’m not giving up on us.”
Maybe he did hear, because his lips twitched before he shuddered and went deathly still.
Chapter Twenty-Four
TheinsideofXander’seyelids felt like sandpaper. His mouth tasted like fishy chalk. His ears vibrated with an odd ringing sound. Andeverythinghurt.
“Well, good morning, handsome.” A plump, dark face floated into view, though his vision was too blurry to make out the details. The woman tutted. “Let me get you some ice chips.”
“Who… Where…” he croaked. His tongue felt too thick and slightly numb, and his throat stung like crazy.
A cool, soft palm stroked the hair back from his forehead, and then something cold—a spoon?—slid between his parched lips and deposited the most delicious ice he’d ever tasted. “You’re in the hospital, hon,” his guardian angel cooed. “You had quite a bump on the head. Doctor Bakshi will be in to see you soon. I’m Tamara, your nurse.” She fiddled with an IV bag beside his bed. A thin plastic tube ran from the bag to the inside of his alarmingly purple arm.
“Got some nasty bruises, didn’t you? Don’t worry, they’ll heal up in a few weeks.”
“How did I… ” He wiggled his fingers—all operational, ditto his toes—then blew out a sigh of relief that made his ribs ache.
She checked the adhesive pads stuck to his chest. “Building fell down around your ears. Don’t you remember?”
Shards of memory flashed behind his closed lids: horrible sounds like crunching bones, a high-pitched hiss, followed by pain and darkness. He remembered thinking, “This is it. This is how I die.” Then an angel appeared, pale and beautiful, floating above him, calling his name. Gus was there, too, his jowly face haloed in a silvery glow. His uncle had smiled. “Not your time yet, son. You’ve got work to do.” After that, sirens and warm raindrops kissing his skin.
“Oh good, he’s awake,” a second voice chirped. “His girlfriend’s been camped out in the waiting room for hours. Refuses to leave.”
“Hannah’s here?” he ground the words out with difficulty. At the mention of her name, a wave of sadness washed through him, an ache every bit as painful as his multiple injuries.
“Rode with you in the ambulance. You wouldn’t let go of her hand, so they packed her along.” Nurse Tamara slipped a gadget onto his fingertip.
“Is she okay?” He tried to sit up, but arrows of pain shot through his body.
The nurse gently pushed him back onto his pillow. “Mostly scratches and contusions. Needed stitches on her hands.” She chuckled. “According to the EMT, she was determined to tear that building apart board by board until she got you out.” She fiddled with a dial on a metal box beside his bed. “You, on the other hand, have some serious healing to do.”
“What’s wrong with me?”
“Fractured fibula, three cracked ribs, and a probable concussion.”
When he reached for his aching forehead, the IV needle in his arm pinched painfully.
Nurse Tamara leaned in for a closer look. She smelled of rubbing alcohol and coffee. “Twelve stitches. Afraid that’s going to scar. Honey, if you hadn’t been wearing a hardhat, your skull would’ve cracked like an egg.”
A shiver wracked his body. That damn building had nearly claimed his life. And it could’ve taken Hannah’s as well. Even though pain meds blurred his senses and muddled his thoughts, one thing was clear—no argument was worth losing the woman who braved a collapsing building to save him.
“I need to see her.” He clutched the nurse’s busy hand.
“Who, hon?”
“Hannah.”
Another woman bustled into the room wearing a white coat. “No visitors until we’re finished testing. Tamara, let’s get this patient to Imaging for a CT scan.”
