Total pages in book: 148
Estimated words: 147734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 739(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 739(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
He stares out the window, and I grab his jaw, stroking the stubble growing there as I turn him to face me. “Do you believe I ever would have left you after you took a bullet for me?”
“But you did.”
“No.” I run a hand through my hair. “I thought I’d take this with me to the grave, but it seems you need to know what truly happened, Yulian.”
34
VAUGHN
FOUR YEARS AGO
Iran away from home.
I know. Me? Running away from home? It’s a blasphemy I never expected to take part in.
And yet that’s exactly what I did.
Mostly because I doubted my parents would ever let me leave their sight after everything that happened at the camp.
I wasn’t hurt, not really—just a few lacerations from when I slid down a hill with Yulian unconscious on my shoulder yesterday morning. At the time, the pain didn’t register. The need to get him out alive burned through everything, numbing me to the rest.
All my focus narrowed to a single purpose—getting him to safety.
And I did.
After what felt like an endless trek down the mountain, my father’s men finally found us—they’d been searching all night. Not long after, Yulian’s people arrived and took his limp body from my arms.
I was trembling, though not from exhaustion, lack of sleep, or even the crushing stress. It was something deeper, rawer, and had everything to do with the guy in my arms.
When they tried to pull him away, I clung to him tighter, letting go only because he needed help. My fingers grazed his cold ones, and I felt the same wild urge I’d had last night in the cave—to warm him, to keep him alive.
With my body wrapped around his and his frame cocooned in my embrace.
But he was gone in an instant, and I refuse to let that be the last time I see him.
For the first time, I feel like a real teenager—defying my parents’ orders to stay home and impulsively running off to Chicago. I’ve never even been to Chicago, and it took a fake ID just to get on the plane.
The escape from home was messy. Lidya said she’ll cover for me and that she has my back, but despite her enthusiasm, there’s only so much she can do once my parents realize I’m gone.
I’ll think about the consequences later. The most important thing is that I made it.
My fingers are clammy around the bullet that I’ve been holding in my fist during the whole trip. It’s probably weird that I kept the bullet I removed from inside Yulian, but it gave me peace of mind, in a sense. It reminded me that I saved him, that he’s alive.
The bullet drags me back to the cave every time I touch it. The cold, the fear, the edge of death—but also him. Us. We had each other through it all.
It reminds me he took a bullet for me, and the least I can do is make sure he’s recovering well.
That’s what I told myself, the excuse I clung to when I gave in to the pull and came to Chicago.
As expected, hospital security is ironclad. No surprise given Yulian’s father’s status. I slip into the staff changing room, and pull on a doctor’s coat, mask, and glasses to disguise myself. My build and height help, but appearance isn’t everything. It’s the walk and the way I carry myself, and I keep my head high as I stride toward Yulian’s room.
Some guards stationed in front of the door watch me, but I continue putting on the facade as I slip into the room and close the door behind me.
I release a sigh, but it catches in the back of my throat when my eyes zero in on Yulian.
The hospital room is dim, wrapped in a sterile hush broken only by the steady pulse of the heart monitor as shadows from the blinds cut across the floor. I don’t know what I expected—maybe Yulian awake, cracking jokes, swathed in bandages. Blood, wires, life. Instead, he’s just…still.
It’s unlike him.
That’s why I was screaming at him to wake up when morning came and he was motionless, breathing with effort. My heart cracked in my chest when he wouldn’t open his eyes. That’s why I carried him on my shoulder and took the dangerous trip down. I contemplated leaving him in the cave as I went to scout around, but his pulse was weak, and I just had to take him with me.
Risky, yes, and we could’ve both died if the attackers were still lurking around, but I had no other choice.
And to see him like this now sends a thump in my chest.
The charts at the foot of the bed show records from two days prior. He hasn’t woken up yet, but the notes say his vitals are stable and he should gain consciousness any time now.