Total pages in book: 34
Estimated words: 32155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 161(@200wpm)___ 129(@250wpm)___ 107(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 161(@200wpm)___ 129(@250wpm)___ 107(@300wpm)
After an hour of questioning, the men who aren’t sent off with police escorts by ambulance are rounded up and taken into custody. The end of my short nightmare has finally come, and I couldn’t be more relieved.
Shane and I are allowed to leave with Ian by helicopter to the nearest airport, at which point we’ll fly to Dallas. The rest of his men disperse using Shane’s car. Weight limits prohibit adding more people on the helicopter, and Shane wants me back in Dallas at a local hospital near home. I’m not about to argue. The pain in my hip has only gotten worse, especially after I was thrown to the floor to avoid flying bullets.
I take my first helicopter ride and am mesmerized by the feel and sights around me. With Ian around, Shane and I have no time to talk—not that I know what to say beyond thanks for saving me and good-bye. I have no illusions about any kind of future for us. No sooner has my situation wrapped up than Ian engages Shane in conversation about an emergency case that has just come their way. Soon, he’ll be busy with his bodyguard business…as it should be.
I wonder how my company plays into people wanting to steal my work. No doubt, there is big money involved and high stakes for either developing my formula or burying it for good. My goal is and always will be to be back in a lab, doing my work. I don’t know or want any other way of life.
And if Sheila and her company can somehow get involved in the cure I uploaded today, I am hoping Jonah’s ex-wife will let me be involved in bringing the drug to market. I sacrificed too much of my life to the cause, and I desperately want to be a part of its future.
An exhausting number of hours later, I arrive at the hospital, where a doctor cleans out my wound while lecturing Shane on the dangers of a civilian playing surgeon.
The poor man doesn’t need the reprimand. I know he feels bad enough already. And I’ll have the scar to remember him by even when he is gone from my life. The scar will be even larger because the doctor needed to go in and clean out the wound before closing it up again.
At least this time, I have a local anesthetic to dull the pain. Not that the needles on the local are fun, but I survive the ordeal. It helps that I have Shane by my side, holding my hand while the doctor works.
Finally, the doctor, an older man with salt-and-pepper hair, snaps off his surgical gloves and tosses them in the trash. “I’ll be right back with your discharge papers and prescription for a painkiller and antibiotic.”
“Thank you,” I murmur.
“You’re welcome.” He pushes past the curtain and walks out.
Shane braces an arm on the top of the propped-up bed behind me. “Are you okay?”
I nod. “I am.”
He leans in close. I want to memorize every line and curve of his handsome face for when I won’t see him every day.
“You amazed me every step of the way,” he says, pride in his voice.
I laugh. “I have to admit I amazed myself. Shows you what you can do when you have no other choice.”
“It shows you’re strong and resilient.”
I brush a hand down his scruffy cheek. “Maybe that’s because I had a protector I could rely on.”
“Or maybe it’s because you’re stronger than you think or give yourself credit for.” His smile reaches his eyes and warms my heart. “Talia—”
Whatever he is going to say is cut off by the ring of his cell phone. He straightens and reaches for the phone in his pocket.
“Landon.”
He listens, and his relaxed features morph into a frustrated frown. “Okay, yeah. I’ll be there.” He disconnects the call and meets my gaze. “Ian’s calling an emergency meeting. New client.”
“Okay.” I school my face into a mask of understanding, not wanting him to see the disappointment in my expression.
Not that I don’t understand. I’d be a hypocrite if I had a problem with him taking off for work. I just didn’t think our time together would come to such an abrupt end. Then again, I didn’t think about it at all.
Oh, I told myself it would happen, but feeling the separation is something different altogether. Still, I knew him leaving was inevitable.
“Thank Ian again for me. And you know where to bill me.” Although that helicopter is going to kill my budget.
Shane grins. “Don’t worry. I think I can get you the friends and family discount,” he says, as if reading my mind.
Friends. Well, it is as good as it is going to get between us now, I think.
He leans down and sweeps a kiss over my lips, lingering for too brief a time but long enough for me to inhale his scent and taste him once more.