Above and Beyond (Twist of Fate 4)

I forgot all about my car and focused on Zach as I knelt over him.

“Zach, I need you to wake up for me a bit, okay?” I said. I could hear the shakiness in my own voice but tamped it down as best I could.

Zach mumbled something and lolled his head from side to side. I used my hand to support his neck while I pressed one of his pills to his tongue and gave him a sip from the Coke bottle I’d found in his truck, which had fortunately been unlocked.

Some of the soda dribbled from Zach’s mouth but he managed to swallow. I cradled his head against my chest for a moment. “Try to take deep breaths, okay? And keep your eyes closed.” I didn’t wait for Zach to respond as I shoved the medicine and soda bottle into my pockets and gently eased Zach up to put him in a firefighter’s carry.

“Too heavy,” Zach grumbled. “Walk.”

Despite the pain he was in, his voice still held that commanding tone. I was half-tempted to carry him anyway just to show him I could, but the fear he’d fight me once I had him over my shoulder had me shifting him next to me in a walk assist with my arm around him and my other hand holding his hand over my own shoulder. We made our way into my apartment building and up to my place.

As soon as I opened the door to the apartment, Min was there.

“What the hell? What’s wrong with him?” She hustled over to help me get him past an overflowing bookcase and to the beat-up leather sofa in the living room.

I knew the medicine he’d taken was going to wipe him out for hours, hopefully through the entire night, and he wouldn’t spend those hours comfortably on our old sofa.

“My bedroom,” I told her, changing direction. As we herded him into my small room and onto the double bed, Zach tried telling us he was fine, but his deathly pallor and tightly closed eyes said differently.

I shot Min a look. “Close the blinds and turn off all the lights. He needs dark and quiet. Migraine.”

Her face pinched in concern as she moved to do as I’d asked. Once the room was dark and still and Min had gone to fetch a cool washcloth for his head, I looked down at Zach’s face. His eyes weren’t open all the way, but they still peered up at me.

“M’okay,” he mumbled. I couldn’t hold back a snort.

“You’re not, but you will be,” I promised in a whisper as I knelt on the bed next to him. “Before you drift off, I need to know if you take a preventive migraine med.”

His brows furrowed in confusion, and I caught myself before reaching to smooth them apart. I kept my voice low as I continued. “The medicine in your truck is an abortive—a drug to stop one after it starts. Do you take a daily med to prevent them?”

Zach closed his eyes with a brief shake of the head. “Don’t like it. Makes me sleepy. Can’t fly.”

I remembered overhearing him talk to his brother about fixed wing versus helicopters in the army. Even though I wasn’t exactly sure what Zach did in the service, I knew he had some kind of flight training.

His face pinched in pain again and I finally allowed myself to reach out and run a cool hand over his warm forehead. As soon as I touched him, his entire body seemed to relax into the bed.

“Let go,” I said softly under my breath. Zach’s body seemed to tense for a brief moment, then suddenly he turned his head to the side and I felt his fingers touch my leg. It was as if he was making sure I was really there. As soon as I had the thought, I dismissed it. Zach was here for one reason and one reason alone… because my fathers had sent him to check up on me.

Despite that, I found myself massaging his temple with my thumb as I remembered his frantic vow to keep me safe just before he’d passed out. I wondered what kind of fear my dads and Zach’s brother, Jake, had put into him when they’d asked him to check up on me. Whatever the reason, it was enough to tell me he wasn’t going to rest easy as long as he thought he was still on that mission. The man was a soldier, after all. He thrived on having a purpose.

“I’m safe,” I added. “We both are.”

Zach’s hand came up to cover the fingers I had on his forehead, surprising me with its slight tremor. “Stay.”

Just as my heart began to swell and warm at his sweet-as-hell plea, he managed to murmur out the rest of it.