Flash Burned (Burned 2)

“Ari,” Dane said. “Amano realized from the beginning the opportunity presented, if I pulled through. I could really go after the others if the media reported me dead.”

So I’d been right.

Dane added, “I only recently started to make a recovery. I couldn’t contact you because…” He gave a slight shake of his head. “It’s complicated and fucked up. I was badly fucked up. Amano had to do all my work for me. He handed over all of the evidence I’d collected to the FBI. They started the investigations without me. I couldn’t get any sort of word to you in my state. And because we weren’t sure how this would go down. We had to keep you safe. And I needed to recover in order to finish my work.”

I heard him swallow hard, telling me it was just as agonizing for him to suffer through his injuries as it’d been to not be able to contact me. Hell, for all I knew, he had no idea where to find me. If Amano hadn’t alerted Mr. Conaway until recently that they were alive, then chances were good Amano had no idea where I’d disappeared to after leaving the creek house. No way would he have been able to covertly track me down in Sedona … until Kyle and I had come here for the list of society members.

It must have been Amano’s vehicle I’d spotted in the woods, since the timing seemed about right.

“I take full responsibility, Ari,” Amano said. “And I’m terribly sorry you had to believe Dane was dead. But the FBI latched on to that particular angle from the onset, and I couldn’t do anything but follow their lead. For all our sakes. I hope that maybe, someday, you can understand that. Forgive me.”

“This is so jacked,” Kyle hissed angrily.

“Yes,” Amano admitted. “I’m to blame. I chose this direction for Dane. He was in a coma and I took action. This is on me. But … it’s working.”

“I know,” I gasped. “I’ve watched the news.” My face was still pressed to the side of Dane’s neck, so my voice was muffled. I breathed him in, having missed his heated scent so much.

Amano further explained, “Dane collected a hell of a lot of evidence before the explosion.”

“On your laptop?” I asked my husband. “It’s missing from your office.”

“I came for it,” Amano told us. “Not long ago. A day or two after Dane came out of the coma. Ari—”

“No, Amano,” I said, still unable to relinquish my hold on Dane. “I know you’d never intentionally hurt me. The society hit us hard—you saw the opportunity to hit back. I already reconciled that in my mind, when the indictments started. You both have an important job to do. I get that.”

Nor could I blame anyone but myself for the disaster that had become my life. I’d committed to being involved in this danger when I’d married Dane. Even before that. I had to be strong, so that he could do what was necessary without having to worry incessantly about me.

I also needed to tell him I was pregnant. But if I did … Wouldn’t that just give him one more thing to obsess over?

Would it make him stand down from what he was trying to accomplish if he feared not just for my safety but also for our child’s?

I didn’t have any answers, so I opted to remain silent, even quieting the sobs. Though my tears still flowed.

I had to be strategic, the way Dane was—for all our sakes.

“I understand what you’re doing,” I told him. “It has to be done. I support this, Dane. I just … I want you to be okay.”

“Don’t think about me,” he said. “I want you to be careful and stay at the retreat.”

“Mr. Conaway told you?” I asked.

“You went to his office not long after Amano had, to tell him we were alive. So it all fell into place.”

Dane finally released me and Kyle swooped in with some tissues from the box on a shelf. I wiped my wet cheeks and blew my nose. I could probably cry a few hours more, but it’d be a waste of time when I didn’t have much of it to spend with Dane.

He said to Kyle, “Thanks for looking after her.”

My friend huffed a bit, then flapped his arms agitatedly in the air before they hit the sides of his thighs. “What else was I going to do? She thought she’d lost everything.”

“Not everything,” I corrected. Though, sure, at first that had been my thinking. “I still have a best friend.” I gave him a smile, then stared up at Dane. “I did lose my wedding bracelet. During the explosion. I don’t know where. I’ve offered a reward, but so far … Nothing.”

His fingers swept over my cheek and his emerald irises glowed warmly. “I’ll buy you another one. It’s okay.”

“Is it?” I found myself asking as more tears crested the rims of my eyes.

“Ari.” He pulled me to him again. I squeezed him a bit tighter than before. He winced. Apparently, I hadn’t noticed his discomfort the first time around, when I’d thrown myself at him.

I jerked away and got a good look at him.