Flash Burned (Burned 2)

“I’m so sorry.” He kissed the top of my head.

“I don’t blame you. I understand what you have to do, what you’ve been trying to do even before we got involved with each other.”

“Yes, but … Now you’ve married into the problem. Because I couldn’t go another day without you being my wife.”

“I could have said I wanted to wait and you wouldn’t have pushed me. But the truth is, I wanted this as much as you did.”

“Except that now you’re suffering the repercussions.”

I did not miss the agony or the anguish in his tone.

“I’m not suffering at the moment.” I gingerly held him, my arms around his midsection, feeling a thin line of raised skin beneath my fingertips at his back. Another scar.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Broken ribs. Dislocated shoulder. A lot of glass. A large chunk of stone or marble hit me in the head. That’s what knocked me out for so long.”

I shuddered. “This is so evil, Dane. The lengths they’ll go. People were hurt—they could have died. And to blow up 10,000 Lux … My God.”

He let out a long breath, laced with pain. Emotional as much as physical, I suspected. “I had no idea they’d go to this extreme. If they couldn’t own a piece of the Lux, there’d be no Lux at all.”

Glancing up at him, I said, “They have to know by now that you’re alive. Right?”

“The FBI is handling it appropriately. Going after them with my evidence, but as far as anyone is concerned, it’s information they collected on their own.”

“But won’t you have to testify?”

“Baby, don’t worry about that right now.” His fingers tenderly grazed my cheek. “The agents have a shitload of documentation I collected, from a number of sources. The tax evasion issues are substantial enough, but the criminal corruption and murder attempts are the key to bringing these assholes down. They’ll be locked up for some time, I assure you. Conspiring to bomb the Lux … Fuck. It was bold. Too bold. And they’ll pay for the revenge they sought.”

More of the wicked game in which even I had become a player. A pawn, yes. But still a part of the game.

“I’ll fix this,” he whispered against my hair. “I’ll make it so that you’re safe, so that you’re not scared.”

“I just want to be with you, Dane.”

He groaned. “I want that, too. Never doubt that.”

He held me close to him again, though I was sure it hurt him to do so, with all the injuries obviously still requiring full recovery. In a perfect world—a world other than the sinister one in which we lived because of his secret society—I would take him back to the retreat. Let Dr. Stevens and her team rehabilitate Dane.

I’d experienced myself their healing powers, both medical and herbal. Spiritual. Even Hannah, whom I’d initially caught crying on occasion when she thought no one was around, had a healthier outlook on her physical therapy and had graduated to a walker, her gait slowly evening out.

I was convinced the rehab specialists could help Dane, too. But that wasn’t a possibility at the moment. We couldn’t risk him unwittingly inviting trouble at the retreat, and clearly he still had more work to do with the FBI.

“It’d probably be better if we weren’t standing,” I mentioned.

“I’m fine.”

“You don’t have to be macho for me.”

He grinned. It brought tears to my eyes. I’d missed seeing the quirk of his mouth, that sexy smile that I loved.

“You can’t imagine the hell I’ve been in, not being with you,” he told me.

“Yes,” I said, staring up at him. “I can.”

A heartbeat later, he swept me into his arms.

chapter 13