“I don’t know. They won’t tell me. Make them tell us.” She turned her tear-tracked face up to mine. “Please.”
Together we shambled toward the stretcher being loaded into the ambulance like drunks, arms locked. Carly was crying. I still wasn’t fully aware of what was happening, only that my renewed breaths burned on the way out of my mouth.
“She’s mine,” I said to the nearest EMT when he tried to shoo me away. I bent over the stretcher, relief swelling inside me when I saw Mia’s face. It was almost perfect. Just that solitary cut bisecting the corner of mouth, the bleeding stanched now. Somehow I’d thought I would see her eye swollen and puffy like mine had been after the fight with Giovanni, as if the universe had wanted us to have matching wounds. I didn’t want her to deal with the headaches I still had.
“Mia, baby. Wake up.”
She didn’t move. Didn’t blink.
Then I saw her arm, bandaged against her stomach. From the angle and temporary bandages they’d given her, my guess was it was broken.
I looked up, enraged, my gaze going to the open mouth of the warehouse where people still spilled out in every direction. Talking, laughing. Inside, Evie was probably whooping it up too. She was the victor.
Goddamn her. I didn’t care if it wasn’t politically correct to want to harm a woman. She’d harmed mine, and I wanted to kick her ass.
“Ame,” Carly whispered, crying, brushing her hand over Mia’s unblemished forehead. She just looked like she was sleeping. Calm. Peaceful. “Wake up.”
“Sir, ma’am, you need to move back. We need to load her into the ambulance and get her to the hospital.”
“How bad is it? Please tell me,” Carly begged, glancing up at the EMTs. Giovanni was behind her, his hand on her shoulder, but I doubt she even noticed.
Ignoring them, I ran my fingers over the base of Mia’s throat. Her pulse was strong and steady. She was just sleeping again, like she’d checked out last week. I’d make myself believe that before I allowed myself to think for even one second that she would wake in pain, or afraid. I couldn’t bear it.
“Damn you, you better wake up. Now. I need you here with me.”
Lowering my head, I pressed my mouth to hers. Hard. This was no sweet gentle kiss or delicate stroking like Slater had done. We’d fought too long and hard to get to this point. She was coming back to me, this instant.
There could be no other alternative.
When it didn’t work, I did it again, knotting my fingers in the end of her braid. She smelled like my Mia, tasted like her too. Still in that position I looked up and saw Kizzy—and oddly, Sutton, from behind her—watching us, just like Carly and Giovanni, who were flanked by a tall, dark woman who resembled Gio. Carly leaned back against him, pressing her fist to her mouth as she cried, and his hand moved rhythmically up and down her arm.
Someone tugged on mine. “Sir, you need to move back. She needs help.”
Ignoring him, I bent over Mia and kissed her again, even harder than the last time. “Goddammit, Mia Knox, you wake up. This fucking second.”
I watched her eyes for any change. Even a flicker of her lashes. Nothing.
Disappointed, heartsick, I stumbled back as the EMTs rushed in to do their job. Blocking her from my view as they prepared to put her in the ambulance and take her away from me. But not for long.
Then I heard her voice. Thready and weak, but it was Mia. “Fox.”
Carly rushed forward, a smile breaking through her tears. “Ame?”
I elbowed aside the ambulance guys and leaned over the gurney, my hope vanishing when I saw her eyes were still closed. I’d heard her. I knew I had.
“Fox,” she said again, her pale lips barely moving. Then her lashes lifted for barely a second. “You called me Knox.”
I had no idea what she was talking about. Less than no idea. Blankly, I stared at Carly, whose gaze was riveted on her sister’s face.
Not caring if Mia was babbling in Swahili, I bent down and pressed my cheek to hers. “No sleeping on the job. Up and at ‘em, tiger.”
“You…called me…Knox,” she said again, and then I understood.
Well, huh. “I didn’t mean to,” I mumbled.
“I know.” Her lips twitched and weakly, she lifted her good hand to me. I took it and clasped it between both of mine. She was burning up. “Carly?”
“Right here,” her sister whispered, kissing her forehead. “You’re not allowed to give us a scare like that again.”