“I hear that. Did my sister get everything ready?”
Onyx laughed. “Yes, sir. She sure did.”
“Good.”
Razor checked his bag for a second time, while he waited for Ava to come back with the wheelchair. He could damn well walk out of here on his own, but they insisted it was hospital policy that he didn’t.
“I heard you were leaving today,” said the ICU doctor. “Best of luck to you. You’re definitely one for the record books.”
“I had a lot to live for,” Razor said when Ava walked in.
“Ready?” she asked.
“Never more ready.”
“Tabon,” Ava said when they walked out the front door, “is this really necessary?”
Based on the line of black SUVs parked near the hospital’s entrance, one would think a foreign dignitary was coming or going. Razor didn’t care. As long as Petrov eluded them, he wouldn’t take a single chance with Ava’s life.
He stood and winced. How was it that when he was confined to his hospital room, he felt fine, and now he felt like he’d been shot all over again?
“Are you okay?” Ava asked. “Do you need help?”
“Slide in ahead of me, baby,” he told her, and motioned for Monk to come closer.
“Just in case,” Razor muttered to him.
Thankfully they had more than adequate people working this detail, because Razor wouldn’t be good for shit for quite a while, and he wasn’t too proud to admit it.
“What’s going on?” Ava asked when Razor led her to the back of the airplane.
“There are privacy rooms back here,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows.
He opened the door and Ava gasped.
“Oh my God,” she said. “It’s so beautiful.”
His sister had really outdone herself. There were strands of twinkle lights hanging in rows from the ceiling, the bed was strewn with red rose petals, and there was a bottle of Champagne on the table, chilling in a bucket.
Razor led Ava inside. “Have a seat,” he said, motioning to a chair by the table.
It wasn’t easy, but he was determined to do
this right. He put one hand on the bed, the other on the second chair, and lowered himself to one knee.
Ava gasped for a second time. “Tabon?”
He reached inside his pocket and pulled out a small box. “I never dreamed I’d find anyone who I loved even half as much as I love you. I can’t live without you, Avarie. What’s more, I can’t live without you by my side. I’m asking, begging, pleading, imploring—will you marry me?”
Ava slid off her chair and put her arms around him. “Yes. A thousand times, yes,” she said, scattering kisses all over his face.
“I wish I could say we should make good use of this bed, but I think all I’m good for is holding you, baby.”
Ava smiled and helped him up. “I’m good with that.”
“I didn’t screw this up, did I?”
“Tabon, you asked me to marry you. There’s literally no way to screw that up.”