Chapter Twenty-one
Lucan groaned as he awakened. His whole damn body ached from head to toe. It felt like he’d been hit with a sledge hammer for a week straight.
“Just relax.”
Jamie. Just hearing her voice was enough to calm him.
He blinked open his eyes slowly. Even doing that hurt like hell.
“The fire,” he rasped.
She placed a hand on his chest, and he quit trying to move around quite as much.
“They’re safe,” she whispered. “You’ve been unconscious for a day.”
The room around him slowly took shape as his eyes adjusted to the light. It was a small room with plain cream walls, and machines beeped all around him.
“Where am I?”
Jamie carefully took his hand and sat next to him. “The hospital at Luna Lodge,” she said. “What you did…”
Her voice broke as her lip began to tremble. All the memories of the show down with Aaron Kinkaid came rushing back. How Lucan had tried to kill Jamie. How he very nearly had.
Lucan moved to sit up, his body burned as he did, but he had to hold her.
“Baby, I’m so sorry,” he whispered. His hand touched her face to wipe the tears. “I never wanted to hurt you.”
She shook her head and gave a little smile. “I know that.” She turned and kissed his palm. “You saved them. You saved us all.”
Lucan frowned. “If you hadn’t gotten us all out, we wouldn’t have survived. You’re a hero.”
He shook his head. A hero didn’t nearly kill the woman he loved. A hero didn’t think about ripping out the throat of people, even sons of bitches like Kinkaid.
“I’m no hero,” he mumbled.
“According to the US government you are.”
Lucan looked toward the door of the room and found Colonel Hall standing there, Cato close behind.
“You and Nikon are getting a special medal from the Secretary of Defense for your diligent work in bringing the perpetrator of the bombing to justice. Thanks to you all, we finally have something to go on with all this. And we also have proof of a serious and massive manipulation of US citizens.”
Lucan frowned. “Who thought a medal was a good idea?”
“Me,” Colonel Hall said. She smiled and stepped further into the room. “Although I may have ulterior motives for this.”
He glanced over to Cato. The other hybrid shrugged, but his face didn’t suggest any surprise or disagreement.
“We needed people to be the face of this win,” Cato said. “We need the public on our side. If we can get that, we can get the government on our side as well. Now that we have proof that the Group was not just screwing with hybrids, but humans, we’ll have more people on our side, and our enemies in the government will look like they are backing terrorists. So cheer up. You’re now the face of the good guys.”
Lucan snorted. “And what does Nikon say to all this?”
Colonel Hall and Cato looked between one another and then back to him.
“He’s not saying much of anything really,” Cato said. “We think he’s still processing killing his brother’s murderer.”
Lucan’s heart twisted for his friend.
Cato sighed. “I wish we could have taken A.J. Kinkaid alive, but I doubt I’d be able to restrain myself in the same situation, and the government thinks they’ll still be able to recover a lot of material from the ruins of the building.” He shrugged. “Also there have been reports of a lot of people in town who came down with strange headaches, which are now clearing up. According to what the tech guys have told the colonel, they’ll be able to track down all the booster stations in this town within a few days, but just their first sweeps were enough to ensure that the place that burned was the main mind control facility.”
Lucan nodded slowly, processing the enormity of their win against the Horatius Group.
“When can I get out of here?”
Cato stepped forward. “We don’t fully understand what you were injected with. They have removed the small metal piece that was inside you, but the doctors want to keep an eye on you for a few days. It should give you time for your burns to heal.” Lucan glanced down at his arms and noticed, for the first time, that they were covered in bandages.
“The damage wasn’t as bad as it looks, but they have you wrapped to speed up the healing. Few days, and you should be ready.”
Lucan looked between Cato and Colonel Hall.
“Rest up, and we’ll check on you later,” Cato said, and turned to leave.
Lucan nodded and watched the pair leave, closing the door behind them.
Jamie stayed quiet during their exchange. She didn’t have anything to add to the whole thing. Hell, she was still trying to process what had happened herself.
“You shouldn’t be with me,” Lucan said suddenly.
She was out of the chair she was sitting in so fast it nearly made her head spin. “What?”
“Being with me is a danger. People get hurt when they’re with the hybrids.”
Jamie snorted. “Are you still going on about that?” She moved back to sit with him on the bed. “I don’t give a shit.”
Lucan looked up, surprised.
She glared at him. “What part of how I handled things makes you think I’m some sort of wilting flower? Someone comes for me or someone I love, I’ll do what I have to do every fucking time.”
His eyes widened at her words, but she didn’t give a shit if he knew. She was tired of pretending like he wasn’t the best thing that ever came into her life.
“But what if I hurt you again?”
She shook her head. “You won’t.”
Jamie could see the doubt in his eyes, but he had to know that none of that mattered to her. “I trust you,” she said softly. She moved in closer to him, careful of the burns on his body. “You could have killed me, but you didn’t,” she said. “All those people couldn’t do anything, but you broke free. I trust you, and I always will.” She placed a soft kiss on his lips.
“I just don’t want anything to happen to you,” he whispered, his mouth still against hers.
Jamie smiled. “And I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
Lucan stared at her. She could see the weight of her words setting in.
“Then I guess we’ll just have to watch out for one another,” he said with a smile.
Jamie grinned back “I watch your ass, you watch mine?”
Lucan laughed. “It’s a fine ass to watch.”
She leaned in for another kiss, this one deeper than the last.
“I do love you,” she whispered.
He rested his head against hers. “And I love you,” he said. “I love you and your fine ass.”
Lucan took her then in a deeper kiss, and she sighed against him. They had won against Aaron. They’d had destroyed the source of the mind control.
He’d earned the win he so craved against the Horatius Group, and still had his Vestal. Nothing could stand against them now.