Luke shook Chad’s hand outside the hospital entrance. “Thank you isn’t enough.”

“It’ll do.” The big man grinned and walked around the driver’s side door with a wave. He’d be heading back to his wife and kids, and Luke couldn’t deny the ache that banked deep in his chest.

He was jealous. He wanted that.

Luke raised his hand in a wave before turning to the hospital entrance. Zach greeted him in the hallway.

“Naomi’s up on the third floor.”

Luke nodded, feeling a little numb. “And Lyra and the girls?”

“They’re on five. Pediatrics. Lyra wouldn’t let them check her in. Insisted on staying with the girls, so they treated her injuries up there.”

“He didn’t . . . she wasn’t . . . ” He didn’t know how to ask if Damon had violated Naomi in other ways. If he had, Luke would crawl down into the bowels of hell and drag the man back so he could kill him more slowly.

“No. She wasn’t. He didn’t touch her in that way.”

Luke let out a slow breath. It looked like Damon got to stay in hell.

Zach had already told him Naomi had needed some stitches on her abdomen and the back of her head. She’d be staying overnight so they could be sure she didn’t have any serious complications from her head wounds.

He was sure if Lyra would let them, they would have insisted on the same for her, but she was a mama bear to the core. Her girls could come first.

His gut pitched as he wondered if Lyra would ever forgive him for using her and her girls to get close to her brother.

They took the elevator to the third floor. Luke wanted to kill Damon Taylor all over again when he saw his niece’s battered face. She was bruised and one eye was almost swollen shut.

Tears sprang to her eyes and her hand went to the back of her head when she saw him. “They shaved my hair.”

Luke walked to the bed and wrapped his arms around her. “I’m so sorry, Naomi. I never meant for this to happen.”

Her voice broke when she spoke and he felt tears on his bicep, where she’d turned to bury her head. “I knew you’d come. I knew you’d find me.”

“Always.” He answered with the same promise he’d given Lyra’s girls, and he meant it.

He held her as she cried and rocked her like he had when she’d been young. The idea that he might have lost her because of some inane need to get back to a career he’d long ago left gutted him. What the hell had he been thinking?

Naomi pulled back and wiped her eyes. Luke got a look at the back of her head, where they’d shaved off her long dark curls to stitch up her wounds. He put a hand to the side of her head, where the hair remained.

“It’ll grow back. In the meantime, you’ll set a new fashion trend or something.”

She gave him a disgusted grunt, the kind she reserved for times she wanted to remind him and Zach that they lacked the estrogen necessary to understand some things. He wholeheartedly agreed with her, as he had many times before.

“Have you seen her?” Naomi didn’t have to tell him who she meant.

“Not yet.”

“You need to go to her.”

Luke offered Naomi a small smile. “Yeah, I’ll go see the girls soon. Just as soon as I talk to your doctor. Make sure you’re all right.”

They’d need to make plans for her to take some time off school while her head healed, he thought. She’d fight him on it, but he wanted her at home where he could keep an eye on her. At least for a little while.

“No.” Naomi shook her head, then winced.

“You okay?” He came close again. “Where does it hurt?”

She took his hand. “I’m fine. I promise. But, listen to me. You need to go see Lyra. You need to talk to her, explain to her why you were there and—”

He cut her off. Lyra might understand why he’d done what he had, but it didn’t mean she’d be able to get past the betrayal of it.

“She’s going to go back to her life, and I’m going back to mine, Naomi,” he said quietly, and he’d swear a knife arched through his chest as he said the words.

Naomi leaned toward him in her hospital bed and Luke saw Zach step forward protectively on the other side of the bed. “I know you, Uncle Luke. I saw you falling for her. I saw how happy you’ve been the last few weeks. You don’t need to give that up.”

Luke didn’t look at Zach, even though he felt his brother’s eyes on him. “I lied to her Naomi. Everything I said and did with her was a lie. There’s no coming back from that.”

She took his hand and her gaze was steady. He was so damned proud of the woman she’d become. “You can come back from this. You can make it work. Just talk to her. You always told me we can get through anything together if we just keep talking to each other through the good and the bad.”

Luke nodded. “Yeah, all right, sweet girl. I’ll talk to her.” He wouldn’t, but there were times he’d realized, parents needed to lie to their kids.

He squeezed her hands tight before releasing them. “I’ll go up and see her.” He looked to his brother. “You’ll stay here?”

Zach nodded. “I got this.”

Luke took the elevator to the fifth floor and walked the length of the long hallway.

He froze when he rounded the corner.

Lyra stood in the hallway with an older man and woman. He didn’t have to guess who they were. The girls’ grandparents. Prentiss and Alyssa came out of a nearby room, catching sight of him. Squeals rang out as they ran toward him, and Luke went through the now familiar act of kneeling to catch them. His heart ached as he did it, the feel of small arms wrapping around his neck. Lyra looked down at the floor, when he tried to catch her eyes, and he knew. He just knew, she was going to say goodbye.

He couldn’t blame her. He held the girls a little tighter and breathed deeply as they buried their heads in his shoulders.

Alyssa was the first to pull back and the absence when Prentiss followed was palpable.

Luke reached out and tugged on Prentiss’s pigtail. “I’m so proud of you, Pren. You were so brave to get help.”

“Did you find my trail?” she beamed with the question.

“I did. Couldn’t miss it.” In reality, she’d done a damned good job of leaving clues that anyone might walk right past. It was only because he’d looked for the small piled of stones and sticks that he’d seen them.

“We’re going to Nashville with Nan and Pop!” Alyssa bounced on her toes and her resilience floored him.

Prentiss piped in. “There are six nonstop flights a day. We get to fly.”

Luke looked to Lyra and stood. He offered his hand to the older couple.

“The girls have been telling us all about their personal super hero,” the woman said. “I’m Willa Hill and this is my husband, Jerome.”

Willa Hill was tall and thin with short cropped gray hair and skin a deep rich brown. Beside her, Jerome matched her in height, but his hair held only a hint of gray at the temples.

The man offered his hand next. “We owe you a debt of gratitude, young man.” His shake was firm and strong, but there were tears in the man’s eyes.

Luke simply nodded. The man didn’t owe him anything.

He cleared his throat and looked to Lyra who seemed to be looking anywhere but at him. She watches the girls as they swung from his hands.

“Nashville, huh?”

She nodded. “For a little while. Just to—”

“We’re going to take care of these babies.” Willa’s arm went around Lyra, squeezing her shoulders tight, as though Lyra were one of the babies, too, and Lyra smiled at the tall woman.

Luke opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but before he could, Savvy and Tracy came down the hall. There was another flurry of hugs and tears, and telling of tales by the girls. Luke moved to the side, thinking he could wait until her friends’ attention was on the twins and then pull Lyra aside to talk. Although, what he would say, he wasn’t sure.

He didn’t get the chance. A nurse broke up the group, walking between them all and leading everyone back into the hospital room.

“Okay, I’ve got the last of the paperwork, Mrs. Hill, and you’ll be set to go.”

Lyra glanced at Luke as she walked away, but her eyes quickly shifted away and she was gone.