Nora holds my hand, sitting in the backseat next to me, as we drive to the hospital to meet the ambulance there. Her eyes are still full of fury but her expression tells me she’s softening, just a little. She can’t outdo me in the fury department anyway and I know she won’t try.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asks.

“It wasn’t my secret to tell, plus, I legit thought I was bat-shit crazy when I first woke up. I mean, even alone with me, Mike denied the whole jungle thing.”

She squeezes my hand. “I can’t lose you, Aub.”

“You won't. I’m right here. But, now you totally know how I felt when you were missing. It’s agony.”

Liam smiles at us through the rearview mirror.

“So, what now?” she questions.

I shrug. “I don’t know. I really need to sell Salve on the whole me-pulling-the-trigger thing, and Gregor is still unaccounted for, but honestly, I’d like to go back to normal.”

“Normal?” she snorts, “define that term for me because, I don’t know what it means anymore.”

I grin because I definitely do know what normal means to us. “Well, it means yoga, and girls nights with bad movies and popcorn with peanut M&Ms. It means me picking on Liam and Mike every opportunity I get. It’s snuggling on a sun-soaked couch after a night of hot sex with a steaming mug of coffee and Mike. It’s family dinners and design projects and laughter and—and” Nora puts a finger to my lips.

“Okay, I get it. Our normal can be defined.” Her eyes are wide and full of emotion that she’s trying to contain. She’s trying so hard it makes me want to tear up. She doesn’t have to treat me with kid gloves. I try to lighten the moment.

“Don’t sound so upset about it,” I tease.

“I’m not. I like our normal,” she says. I rest my head on her shoulder. “Nadir, optimum?” she whispers.

Simultaneously Liam and I burst out laughing, because only Nora would ask my low/high of the day given the circumstances.

“Nadir. I got kidnapped and degraded. Optimum, hmm, Mike came for me, is alive and in about,” I look out the window to check where we are, “ten minutes, all my favorite people will be together.”

“How are you so okay?” Liam asks. It’s a valid question but I don’t have a concrete answer. We all cope differently.

Shrugging I say, “I didn’t ever give up.” Nora shoots me a sad smile and looks out the window. “Hey,” I say bumping her shoulder with mine. “I didn’t mean anything by that.”

“I know. I didn’t give up either. We all have to make choices in life and no two people will ever make the same one in the face of fear and survival. Sometimes I just wonder what might have happened had I … tried to stay me a little longer.”

I squeeze her hand in support. “I have a feeling you’d be dead or single. Remember what you told me? How bad things lead us to good things just in the nick of time? See that sort of attractive dude driving us right now?” Nora snorts and Liam makes a face in the rearview at me. “Well, he’s your optimum. Holden was your nadir.”

Liam clears his throat. “For once, Aubry makes an accurate point.”

Woman comes on the radio station and it sends shivers down my spine. “Driver, would you mind turning this to deafening levels?” He rolls his eyes at me, but does as requested. The words. The music, it soothes my soul because I am a motherfucking woman and that is powerful.

Mom and Aimee are in the admitting waiting area when Liam, Nora and I walk in. Aimee rushes me. Her teenage-skinny arms latching around my waist, her head pressed firmly to my chest. She crashes into me with such force that the wind almost leaves my lungs.

“Hey, hey. I’m fine. Look. I’m okay,” I whisper into her hair but my words only cause her to yank me more tightly to her. Mom’s arms come around my shoulders, sandwiching Aimee between us and for the first time in a long time, we have a family hug. Something I thought was a thing of the past. Something we’d grown out of over the last few years. Not gonna lie though, it feels heavenly. I make a mental to note to instigate more family hugs in the future while committing the feeling of this one to memory.

“Aubry Clark?” I snap my eyes open and look over Mom’s head to the voice calling my name. One by one, Mom and Aimee’s arms loosen and release me. I raise a hand in the air.

“That’s me.”

“Michael Chesterfield can now take visitors and is,” she clears her throat, “adamantly requesting you.”

I bite my lip and ignore the irritated looks from Mom and Nora. I have faith they’ll adjust. If I can, they most certainly can.

“What about you?” My mom snaps. “You’re the victim. We need to get you checked out.”

I put a hand up to stop her.

“Mom, the medics already checked me out and cleared me. I’m fine. Mike took a bullet. For me,” say pointedly. It seems to ease her panic slightly.

“Mike took a bullet because he’s reckless,” Liam snorts out. I glare at him and reiterate that I am not injured.

Following the woman’s directions, I find Mike’s room and pause at the door, suddenly nervous. If all this is over now, what if we are too? Just because you come together in stressful times or experience trauma together doesn’t mean that you’re bonded for life. Sometimes, it’s the opposite. What if we need different things to heal and move forward?

“I can practically hear you thinking.” Mike’s voice comes at me softly from the other side of the door. Looking down, I notice I’m gripping the handle. I must have jiggled it. How else would he know I was standing here? “Aubry, just get in here.”

Pushing the door open I step into his room. A wave of familiarity hits me. It was only a short time ago that I was stuck in a hospital bed here. With no hesitation I stride to his bedside and perch on the mattress next to him. He looks ok, tired but alive and the relief I feel is overwhelming.

He takes my hand in his and looks me over. “What’s going on up there?” he asks while glancing at my forehead. I shake my head and with it shake away the thoughts of Mike and I not having a future together, and instead, lean down and plant my lips on his. He groans in the most sensual masculine way.

“I fucking love you.” I blurt still lip to lip with him, foreheads pressed together.

His smile lights up his eyes in a way I’ve never been privy to before. “I fucking love you too.”