I HAD A DILEMMA.

I needed to free Sully’s goddesses before the police returned. I had documents to shred and emails to hack into and delete. But...how could I do a damn thing if Sully kept trying to die the minute I couldn’t touch him?

Going to the bathroom had to be done in short bursts. Eating had to be done curled up by his side. Whenever Louise and her team changed his catheter or inserted a new IV with sustenance to keep him alive, I clung extra hard to his hand, just in case he felt the discomfort. In case he confused one touch from another and slipped.

For two days, I’d tried to figure out how to protect Sully from future complications all while doing my best to keep him safe from the current one. I wished Calvin wasn’t injured, and Jess wasn’t in a coma. Why were the only people I knew all in different stages of maladies and utterly useless in a mass freeing exercise?

Come on, Sully...please wake up. This would be easier with your help. Hopefully you understand why I need to do it.

I continued stroking my fingers through Sully’s hair. The bronze-tipped dark strands were longer as was his beard. His cheekbones starker. His lips cracked and dry.

Each day, he looked more unkempt. A little wilder and unreachable.

I should shave him...wash him.

Make him feel better.

With the decision to do something for him, even if I couldn’t do what was immediately pressing, I sat up and looked for Louise. She’d have to run the warm water and bring scissors, razors, and towels. However, the doctors were deep in discussion in the living room, and I didn’t want to disturb them.

Damn.

“You know, Sully...you’ve got me trapped better than you ever did, even when you first bought me.” I bent and kissed the tip of his nose. “Who would’ve thought love was a bigger trap than trafficking.”

His pulse kicked, ripping my gaze to the heart rate monitor.

“Wait...can you hear me?”

What if he could?

My God...

“Do you remember when we first saw each other? You standing on that sandy ledge and me being delivered to you by helicopter? When our eyes met...you felt it, too. I know you did. That first trip into our destiny.”

The monitor remained steady, showing no hint I’d affected him.

I tried again.

Lowering my voice, I shared our story in the hopes that he’d wake, ready to relive it, eager to write more pages and give us a happily ever after ending. “God, I hated you for what you’d done. I was prepared to find any and all ways to either kill you or escape you. But...” I sighed, reliving the smash of connection and the flash of incomparable lightning the moment I’d seen him. “I knew, even then. When you first spoke to me, your voice reached past my ribs and claimed my heart. I told myself it was loathing. I mean...how could I ever fall in love from just a stare? But...I had. I’d found you. I was home.”

A tiny flicker on the monitor.

I rushed with more of our tale. “You might’ve asked traffickers to find me, Sully. You might’ve purchased other women and turned them into your goddesses, but without that criminal habit, we might have never met, and that...that’s inconceivable. How could I ever have thought I was whole without you? How did I ever think I could be happy somewhere that wasn’t by your side?”

Another kick, a quickening of his pulse.

I nuzzled into him, shivering with hope. “I’ll always be grateful that you found me. So glad that you gave me your trust. So honoured that you put your life before my own. But I need you to come back now, Sully. I miss you so much. It’s killing me not being able to talk to you. Not seeing your eyes or hearing your voice. I know you’re in there. Your heart reacts to mine because we’re linked in every possible way. So why won’t you wake?”

Tears squeezed from my eyes as I murmured, “What’s trapping you? What can I do to bring you back?”

The monitor recorded a skip of nonsense. A flurry of half-beats and speed.

I sat up, my own heart pattering with growing worry. “You know...if you can hear me, I’ll tell you anything you want to know.” I switched to happier subjects as his pulse continued to scatter across the screen.

I never took my eyes off the irregular hills and valleys. Was this development a good thing or bad?

Keeping my hand on his, I murmured, “Are you hungry? Do you miss your chef’s delicacies?” I kissed his cheek and lay alongside him. “If you wake, I’ll gladly make whatever you want. How about some of those mushroom stuffed aubergines? Or that tempeh satay? Your food is one of the first things I fell in love with. And Lebah? Seeing where you grow all your fruit and vegetables...it made me fall in love with you because you have so many pieces to fall in love with. So many facets to discover.”

His pulse kicked again, making my brow pucker in concern.

“Sully...”

Goosebumps sprang over me as I put my hand in his. “Sully...if you can hear me...please squeeze my fingers.”

I stared and stared.

I waited and waited

I begged and hoped and prayed.

And nothing.

“Am I interrupting?” Dr Campbell smiled and waved from the threshold of Sully’s bedroom. The critters that shared his home had grown used to the influx of guests, staying on their perches and chosen rafters.

Dr Campbell looked around as a butterfly fluttered past followed by a hungry kingfisher. One of the Komodo dragons that Sully promised wouldn’t eat my toes lumbered out of the bathroom where he’d been sunning himself while Nirvana splashed musically in the background.

I winced as a dragonfly flew too close to a gecko who’d positioned himself by Sully’s pillow; his tongue snatched the iridescent jewel from the sky and munched on folded wings.

Glancing at the heart monitor, my concern faded a little.

The peaks and blips were back to a steady line, perhaps a little faster than normal but strong and sure.

Dr Campbell cleared his throat. “Is this a zoo or a bedroom?”

“It’s both...a symbiotic existence.” I forced a smile and sat up, pushing aside my long hair that I hadn’t bothered to wash or brush in days. “Everything okay? Is Jess alright? What about Skittles?”

That was another thing I found exceedingly hard.

I wanted to go see Skittles so, so badly.

I missed her.

I would’ve given anything to run to the infirmary and tell her I loved her and missed her, but I was under villa arrest, and as much as my body itched for a swim in the sea and my heart begged to see Skittles, I would never leave Sully...under any circumstances.

My patience would be rewarded. My steadfastness would bring him back.

You’ll see.

“Yes, fine. Everyone is healing. In fact...” Dr Campbell disappeared for a moment, returning with a tray and a tiny perch that’d been sticky taped in place. “I have someone who wants to see you.”

“Skittles!”

I leaped off the bed, only to freeze.

The tiny caique went crazy. Her twirls and chirps broke my heart as I backed up and rested my fingertips on Sully’s arm.

I was unbelievably happy to see her but absolutely terrified of losing Sully.

I can’t let go.

Dr Campbell saw my pain. Marching toward me, he held out Skittles on her tray. Her little green wing still held a splint and bandage but that didn’t stop her from trying to flap and fly to my finger.