We’d never used it, message threads empty. But a text lit the screen now, a beacon of hope I desperately needed.
Alexei:I will be with you soon.
Alexei:I love you. I love him. Make sure he knows.
Rubi forgotten, I leaned over Saint, plucked an AirPod from his ear and whispered, “We love you. Don’t forget.”
Saint’s chest rose and fell. That was it.
There was nothing else.
But he was alive, and that was everything.
Minutes turned into hours. Embry replaced Rubi, then my sister came to babysit me. She brought real food and a clean T-shirt. But she brought tears too. “We can’t lose him, Cam. He’s everything to us.”
I didn’t need her to tell me that.
IneededSkylar to glance at Saint’s notes and drop a truth bomb.
“He’s killing it, Cam. He’s so fucking strong. He should’ve died in the ambulance. In A&E. Fuck, on the operating table. He chose not to. Hold onto that.”
I clung to it like a life raft and somehow, I fell asleep. Sunlight was creeping through the tatty vertical blinds when cool hands woke me.
“Biker boy.”
I blinked, trying to force myself awake. “Lexi?”
“It’s me.” He came into focus, pale face and slate-grey eyes tired but focused. “Keep sleeping if you need to. I am not going anywhere.”
“You mean that?” My voice was slurred, so exhausted I could barely string a sentence together.
Alexei smiled like the ghost the underworld believed him to be. Then his features solidified, showing me the man I loved.
That Saint loved.
“I mean it. I’m here for forever. But I need him too.”
“So do I.”
“The nurse with the tattoos told me how he is doing. Is good. He is strong.”
No fucker ever had to tell me that, even now. But... “I’m scared, Lexi. I miss him.”
Alexei wound his arms around me and pulled me close, cradling me against his slimmer frame. “I know, Cam. But you have to trust him. Has he ever let you down?”
No.
Saint had never let anyone down.
Not even himself.
29
Alexei
Saint was a mess, inside and out. But despite the heavy smoke inhalation, his lungs were strong, expanding with every breath he took, filling his body with clean air.
His hands were warm too. I clung to one while Cam remained surgically attached to the other. He did not leave. Barely ate or slept, and no one told him he should. Not even me. How could I when there was nothingthat could pull me from Saint’s side?