Silver streaks traveled down Sophie’s cheeks as she stared at him and said, “I love you, too. So much.”
Jason smiled. At least, he thought he was smiling.
She loves me.
Jason wanted to tell her not to cry. He wanted to remind her how strong and fierce she was. That she was the most amazing woman he’d ever known.
It broke his heart to know she’d feel the same sort of pain he had when he lost Shelby all those years ago. But if anyone could survive everything she had, it was her.
I should tell her that. She needs to know everything was going to be okay.
He tried to do just that. But his eyes had already closed, and the woman he loved more than anything in this world had faded away.
Chapter 13
––––––––
Sophie sat by Jason’sbedside. Resting her new, blue cast on the mattress beside him, she kept his limp hand in hers while she watched his chest rise up and down with slow, even breaths.
It was a miracle he was still alive.
The bullet had entered his chest below his right collarbone, nicking his lung causing a pneumothorax. The surgeon—a world-renowned doctor she trusted implicitly—had made sure she was kept abreast of his progress during the four-hour procedure.
Jake and Trevor had stayed with her the entire time. Olivia and sweet little Lily joining them the minute they heard the news.
The rest of R.I.S.C. and their spouses—both AlphaandBravo Teams—had also showed soon after the shooting. So had Jason’s own team within his covert Homeland unit.
It had brought Sophie comfort seeing the private waiting room bursting at the seams with men and women who loved Jason as much as she did.
And shedidlove him.
As unexplainable as it seemed, what she felt for the man lying pale and weak before her was as real as anything she’d ever experienced before.
I almost lost him.
Tears streamed down her face, as she replayed the moment the surgeon’s nurse had come to tell her Jason had crashed on the operating table.