But not before leaning down and kissing her still blue lips and whispering, “I love you, Cera. Please come back to me.”
Minutes later, he was standing at the side of the road with a silver mylar blanket wrapped around his shivering body. Declan and Grady were there, as well as Noah and Wade and a slew of other law enforcement officers.
Refusing to be checked out by EMS until he knew Cera was on her way to the hospital, Ivan chose to remain in place while he took Declan and Grady through the timeline of events.
He’d been talking to them when he’d first spotted the van, so the two detectives already knew his time of arrival. The rest didn’t take long, either, since it consisted of him trekking through the snow, finding Cera, confirming she was still alive, and bringing her back here.
Declan was still trying to talk him into getting his ass into the second ambulance when the one carrying Cera started to drive away. As it did, Ivan prayed like never before. He also made himself a promise….
No more wasting time.
There’d been enough of that over the last few years. Too many days spent wasted on a past he’d never change. Too many nights without sleep over a murderer who’d never be caught.
His sister’s killer would pay for his sins one day. And the judge the bastard would face when that day came wouldn’t sit behind a wooden bench or wear a long, black robe.
No, when that blessed day came, the piece of shit who’d stolen Nina’s beautiful young soul would stand before God. And He would be the one handing down the fucker’s sentence.
It would be the ultimate justice, and the only kind Nina would ever get. But that was okay. Ivan could finally accept that, now. Because he had to.
Standing on that road in the aftermath of a freak snowstorm, Ivan finally realized he had to let go. If he didn’t, if he continued holding on to the past and blaming himself for something he had no real control over, then the future he’d envisioned would never exist.
So yeah. He was letting that shit go. Because that’s what Nina would want. And that’s what Cera deserved.
* * *
Cera woke slowly,a sliver of sunshine peeking at her from behind a set of thick, tan curtains. Slumped over in a chair beside her—in a position that looked uncomfortable as hell—was Ivan.
Sweet, determined, loving Ivan.
He’d risked his life to save her. She remembered that. Remembered everything.
Randall’s bizarre fatherly-type obsession with her, his need to keep her within his grasp his motive for trying to terrify her into moving back home, closer to him. Watching the man she’d trusted with her life—literally—point his gun at her and threaten tokillher.
Then watching that same man meet his own death for his efforts.
Cera even remembered waking in the ambulance as the paramedics raced her to the nearest emergency room…and being told Ivan was okay and would meet her there.
She smiled again, her chest filling with a warmth that had nothing to do with her actual physical temperature. This warmth came with the realization that she’d gotten exactly what she’d secretly wished for days earlier.
And she’d been blessed with almost exactly what she’d dreamed of.
Not long ago, while sitting in her car and screaming at the world, Cera had silently shouted to the universe the thing she wished for most...
All I want—the one and only thing I’ve allowed myself to truly dream of—is to wake up one day with a smile on my face and a bright, sunny day filled with possibilities.
She’d been given those things and more.
The sun was shining; she was smiling, and when she looked at the man sleeping beside her, all she could see now was a future filled with possibilities.
I’ve made it, Momma. I wish you and Callie were here so you could meet him but you were right. I’m going to be okay. I can let go a little, now. Not completely. And I will never, ever forget you guys. But I’ve spent the last eleven years living in the past. It’s time I start living for a future.
She just hoped Ivan wanted the same future she did.
Him.
Her.
Forever.