"You do that, honey."
She crosses to the chair beside my bed and sits back down.
Her hand finds mine again, and she closes her eyes.
Phantom stays another twenty minutes.
Grace is at the clinic working on Diesel, and Shadow is watching Waylon.
Dakota's in the ICU with her stepmother and won't leave until Phantom relieves her.
Spur came in and went straight to Marlena's room to be with his woman.
The brothers spent the afternoon walking the perimeter and found three operators dead on the back fence line where Banshee shot two of them, and Roan and his men got the third before he could get to the bunkhouse.
All Hartley's men.
What's left of Hartley is being handled by Bullseye and Longhorn outside Brady.
My fiancé made it out of that warehouse.
Phantom doesn't tell me what Rogue did inside it.
I don't ask.
He kisses Bex on the forehead before he goes.
He squeezes my hand on the blanket. "Rogue should be pullin' in any minute."
I close my fingers around his. "Thank you, Phantom."
He pats the back of my hand. "Sweetheart. You're family. Don't thank me for bringin' you tacos. Tell Marlena I did it right when she wakes up."
He stands, and the hat goes back on his head at the doorway. Then he goes, and the door closes behind him.
Bex and I sit with our hands on the blanket and wait.
I count the minutes on the clock above the door because counting is something my brain can do.
Eight minutes.
Twelve.
Twenty.
Bex hasn't let go of my hand.
She's looking at the door.
I'm looking at the ceiling.
The forward-looking question my brain keeps asking is the only question that matters.
Am I going to be okay when he walks through that door?
Hell if I know, but I'm about to find out.
* * *