Breach: The Boxset (29 page)

She shifted and sat up. “Anna!” she called out. “Anna, come back away from the pond!”

I looked to where she called and my breath caught in my chest. A small girl, who couldn’t be more than four, turned to look at us. Her light brown curls were bouncing as she ran toward us, hands waving in excitement. Her eyes lit up just before she threw her tiny body on top of me.

“Daddy! Daddy! There are fishies in the water!” The joy rolled off her tiny frame, her smile consuming her face.

Her unique gray-green eyes stared up at me, identical in color to Lila’s. Her hair the same shade of brown as mine. Other elements of Lila could be found in the shape of her lips and the angle of her little nose.

My hand reached out to touch her face, but instead of meeting flesh, my hand fell right through her as she dissipated between my fingers.

The sky turned gray, dark clouds tumbling into view. My gaze turned back to Lila, she was still curled into me, but her body was limp and skinny, no swell in her stomach. I looked to her hand, it was now bare of the rings that had been there and blood covered her skin.

“Lila,” I called to her, shaking her, but she didn’t wake. “Lila!”

“Lila!” I cried out. My eyes snapped open, my breathing hard, as I looked at the ceiling. I could hear the beeping of various machines next to me.

I sat up and looked around, trying to orient myself, and recognized my family in the room. My mind fought back, trying to remember how I got there. Visions of Lila’s crumpled car, her bloodied hand hanging from the stretcher came back at once. I swallowed back the bile that rose in my throat as the panic set in again.

I had to find her. I needed to make sure she was all right, that she was…alive. She had to be alive. Please, she had to be.

I pulled back the sheet and swung my legs over the edge. There was a tug on my hand, and I ripped the heart monitor from my finger. The machines began beeping wildly, alarms going off.

“Nathan, honey, it’s okay. She’s alive,” I heard my mother say. I could tell by her tone it was a plea in hopes I would calm down, but it didn’t work.

I could vaguely hear and see my parents in the room along with Darren, Trent, and Erin. They were talking in whispers, but I couldn’t concentrate on that. I had to find her.

Please be okay. Please be alive. Please don’t leave me!

“Lila!” I cried out for her, my panic rising.

“She’s all right, Nathan,” Darren said to me as he stepped to the side of the bed. I didn’t believe him, I couldn’t. I had to see for myself. I swatted at him, pushing him aside.

My feet landed on the cold floor, and I took a few steps forward before a sharp pain pulled at my wrist. I looked to find an IV line attached in one hand.

“Lila!” I called out again.

“Mr. Thorne, please, lay back down!” a woman in green scrubs directed upon entering my room. I ignored her, pushing past her and out into the hall, the IV tube in my hand as I dragged the stand behind me.

Darren followed behind me, arguing with the nurse; him telling her to let me go, her telling him I was disturbing patients.

I didn’t give a fuck if I disturbed patients;
I needed
to find my Lila.

“Lila!” I called again. My chest was throbbing with each step, tears stinging my eyes. She had to be here, somewhere, she just had to be.

“Mr. Thorne! You need to return to your room!” The nurse screeched at me.

“He has to do this, Mary, just let him go,” Darren said to the annoying nurse.

“Lila!”

The IV stand caught on something in the hall, and I pulled on the tube, dislodging it from the bag.

“Don’t pull that out!” another nurse scolded as they all chased me down the hall.

“Lila!” I wailed. A sob was growing, about to release while tears began streaming down my face.

I looked into each room, one at a time, the irritating nurses following right behind, yelling at me, threatening me. Darren and my parents then started yelling at them.

“Lila!” I was begging for her to answer, but with each room I came to and didn’t find her, my desperation grew.

My heart was hammering in my chest, the ache growing. My vision began to dim again, dread setting in.

I reached a room near the end of the hall, and leaned on the frame, bracing myself while my limited vision wildly searched for her.

And then I saw her. She was bandaged and beaten to hell, but she stared back at me with  wide-eyed recognition.

My vision returned and my body relaxed while I took her in. Lila was alive. Thank God, she was alive.

Her eyes met mine, and relief flooded every part of me, tears stinging at my eyes. Joy that my nightmares hadn’t come true.

I wasn’t too late. I could fix this, fix
us
.

by

K.I. Lynn

CHAPTER 1

I
woke to throbbing pain throughout my body, a pounding headache, and the sound of my name. It was faint, but growing in intensity as it moved toward me.

My eyes opened, and I looked around, seeing the door of what I recognized as a hospital room.

“Lila! Lila!” Nathan’s voice cried out. It was a frantic, panicked tone I had never heard before.

“Lila!”

“Mr. Thorne! You need to return to your room!” was screeched at him by who I assumed was a nurse.

“Lila!”

“Don’t pull that out,” another voice scolded.

“Lila!” he wailed, and it sounded like he was on the verge of tears.

It was clear he was ignoring the nurses as his search for me continued; they were threatening to call security.

“Lila!” he called out again, desperation flooding his tone. He was louder, only one room away.

My chest tightened, and my heart began beating at a furious pace.

Seconds later, his hands appeared on the doorway, bracing himself while his eyes searched for me.

I gasped when I took in his appearance; he was wearing nothing but a hospital gown. One tube hung from his wrist, hanging down on the ground.

His expression was what had me in shock and my heart wrenching. Tears streamed down his pink cheeks; his eyes were wide and frantic, a look of despair overpowering all other emotions.

As soon as his eyes met mine, his body relaxed, and his face morphed into one of relief and joy.

“Lila!” he cried out once more, stumbling toward me.

He reached out and grasped onto the sides of my face, his forehead leaning onto my bandaged one.

“Oh, thank God. Thank God, you’re alive.”

Warm tears landed on my cheeks as he continued mumbling. I stared at him in stunned silence. This was not the Nathan I knew. The mask was gone, and for the first time I was seeing the true Nathan without any inhibitions. He was raw and lay bare before me.

He was stunning. More beautiful than usual in his agony.

I didn’t move, I didn’t speak, I lay there stunned. He was crying.

Nathan
was crying.

One of his tears dropped, sliding down to my lips. My tongue peeked out to lick it away, and my taste buds danced, registering the salty evidence, proving I wasn’t imagining it.

“Nathan, what’s going on?” My voice was thick, my throat dry, and I began to wonder how long I’d been out.

He pulled back from me to look into my eyes. “You don’t remember?”

I shook my head and immediately stopped when I found how much it hurt. My vision spun, and my eyes were having trouble tracking.

“You were in a very bad accident…” he trailed off, and his eyes moved from mine, looking over my whole body.

I could tell I was hurt – the throbbing and shooting pain when I tried to move was proof enough without the excruciating breaths. His expression told me I was as bad off as I felt. His fingers ran over my gauze covered arm. I realized my whole arm was wrapped when he pressed his fingers to mine. He moved back up to my head, inspecting the bandage and gauze that was wound around it. With light strokes he ran the back of his fingers against my cheek, and even that hurt. I was certain I didn’t want to see a mirror at that moment.

He stayed clear of my leg, which was good as I might have punched him if he touched it because it hurt so much already.

“I’m so sorry. This wouldn’t have happened if I…”

His being there, his pain, made me angry. His apology even more so. “If you
what
? Hadn’t left me? Broken me? Left me a shell of the paper thin person I already was before you? If that’s even possible.”

“All of those. I can’t tell you how sorry I am.”

My jaw clenched, another thing I found painful, as annoyance took over. “You didn’t do this physical damage to me. What you did was far worse.”

“Please, Lila, please!” he begged in a whisper.

My chest felt like he was stabbing me with a knife, and in an angry fit I lashed out. “Please, what?”

“Please, I’ll tell you everything, anything you want to know if you… Can we start over? I need you so much.”

My tone was harsh. “Why? Why did you leave me if you were going to beg for me back?”

“I’m so sorry I did this to you, to
us
. I was trying to protect you, and myself.”

“Protect you from what exactly? What did you need protection from?”

“From losing you the same way I lost…my wife,” he admitted, his eyes screwed tight.

I swallowed hard, absorbing his words. There was a twinge in my chest that had nothing to do with my injuries and everything to do with him. My anger subsided for a brief moment, but bounced back.

“And what were you protecting me from?”

“From the Marconi family.” His eyes were boring into mine, beseeching me to understand.

My eyes widened. The Marconi family was well-known for their criminal connections. Their reach was mostly the northeast part of the country.

I was hesitant with my next question as I wondered what he’d been involved with in the past. It left me wishing I’d read those articles about Nathan instead of closing them down. “Why would you need to protect me from the Marconis?”

He sniffed and another tear slid down his cheek. “Because if they found out about you, they would kill you like they did her.”

I stared at him, slack-jawed. He’d mentioned his condo wasn’t in his name. It was evident to me now it was part of his hiding. “Why did they want to hurt her?”

“They were trying to kill me.”

“Oh.” My lips pressed into a thin, taut line. My head was pounding, and as much as I was happy he was opening up, I just wanted him to go.

“I can’t let that happen to you.”

“So you let me go? Were you ever going to ask me what
I
wanted? Were you ever going to tell me and let
me
decide for myself to risk my life to stay with you or cut all ties? Do you feel anything for me?” I needed some answers right then, though I wondered if they would be enough.

“I feel
so much
for you. I tried to stop it. I knew it could happen with you—I sensed it from the beginning. The pull I feel to you is so strong. I tried to will myself
not
to develop these feelings for you, but you just won’t fucking be denied!”

“I don’t understand what the fuck you’re saying,” I grumbled.

“I’m saying Darren was right. I tried so hard to deny it, to deny
you
, but he saw it. He said I was being selfish by leaving you, that I did it because I didn’t want to be hurt again, that I was a coward for it. He was right. He saw it from the moment he arrived at the hospital when you were unresponsive.”

My brow scrunched. “Dr. Morgenson? How do you know him, and what did he see?” My patience was running thin, and Nathan’s head shook, making it worse. “Just fucking say whatever it is you’re trying to say!”

My chest protested, screaming at me, and I laid my head back down. The pain was almost unbearable.

He looked at me, his face torn as he studied my features. His mouth opened and then closed again, the words stuck.

“He knew that I’m in love with you.”

My eyes widened, my mouth dropping in shock as my brain attempted to process what he had said.

“I love you, Lila,” he declared. “I’m so scared about what that means for you.”

My heart skipped a beat as words I had longed to hear slipped past his lips. The problem was they were tainted by the darkness he had carved in my heart.

I laughed; it was a harsh one, my bitterness soaking through, and he flinched in response. “You love me? Then why did you leave me?”

“I’m sorry, I…”

“You love me? You’re sorry? Do you somehow think that makes everything better?” I asked, my voice growing in volume despite the protest in my lungs.

“No.”

“Then what, Nathan? What the fuck do you want?” I asked, tears welling in my eyes. I needed to know. He needed to tell me. No more hiding.

“I…” he began, and then shook his head, his eyes pleading with me for some sort of unknown understanding.

“Out.” My right arm lifted, despite the pain, and pointed toward the door. The chance was given for him to give me something, anything, but he didn’t take it.

“Wait, Lila, please,” he begged.

“I said get the fuck out!” The action of yelling caused my eyes to grow wide as an agonizing fire ripped its way through me, my injuries protesting my movements.

My breaths became shallow, each harder than the last. The beeping on the machines increased.

Nathan stepped toward me, and I growled at him in warning. “No! Out!” My hand grabbed hold of the ice water on the stand next to me, and I threw it at him. The lid popped off when it crashed into his chest. The cold water spilled all over him, and he wore an expression of utter shock while the sound of the plastic, hitting the hard floor, filled the room.

I screamed out, the pain from jostling my body so intense a white light clouded my vision. In the background, Nathan was calling to me along with other voices, coaxing me to calm down, but all I could pay attention to was my own gasping breaths and shooting pains coursing through my body.

I was crying out in pain between the pants. Every sound I emitted caused the stabbing in my chest to flare, which would cause me to scream yet again. It was a vicious cycle.

It took a while, but with the help of some drugs, I regained a normal breathing pattern.

“Ms. Palmer… Delilah, I’m Dr. Thomas. Do you recall how you were injured?” he asked, and I shook my head. His hand reached out and stopped the motion. “It’s okay, not too much. Now that you’re awake, I’m hoping we can better assess your injuries. As of right now, we know you have a broken leg. You also have multiple lacerations that we’ve stitched up. We’re going to evaluate you and go from there, all right?”

I nodded in response, and nurses began taking new vitals while fingers poked and prodded me. I may or may not have hit one of the nurses when my leg was bumped, but thankfully they understood.

For what felt like the next millennium, I was examined and moved about, left with nothing but my thoughts to keep me company. The nurses tried to draw me into conversation, but I wasn’t paying attention. What had me was him: Nathan. Everywhere in the hospital I went, I could still feel him. My eyes searched for him as they wheeled me down corridors. I never did see him, but I knew he was near. After everything, there was still that rope that bound us together, pulling me to him.

Sixteen hours, seventeen x-rays, and one CT scan later, the tally was in: bruised ribs, broken tibia and fibula which needed surgery to be realigned with a metal rod to hold the bones together, sprained left wrist, a concussion, and a linear skull fracture. To top it all off, I had multiple lacerations to my arms, legs, and head, and bruises with various scratches that covered my body. I was also informed I would not be leaving the hospital until after the surgery to fix my leg. My surgery was scheduled for Tuesday, and if I was lucky, I would be released on Wednesday.

It was going to be a very long week.

They gave me lots of medicine for the pain, and I soon found myself drowsy. After a small fight I gave up trying to stay awake and fell into a deep sleep.