Ignite (Explosive) (37 page)

Before we can inform the guys on the perimeter, the bomb explodes without warning. I’m knocked to the ground as a sharp pain slices through my chest and lower body. Flashes of Alexa, both then and now, rush through my brain as the pain takes over. The thought of losing her before I’ve even had her goes through my mind, and I’m fighting hard to stay conscious. With one last image of her beautiful smile, I begin to close my eyes, right after I see Knox flying through the air. I lose him as my world turns to black.

I wake
up and hear Sierra rushing through the house, searching for me. Pulling myself into a sitting position, I’m momentarily confused until I hear those words.
There’s been an incident.

“I’m in here,” I choke out, my voice sounding scratchy.

Seconds later she’s bursting through the door, wrapping her arms around me when she spots me on the ground. Before I know it, she’s dragging me to my feet, pushing me towards the bedroom.

“You need to pack,” she informs me, but all I can do is crawl into bed and curl myself into a ball.

I want to pretend that the real world doesn’t exist, creating my own bubble to keep all the pain away. Not wanting to hear the words said out loud, I bury my face in my pillow. I can hear her going through my things, but I continue to ignore her until she finally stops by my spot on the bed.

“Alexa Leigh, get your ass out of bed right now,” she demands.

I sit up but stare at the wall instead of looking at her. I’m in a daze, so I’m not prepared for the hard slap that comes across my cheek. Holding my face with my hand, I glare at her.

“What the hell was that for?” I ask, having been jarred out of my stupor.

She gets in my face as she places a piece of paper in my hand. “You. Have. To. Go,” she says, emphasizing every word.

I stare at her and she sighs, placing her hands on her hips. “Beth McAllister called Mom, who called me. She said you hung up before she could finish talking. Jace is on his way to a hospital in Germany right now. He’s unconscious, but he’s alive. His parents are flying over, and Mom and Dad bought you a ticket so you could go, too.”

My eyes widen as her words sink in. “He’s alive?”

She nods and the tears start to fall onto my cheeks.

“I thought…I lost him.”

“I know, honey. But you didn’t. Initial assessment is that his injuries aren’t life threatening, but they’ll know more once he gets there. So pack quickly, and I’ll drop you off at the airport.”

Elation soars through me as the words sink in. He’s going to be okay. I’m getting a second chance, and the pain in my heart is replaced by a relieved happiness. I’m more than eager to finally say the words to him.

Pulling myself together, I throw my things in a suitcase. Two hours later, I’m boarding a plane, anxious to see with my own two eyes that Jace is really okay.

I try to pass the next ten hours reading my Kindle, but my mind keeps wandering to him and I can’t concentrate on the words on the screen. I’ve made him wait so long, and it makes me nervous that I could be too late. Will he still want that same future? Or have these three weeks apart changed his mind? I shake the thought out of my mind, because this is Jace. Ten years didn’t change anything, so a few weeks apart won’t either.

After an agonizingly long flight, the plane is finally landing, and I’m chomping at the bit to get off. Trying to be polite but growing increasingly frustrated, I exit the plane and am all but running through the concourse. Jace’s parents offered to pick me up, and by the time I reach Beth, I’m a sobbing mess again. She wraps her arms around me and rubs my back.

“Lexi, calm down, sweetie. He’s injured pretty badly, but the doctors think he’s going to be fine,” she informs me.

I only brought my carry on, so she guides me out of the airport and into the taxi that’s waiting on us. She informs the driver of where to go before she turns back to me.

“His team was getting ready to clear a suspicious item on the side of a road, and it exploded before they could get to it. He’s got second-degree burns on his chest, and his left leg is broken in three places. They’re also monitoring him for internal bleeding. He’s still unconscious, but his brain activity looks normal. When I left, he was in surgery to repair his leg.”

“And they think he’s going to recover fine?” I ask quietly.

She takes my hand and holds it, reassuring me. “The doctor says that the recovery for his leg will take the longest, but he should be up and moving on it in the next few months. As long as there’s no internal bleeding, he’ll be fine.”

I lean my head back against the seat with relief. We’re silent the rest of the way to the hospital, and my impatience grows as I go through all the channels to get in to see him. Patrick rises to his feet when he spots us moving towards him in the waiting room. He gives his wife a kiss on the cheek before drawing me into a warm hug.

“They just brought him back from surgery. He’s still out from the anesthesia, but you can go in and see him if you want. We’re going to go get some coffee. Want anything?” he asks as he tells me Jace’s room number.

I shake my head, and Beth squeezes my arm, giving me a smile before they turn and walk away. Anxiously I make my way down the hallway, searching for his room number. It seems like hours before I finally find it, and I take in a deep breath before entering. A nurse is adjusting his IV drip, and she gives me a smile when she spots me.

“He’s still pretty heavily sedated, but he should wake up anytime now,” she tells me, and I smile at her as she exits the room, leaving us alone.

The room is silent except for the beeping coming from the monitor on the side of his bed. I pull a chair up to the side of the bed, where I still as I take in the sight of him. His long body is stretched out on the bed with a sheet covering him up to his chest. I can see the bandages covering his burns, and my breath catches when my eyes reach his face. His beautiful features are marred by dark bruises on the left side. Another bandage is on his forehead, running along the end of his hairline. He looks so damaged and vulnerable, and tears sting my eyes as I take in his injured appearance.

Sitting down, I lean in and take his hand in mine. Exhausted, I lay my head on the edge of the bed and close my eyes. I’m not sure how long I stay that way, but the moment I feel his fingers move underneath mine, I’m wide awake. I look up and see his eyes blink open halfway. He’s struggling to see me.

He closes his eyes again and sighs. “I must still be dreaming,” he whispers in a husky voice. “Or they gave me really good drugs and I’m seeing things. Yeah, must be the drugs making me see a vision of my beautiful girl.”

“Jace…” I begin, but he hushes me.

“No, no, you don’t talk. I mean, you talk, but you don’t say what you feel, so right now you can keep your mouth shut. You may not be real, but I’m damn well going to tell you how I feel,” he says, getting agitated, clearly still out of it.

“Jace, I’m—” I start to say before he snaps.

“Be quiet, woman. You had your chance to talk weeks ago, but you didn’t say a word, so it’s my turn. I love you. I love you so damn much. And I know you love me, too. Why is it so damn difficult for you just to say it? Just once I want to hear it. Just once before I have to let you go…” he says, his voice trailing off with the last word.

“I do love you, Jace. I love you more than I can even begin to describe,” I reveal.

He sighs again, and his hand falls from mine. In a sleepy, sad voice, he mumbles, “If only you were real,” before slipping back into a deep slumber.

I can
hear voices as I struggle to open my eyes. My mouth’s as dry as the Iraqi desert in the middle of summer and my lips won’t part. Blinking twice, I see my mom asleep in the corner and my dad reading a newspaper. Dad notices my eyes open and he shakes Mom awake. I clear my throat and my mom is instantly by my side as she puts a straw from a cup of water up to my lips. I drink in and immediately swirl it around my mouth. Swallowing with relief, I struggle to smile. A sharp pain in my jaw causes me to grimace, and Mom looks at me with pity.

“You need to take it easy, honey. You’ve got some pretty bad bruising,” she tells me.

I glance around the room, remembering the visions I had of Alexa when I was under. Any hopes that I wasn’t dreaming vanish when I don’t see her. It’s a cruel fate that I’d finally hear her say that she loves me only for it to turn out to be a dream. At that moment the door opens and the doctor enters with what I’m guessing is my chart.

“Sergeant McAllister, nice to have you back with us. I’m just going to check your vital signs and the burns,” he tells me.

“How bad, Doc?” I ask, wanting to know the extent of my injuries.

He spends the next few minutes going over my injuries with me, and he comments that I’m extremely lucky due to how close we were to the bomb blast. Immediately I wonder about Knox, because he was even closer than I was.

“Is Sergeant Wellington here? Is there any word on him?” I ask the doctor, whose eyes draw together.

“I can’t discuss other patients, but I can tell you that Sgt. Wellington suffered life threatening injuries, but we think he’s going to make it. It’s touch and go right now, but as soon as he’s stable here, he’ll be leaving for Walter Reed where they can provide more long-term care. In fact, you’ll both be going there. The fractures in your leg are going to take some time to heal, and you’ll need physical therapy once you’re finished. We want to monitor you for a couple of more days before we let you go, though.”

I thank him and he leaves, telling me that a nurse will be around to check on me later. My parents are watching me, trying to gauge my reaction to the doctor’s news. I push any thoughts of Knox not making it out of my mind. It’s hard enough to think about not having him around, but I wonder if his family even gave a damn when they got their phone call.

“Thanks for coming all this way. It really means a lot,” I tell my parents.

“Jace, honey, of course we came. When they first called, we didn’t have any details. We knew you weren’t gone because they wouldn’t call for that, but at the time they didn’t know how badly you were injured, so we hopped on a plane and got here as soon as we could,” Mom tells me.

I start to feel a sharp pain in my leg, so I press the morphine drip to help numb the pain. Leaning my head back against the pillow, I close my eyes, exhausted even though I’ve only been awake for a few minutes. I hear the door open and my mom’s voice as she tells me they’ll be back in a bit. She gives me a kiss on the cheek and they leave the room. The silence settles in around me and I’m almost asleep when I hear her.

“Jace?” a quiet, shaky voice whispers.

Fighting the fatigue, my eyes open in a flash and my gaze settles on the most beautiful girl in the world. She pulls a chair up to the bed and sits in it. Her hair is messy, her face free of makeup, and she has dark circles under her eyes. Her eyes moisten as I move my hand to cup her cheek.

“You’re here,” I whisper, not sure I really believe what I’m seeing.

She nods, and I feel her movement under my hand.

“You’re here. And you’re real.”

“Yes, Jace. I’m not a product of your drugged-up imagination. I promise,” she says, offering me a small smile.

I struggle to wrap my muddled brain around her words as I try to remember the conversation from earlier when I thought she was a hallucination.

“You have pretty poor timing, by the way,” she teases me, and I soak up the sweet laughter I’ve been missing for so long.

I furrow my eyebrows at her because I have no idea what she means.

“I was a coward, Jace. I was a stupid, idiotic coward. I let my fears get in the way of what I was feeling in my heart. I was just so scared of going through that again that I couldn’t see what was right in front of me. It took me a while, but I finally realized that you already had every piece of me. I didn’t have to give you my heart. You already own it. You own me. And I’ve been a fool to fight it.”

Her words wash over me like a warm blanket, soft and comforting. Finally. She finally gets it.

She places both of her hands in one of mine as she continues. “You asked me once what I see in the future, and it wasn’t until that moment that I really even began to believe I could have one. It’s all I’ve been able to think about since you left. And the truth is, I see you. Everywhere I see you. You’re my past, my present, and I want you to be my future. I see myself wearing your ring. I definitely see myself having your kids. I see us fighting, making up. I see us growing old together, making millions of memories. I see myself loving you every day for the rest of my life, no matter how short or how long it will end up being. Because you were right. I’d rather give my whole self to you for as long as I can. I’d say that you’re worth the risk, but I don’t see it as risky. It’s living, it’s loving, and I’m going to do both, because, Jace McAllister, I love you. I love you with my whole heart, and I will show you every single day.”