Mine To Hold (29 page)

“No, she’s not,” Ethan snapped. “You’re both
dead. And you’re in just the position I like. On your knees.” His
laughter grated in Noah’s ears. “
Look up at me, asshole.
The
last thing I want Claire to see is you dying.”

Carefully, oh, so carefully, Noah eased
Claire down on the deck. “I love you,” he whispered. Did she
realize just how much? That she was his whole world?

That world was bleeding out in front of
him.

He looked up. “I told you what would happen
if you ever came near Claire again.”

Ethan advanced on him. His fingers gripped
the gun tightly. “I’m the one with the power here. Claire should’ve
been true to me! You ruined everything! Now you are going to
die!”

Noah shook his head. “I told you to forget
Claire. And I told you that if you didn’t…” Noah lunged up. With
his left hand, he grabbed Ethan’s hand-the hand that held gun—and
he broke the man’s wrist. “I said you’d be a dead man.” Noah’s
right hand drove his knife into Ethan’s chest. Right into the
bastard’s heart.

Ethan’s breath choked out. He stared at Noah
with wide, stunned eyes. “Pl-please…”

Noah twisted that knife. “You’ll never hurt
her again.” He yanked the knife back.

Blood poured from Ethan’s wound. The man fell
back. And, furious, snarling, Noah, plunged the knife into Ethan’s
throat.

Go join your bastard father and brother in
hell.

Then Noah spun around. He fell to his knees
beside Claire. “Baby, baby,
look at me.”

Her eyes had closed. When he touched her,
Claire’s skin was so cold.

“Don’t do this, Claire. Please, please don’t
leave me.” He was begging her, and he didn’t care. Noah would have
done anything for Claire right then.

Her lashes lifted. Her eyes—the blue seemed
so dim—met his. “Love…y-you…”

He pushed down on her stomach, trying to
apply pressure to her wound. “Fight for me. You love me, so that
means you have to fight.” He kissed her, desperate, breaking.
“Fight to stay with me. Because I don’t want to be without you,
Claire. I don’t think I can be. Please, baby,
hold on.
”

He lifted his head. Her lips started to curl.
The smile that began with her bottom lip.

“Changed…me…” she whispered.

The smile wasn’t flashing her dimples. It
wasn’t reaching her eyes. It had to reach her eyes.

“I was…yours…”

“You still are.” He grabbed for the boat’s
radio. Called for help even as he kept applying pressure to her
wound. “And I’m yours. Yours—always. Do you hear me, Claire?
Always. This isn’t the end for us. We’ve just started. We’re
getting married. I’m going to buy you so many blue diamonds that
you get sick of them, and I’m going to make you scream over and
over again when you and I are in bed and I make—”

Her eyes had closed once more.

“Claire?” No, no. “Get me help!” he yelled
into the radio. “She needs a helicopter! I need a life flight for
her. Dammit, I’m out on the water and I need—”

Claire.

His hand was on her wound. She was
terrifyingly still on that deck. The water was all around him, blue
for miles. No help in sight.

If they stayed there and waited for help to
come, Claire would be dead.

“Live for me,” he begged her. “Please, God,
Claire,
live for me.
”

He lifted her up, holding her as best he
could even while he kept trying to put pressure on that wound. His
left arm wrapped around her, and she hung limply against him.

His mother had been limp like that. So long
ago. He’d thought that she’d just passed out. But…

Still holding her, Noah sent the boat racing
forward. It bounced against the waves at first, then cut through
the water.

He kept holding Claire.

He’d always hold her.

Because she was the only thing that mattered
to him.

“Please hold on, Claire,” he said, and he
knew he was begging her. “Just…hold on.
Don’t leave me.
”

Chapter Fifteen

When the helicopter landed at the hospital,
Drake tensed. He was inside the hospital, watching from his
position in the waiting area. He saw the figures jump from the
chopper, and, a few moments later, the medical attendants ran
forward, pushing the small figure on the gurney toward the
hospital’s emergency room entrance.

Noah was right beside that gurney.

The emergency room doors flew open. Drake had
only a flash of Claire. The doctors were working on her. Yelling.
Saying that she’d lost too much blood.

Fuck, not her.

Claire vanished as the operating room doors
swung closed. Drake glanced over his shoulder. Now Noah stood just
inside the emergency room waiting area. His shirt was covered with
blood. So were his hands.

Cautiously, Drake approached his friend. He
could see that Noah was on the edge. The very dangerous edge that
he’d always sensed with Noah.

“He was on the boat,” Noah said, and his
voice stopped Drake. That low, deadly whisper—Noah normally only
used it in battle. “I wanted to take Claire out and show her that
she could know all of me…
but he was on my boat. Ethan Harrison
was on my fucking boat.
”

Trace had called Drake to let him know about
the deadly situation. Trace had told him to haul ass to the
hospital, and Drake knew that Trace would be arriving there any
minute, too.

“She was trying to protect me.” Noah’s eyes
were haunted. “She told him to let me go. That she’d stay with
him.” His hands had fisted. “She would’ve done it, too. I saw it in
her eyes. If he’d let me go, she would have gone away with that
bastard and let him hurt her. Let him kill her.
For me.
”

“Noah…” He put his hand on Noah’s
shoulder.

Noah shoved him back. “
I didn’t move fast
enough.”

Drake swallowed. “I don’t…I don’t know what
you mean.”

“He knew she loved me. Ethan knew. I was
going to attack him, but I didn’t move fast enough.” Grief ravaged
his face. “He shot her in front of me. We were out on that water,
and I couldn’t help her. There was too much blood. I kept telling
her to hold on. To hold on…”

The ER doors burst open again. Trace stood
there, breath heaving, as his gaze flew around the waiting area. He
saw Noah and Drake, and he rushed toward them.

“But she didn’t open her eyes again,” Noah
whispered. His head sagged forward. “I need her to open her eyes.
I. Need. Her.
”

Drake couldn’t even lie to his friend and
tell him that Claire would be all right. She’d been so pale—ghost
white—on that gurney. And he hadn’t even been able to see her
breathing. Drake cleared his throat. “She’s a fighter.”

“I told her to fight for me. I begged her.”
Noah swiped a hand over his cheek. When his hand fell again, Drake
saw a line of blood on his face. Claire’s blood. “But I don’t even
know if she could hear me.”

When Trace came up to the men, his gaze went
straight to Noah. “Tell me what I can do.”

Noah’s attention was on the shut operating
room doors. “I used to envy you, Trace. You always loved Skye. She
loved you. You seemed to have it all.”

Trace’s face reflected his worry.

“I didn’t know it would…hurt so much.” Noah
rubbed his chest. “It feels like someone is clawing my heart out
right now.”

“Because you love her,” Trace said.

Noah’s head sagged forward. “I’d kill for
her. I’d die for her.” His shoulders rolled back and his face
slowly lifted. “But how can I live
without
her?”

“You won’t have to,” Trace told him, voice
fierce. “You got her to the hospital. This isn’t like the time with
your parents. The doctors are in there, and they’ll get her sewn
up. She’s going to make it.” Maybe Trace’s words were a lie, but
Drake was glad Trace had said them. Drake didn’t like the haunted,
desperate look in Noah’s eyes.

Noah’s gaze flickered to Drake. “She loves
me.”

“Yes, I figured that one out pretty
fast.”

“I love her.”

“That one was obvious, too,” Drake muttered.
“When you stopped the revolving bedroom door routine you enjoyed so
much.”

Trace exhaled on a long, rough sigh. “I don’t
know how Ethan Harrison managed to get all the way up to New York.
He must’ve had help and-”

“The warden helped him.” Noah’s voice was
flat. “So we need to destroy him.”

Trace nodded. “Consider it done.” He backed
away.

Drake knew Trace had found his way to “help”
Noah. Within the hour, Drake figured that the warden would be in
either police custody or in the custody of Trace’s agents. The man
wouldn’t get away.

Noah started to pace then, walking back and
forth on the tiled floor of the waiting room. His gaze darted back
to the operating room doors every few moments.

There was so much blood on the guy. Drake had
to ask, “Noah, are you all right? Do I need to get a doctor for
you?” The last thing he wanted was for Noah to keel over. The guy
could be so focused on Claire that he was ignoring his own
injuries.

Noah stopped pacing. “I think I got shot.
Maybe my shoulder? It doesn’t matter.”

Uh, yes, it did. Drake motioned to a
nurse.

Noah looked down at his clothes. “Most of the
blood is Claire’s…and Ethan Harrison’s.”

“He’s dead.” Drake had gotten that bit of
information from Trace on his way over and—

“I stabbed him in the heart and drove my
knife into the bastard’s throat.” Noah started pacing once more.
The nurse nervously hovered nearby. “He’ll never hurt Claire
again.”

Drake whistled soundlessly. No, Ethan would
never hurt Claire again. And if Claire didn’t survive the
surgery…he knew that Noah York would never be the same again,
either.

He’s lost control. He’s gone over the
edge.

Claire would be the only one who could bring
him back.

***

She looked so pale against the white
covers.

Noah pulled his chair closer to Claire’s bed.
She was connected to about five different beeping machines, and an
IV fed into her left arm.

Her eyes were closed. Her wound stitched
up.

The anesthesia was still in her system, but
the doctors had assured him that Claire
would
be waking up
soon. The surgery had been a full success.

She was going to make it.

He could actually breathe again.

Noah reached for Claire’s hand. His fingers
threaded through hers. He just needed to hold her. To feel her,
warm and alive, against him.

“That was too close,” he rasped to her.
“Please, baby, don’t ever do that to me again.” Because for a while
there, his whole world had gone dark.

He bowed his head, and he kept holding
her.

***

When Claire opened her eyes, the first thing
she saw was…Noah. He was in the chair right next to her bed. And
his gaze was on her.

She tried to smile at him.

He immediately leaned forward. “Baby?” His
hand was holding hers. So warm and strong.

But that was Noah. Her strong, sexy Noah.

“I…it’s over…” Her throat was desert dry, so
she swallowed and finished, “isn’t it?”

His fingers tightened around hers. “Ethan’s
dead.”

She didn’t remember him dying. She remembered
a gunshot. Remembered falling. Remembered Noah begging her to hold
on.

She’d tried so hard to hold on to him.
“Didn’t…want you hurt…” The machines beeped around her.

“You were going to trade your life for mine.”
He shook his head. The faint lines around his eyes and mouth were
deeper, and Noah looked more grim than she’d ever seen him before.
“That shit just wasn’t working.
No one
takes you from me.
You’re mine, Claire and—”

“You’re mine,” she whispered back.

She could see her ring gleaming on her
finger. The bracelets were gone, but the ring was still there. Noah
had asked her to spend her life with him.

And, even though Ethan had tried to take that
life away…
I’m still here.
“I wasn’t…leaving you.”

He pressed a tender kiss to her lips. “Good.
Because I was ready to fight death to get you back.” His jaw
clenched. “I love you, Claire Kramer, more than I ever thought it
was possible to love anyone or anything.”

That was how she felt about him. No, Claire
hadn’t thought that she
could
love. Then Noah had walked
into her life. He’d changed everything for her.

“We’re not having a long engagement,” his
voice warmed as he stared into her eyes. His hand still held hers.
“I…can’t wait. I need you too much.”

And she needed him.

“As soon as you’re out of this hospital,
we’re heading to Vegas. Or, hell, we’ll go any place you want. I
just want you with me.” He kissed her again. “Always, Claire.
Always.”

There was no other place she wanted to be.
“Always, Noah,” she swore, and the love she felt for him filled
her. “Forever.”

***

The chapel was covered in roses. Noah knew
they were Claire’s favorite, so he’d made sure the florist he used
in Vegas brought in as many roses as possible.

He suspected that every rose in Vegas was in
that little chapel.

The Justice of the Peace smiled as Claire
walked down the aisle.

She wore a simple white dress. Her bracelets
gleamed around her wrists, but the blue reminding him so much of
her eyes.

Her eyes had gotten to him from the very
first moment. If the eyes were the windows to the soul, then
Claire’s soul was perfect. Beautiful.

Drake walked Claire down the aisle. The guy
was grinning as he put Claire’s hand into Noah’s.

And when he touched her, some of the tension
Noah felt eased away. Trace stood behind Noah. The guy was his best
man. Skye was Claire’s matron of honor, and she wore a grin nearly
as big as Drake’s.

The Justice of the Peace started speaking.
Noah didn’t look away from Claire. He’d never thought he’d be
getting married. Never thought this was the life he’d have.