“Desideria?”
She heard his sister’s voice, but didn’t respond. She couldn’t. Images of Caillen’s teasing smile haunted her. The way he’d felt when he made love to her earlier. The sound of his voice.
I need you. Please, please don’t die. Not like this. Not with the last words I said to you…
Shahara pulled her back. “You have to let him go.”
She started to argue until she saw the medics. Her entire body quaking in fear, she released him to their care. Syn and Shahara were saying something to her, but she couldn’t understand them. Not through the painful haze that shredded everything.
“We’ll meet you at the hospital.”
She inclined her head to them, knowing that wasn’t where she was headed.
First, she had someone to kill.
Caillen came awake to the sound of whispering voices nearby. He opened his eyes to find himself lying on a sterile hospital bed, hooked to monitors in a small room. It took a full minute before he remembered everything that had happened.
The explosion. His leg.
Desideria!
She\d been ahead of him. Right in the line of fire…
Fear seized his heart as he sat up and started to leave the bed to find her.
Shahara stepped out of the shadows to catch him. She refused to allow him to put his feet on the floor. “Don’t you dare.” She hadn’t used that tone with him in a long time.
A tic started in his jaw as he locked gazes with his tiny sister. If she honestly thought she could keep him here, she’d need a lot more backup than Syn who stood behind her. “Where’s Desideria?”
She exchanged a nervous glance with Syn over her shoulder that did nothing to help his terror. Oh God… Desideria was hurt.
Maybe dead. Why else wouldn’t she answer the question?
Unimaginable pain slammed into him as he struggled to breathe. Their last words had been a fight. Of all people, he knew better than to let someone leave angry.
Why hadn’t I been faster?
Why hadn’t he apologized?
“Where is she?” he demanded.
Shahara cringed.
He felt tears sting his eyes as unimaginable grief tore through him. How could he have failed to protect her? How? “She’s dead, isn’t she?”
All the color drained from her face before her cheeks turned bright red. “Good Lord, child, no! I swear you get the most bizarre ideas sometimes.”
Relief poured through him. Desideria was alive. He could finally breathe again.
At least a little bit. “Then where is she?”
Syn grinned evilly as he moved closer. “Locked up at present.”
Caillen scowled in confusion. “What? How? Why?”
Syn let out a low laugh. “You remember the explosion?”
How could he forget it? His ears were still ringing.
Caillen sat back on the bed as he tried to figure out how that related to Desideria being locked up. Surely they didn’t think she had any part in the explosion…
Did they?
“Of course I do. Was she caught in the blast?”
Syn shook his head. “No. She was clear, but she ran back to you when you hit the wall.”
“She was hysterical,” Shahara interjected. “And worried sick about you. Just like us. She barely beat us to you and she threatened our lives if we hurt you.”
Syn snorted. “Yeah, she was impressive in her rage and she didn’t budge from protecting you un="3">Synhe medtechs arrived. Once you were stabilized and ready for transport, we thought she’d follow us to the med center. She didn’t.”
Caillen’s frown deepened. “Where’d she go?
Shahara let out an annoyed breath. “Your little bunny headed over to lockup, forced her way in and then damn near killed the assassin who’s been following you.”
That didn’t make sense to him. “Why would she do that?”
Shahara picked at the lint on his hospital gown before she smoothed over a wrinkle. “He was the one who’d set a trap on his ship that the techsperts accidentally set off while trying to see if the ship was wired to detonate. Since you were hurt by the blast, she wanted his head in the worst sort of way.”
“And she got it too,” Syn said with a hint of laughter in his voice. “Damn, boy, I thought your sister had a temper on her. I do believe you’ve found the only woman alive with one worse than—hey!” he snapped as Shahara popped him on the stomach. Grimacing, he rubbed the area where she’d hit him. “See what I mean? She’s brutal to live with.”
“Anyway,” Shahara continued after she passed one last malevolent glare at Syn, “she got information out of the assassin, but not before she almost killed him during the interrogation. And she wasn’t beating him for answers. I swear, she hit him twice as hard when he answered her correctly as she did when he didn’t. I take it the Qills don’t instruct their people on the fine art of interviewing prisoners.”