As I raised my hand to feel what was underneath the gauze, August caught my fingers and towed them away. “Tomorrow. You’ll get the bandage off tomorrow. Now, where were we again? Right . . . I was just about to do this.” He kissed me gently, and it made me forget all about my injury.
It made me forget about a lot of things . . .
Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in my head, and I skated my mouth off his. “You could’ve died!”
“What?” His voice was all raspy.
“When you bit me! I had silver in my blood. You could’ve died. How come you didn’t?”
“That Sillin injection Greg gave me counteracted the silver I ingested. Counteracted the metal in your blood, too.”
I blinked but then snapped out of my daze. “Liam should never have told you about-”
August pressed a finger against my lips. “When I bit you, I understood the risks, and I would take them a thousand times over to get you back.”
Tears welled up.
“Oh, sweetheart. Don’t cry. There’s been too much crying around here.”
I inhaled a breath, trying to rein in my emotions.
“Between Mom, Evelyn, Matt, Sarah-”
I smiled, even though my cheek turned wet. “Sarah cried?” I scrubbed the tears away with the back of my hand. I could believe Matt had gotten teary-eyed; he had the gentlest heart. But Sarah?
“Don’t tell her I told you. She swore me to secrecy.” August tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. “You’re the most popular girl in this hospital. Every single Boulder has come to visit you, to the greatest pleasure of the nurses.”
I laughed, and again it tugged on whatever awaited me behind the gauze.
“I have more questions.”
He sighed. “Let me get comfortable.” He scooted me to the side of the narrow bed so he could lie down beside me.
“I know Evelyn visited me here, so I imagine she’s okay, but did Cassandra-did she send someone?”
“Are you sure you want to know everything tonight?”
I nodded. He splayed his hand against my ribcage. “After you warned Matt, Frank left with Derek. They found Morgan’s daughter lurking on his property.”
I blanched.”Little J.-Frank made him stay behind-he managed to put a bullet in her leg with his dad’s old shotgun.”
Dread creeped up my veins. “He’s only fourteen.”
August smiled. “Stood his ground like a grown man.”
“What about the girls? Were they okay?”
“The girls?”
“Tamara, Amanda . . .” I didn’t add Sienna’s name to the list, since, to my knowledge, she wasn’t dating a Boulder, which meant she probably wouldn’t have been targeted.
“Liam ordered two of our guys to stay with them before the fight began. They’re all fine.”
I was glad to hear Liam had guarded Tamara.
“Any more questions?”
I nibbled on my bottom lip. “Do you think they’ll discharge me tomorrow?”
“Greg will decide. If it was up to me, you’d be recuperating at my place.”
His place . . . Thankfully, I was no longer connected to the machine, because I was pretty certain my heart rate had just shot through the roof.
“Is that where I’m going after this?”
His freckles darkened. “I’d like that, but I’d understand if that’s too much for you. Your new house is also ready.”
The memory of the blood and urine made the walls of my hospital room squeeze in around me. “It was Justin. He confessed to the vandalism. He probably had help, though.”
August’s head dipped. “Don’t worry. I already took care of it.”
It being my house or the rest of the perpetrators? I didn’t ask. “What about Alex? What happened to him?”
“He’s gone too.”
“Gone?”
“Dead. Lucas.”
“And Lori? Did Frank kill her when he got to his house?”
“No. She’s in captivity back at HQ. Liam wanted to keep her for questioning. He’s trying to find out who Morgan’s biggest supporters are.”
A yawn popped out of my mouth.
August’s eyes softened. “You need to rest.”
“I’ve been sleeping for a week.”
“You’ve been mending for a week. You had three cracked ribs and several other . . . injuries.”
I inhaled deeply. Nothing hurt, which told me my ribs must have already set.
“Nothing feels broken anymore,” I said. Except my face.
“I’m relieved to hear that.”
“Did Liam . . . Did he”-I wrinkled my nose-“eat Morgan’s heart?”