Page 65 of Keep Healing

“Close your eyes and try to sleep, Ev. You’re exhausted sweetheart,” Harris told me gently as he turned on his side. Kailan did the same and draped his arm across my waist.

“You’re safe here. We all are, and we’re not gonna leave you alone. We’ll stay right here with you,” he added.

“I love you both so much,” I whispered as I looked between them. “I don’t know what I’d have done without you all.”

“And you’ll never need to know, because we’re not going anywhere, darlin’,” Kailan promised.

“Sleep now, Ev. Everything will seem that much better when you wake up.”

I turned onto my side and lay my head on Harris’s chest, wrapping my arm around his waist. Just as I hoped he would, Kailan shuffled up to me and curled himself around my back, wrapping his arm around me and making me feel so safe sandwiched between the both of them.

Just minutes later, with a hand clutching onto each of them to keep them close, I started to drift off, my head so much quieter now that I knew Harris and Kailan had me.

***

It was noon when I woke up, the guys still laid either side of me, just as they had promised they would be. I slept pretty soundly, which was surprising. I’d needed those few hours of sleep though. It was why I had broken down so epically. I had been completely wrung out, both physically and emotionally.

I was feeling much more level headed as we all got up and freshened up. My life was still in chaos, but I was clinging to what Harris and Kailan had told me – we were safe in that place at that time. It was the most I could ask for with everything that was going on around me.

“Hey,” Aleks greeted as I walked into the kitchen. He was sitting at the counter working away on his laptop as always, but he quickly got to his feet and came to me, engulfing me in his arms and holding me just the way I needed him to. “How are you feeling? Did you sleep?” he asked as he pulled back just enough to study my face.

“Less crazy now that I’ve had some sleep,” I told him dryly.

“Nick went to put Zack down for a nap. Can I make you something to eat? You must be hungry,” he offered.

“A little, I guess. Coffee would be good, if you don’t mind?”

“Sit down, malenka, and I’ll see what I can do,” he told me as he led me to one of the stools at the island and helped me up into it.

“Did you find anything?” I asked as I nodded to his laptop. “About who exactly left that disc?”

“Not really. They were caught on surveillance cameras, but they had a balaclava on. Bypassed all of the security though. He definitely knows what he’s doing,” Aleks replied.

“Can I watch it?”

“If you want to, but you really can’t see much. He walks in when the office is quiet, dumps the disc, then leaves. No one even saw him.” Aleks handed me a steaming cup of coffee along with some sugar and milk. “Sorry, they don’t have your fancy creamer,” he told me.

“Thanks. This is good,” I assured him as I started spooning heaps of sugar into it.

“Please tell me you’re cooking, bro. I’m starving,” Kailan announced loudly as he and Harris walked in, freshly changed into jeans and T-shirts. They still looked as tired as I felt, and I knew Harris had been right about us all being worn out. It had been a chaotic few days.

“I’m not cooking, but I can make sandwiches,” Aleks offered and the guys eagerly agreed.

Things were quiet as we all sat and watched Aleks work. I gulped down my coffee, in desperate need of the caffeine, then stood to pour more from the pot, handing Harris and Kailan a cup each too. We were all a little zombie like, just going through the motions of the day as our minds wandered over the events of the last couple of days and what the hell came next.

Aleks was just handing out the subs as Nick came in with the monitor screen on his phone. He placed it down on the counter so we’d hear if Zack needed us, then he came right to me and wrapped his arms around me from behind.

“I was worried about you,” he whispered as he leaned in and kissed behind my ear so softly. “Are you alright?”

“Better,” I assured him. “I just needed to sleep. How’s Zack? This must be a lot for him too?”

“He’s fine. You know what he’s like – easily bribed with snacks,” he laughed. “Asher and Eli arranged for someone to pick up everything we could possibly need for Zack when we were on the way here. He has a travel cot, highchair, diapers and everything you could think of in that room down the hall. There’s even a crate filled with brand new toys.”

“They’re good guys. We’ll have to find a proper way to thank them when all of this is over,” I suggested. I was so grateful to those two virtual strangers. They had saved us more than once and they barely even took a thank you in return. They were good men.

“We will, baby,” Nick agreed. “You going to eat that?” he asked as he nodded to my untouched sandwich.

“I’m just not really hungry,” I sighed.

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