Page 23 of The Wrecked One

No, those men wanted to break him, and I was pretty sure they’d officially done it. But I wouldn’t let them win. I’d never leave Oliver’s side. I’d be there to help him pick up the pieces, help him put himself back together.

Although, I’d need help myself, too. I was on the verge of collapsing, especially from guilt.

“This is my fault.” I’d repeated that same line on the jet. My new mantra. “If I had run when he’d told me to in the park, then maybe I would’ve never been caught, and he wouldn’t have been forced to . . .” I lifted my hand, fully expecting to see blood appear there.

How’d Hugo Soren find out about us? What tipped him off to even plant the listening device on us? He clearly had a plan set in motion before that moment in the park.

“The officers would’ve more than likely caught up with you regardless. There were police everywhere searching for you. If Oliver hadn’t fought back to distract them so you could make a run for it, it’s quite possible it would’ve taken us much longer to find you two.” She’d already told me this, but I’d probably need to hear it another hundred times. And even then, I doubted it’d help remove the heavy weight of guilt from my shoulders.

“You’re trying to make me feel better. To not blame myself. Appreciated, not deserved.” The tears were on the verge of breaking through the haze again, and I didn’t have enough water to even produce more, so where the heck were they coming from?

Sydney tugged at my arm, drawing me closer. “I will never let you blame yourself. What happened is not your fault.”

“I was stubborn and didn’t run when he told me to. A man is dead because of me. Because I didn’t listen.” That’s a fact.

“Dammit, Mya.” Her short nails bit into my skin where she held my arm. She was as determined to get through to me as I’d been with Oliver. I’d failed. She would more than likely fail as well. “You didn’t want to leave him behind. I’d have done the same.”

“No, you would’ve thought rationally, and you’d have?—”

“Stop, I won’t listen to this.” Her motherly voice sliced through the air in the room, compelling me to stop and listen to her. “I didn’t get into the details on the plane because you were shaken up, and rightly so, but I’m going to tell you this now.”

I’d barely been lucid on the jet. All I could pay attention to was the team handling Oliver’s bleeding so he didn’t die on the way to Singapore.

Oliver had collapsed shortly before the team had pulled us from that building, and he hadn’t regained consciousness until an hour ago in this hospital.

So yeah, Sydney had been right not to share any relevant mission details with me until Oliver was okay.

Okay? Ugh. Such a shit word. He was alive but far from okay.

“I’m not a fan of social media,” Sydney began steadily, “but that video of Oliver fighting back and getting stabbed going viral is how we found you so fast.”

My shoulders slumped. Guilt layering even thicker regardless of her words. And if I felt this way, I couldn’t begin to imagine what was going on in Oliver’s head in that bed.

“Gwen was able to hack into the CCTV footage from that area, find video of the police transferring Oliver to those assholes who took you guys, and then she was able to trace you to your location. I’m just sorry we weren’t there a few minutes earlier.”

Her last words had my attention. “Don’t you dare blame yourself.”

Meeting my eyes, she released a deep breath before sharing what I needed to hear. “Oliver is a fighter. He’ll be okay, I promise. He has to work through what happened. Not just killing that man, but what he almost had to witness before that. If he’d had to watch you be hurt . . .”

Telling the team about that so they could understand how and why a man had died in that room had been . . . well, not easy, to say the least.

“They forced Oliver to make a choice. Let a man rape me or take a life with his own hands,” I’d blurted in a daze after our rescue.

“I want to bring that fucker back to life just to put an arrow through his heart myself,” she went on when I didn’t respond. “Well, after I put one through his dick.” She closed her eyes, then angled her head to rest against mine. “I’m so sorry you went through that.”

“Oliver stopped it from happening,” I said between stuttery breaths. “He’s got such a big heart. He killed that man to save me.” My fault. This is all my fault.

“Anyone on our team would’ve done the same thing, and they’re not in love with you like he is.”

You know he loves me?

“The guys will convince him he’s not a murderer. Just like I’ll spend as long as it takes to remind you none of this was your fault. You bear no guilt in what happened.”

She stood and locked her arms over her chest, staring at me with the stern look she usually saved for her teenage son, Levi, whenever he got into trouble. “Not. Your. Fault. Do you hear me? And you know Carter is going to set that man’s family up so they never want for anything a day in their life.”

I frowned, tears slipping down my cheeks. My nose was raw from crying and blowing it so much. “Money isn’t a replacement for a father. For a husband.”

“Of course not, but at least his wife and kids will be taken care of. And that’s the best we can do.” Waiting for me to meet her eyes again, she added, “We’re going to find these assholes and take them down once and for all.”

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