Page 78 of Under Their Protection

“Yeah,”she sniffs.

“Before she went into surgery, she woke up and told me to not let her die because Mia would cry too much,” he says with a smile.

“She’s not wrong,” Mia laughs.

“I’ll come check on her after a while,” he says.

Chapter Twelve

Anika

Voices pull me fromthe comfort of my dreams. I hear the laughter of Mia and Max and it makes me smile.

“She’s awake,” Mia says happily. I force myself to open my eyes and I see Mia. She leans down and hugs me.

“Be careful, Mia,” Rowan says.

“I am. Hush,” she scolds him.

I look around and see that everyone is in the room besides Theo and anxiety washes over me.

“Where is Theo?” I say, panicking.

“Woah. He’s okay. He just went to get coffee,” Rowan says as he kisses my forehead.

“In hindsight, I should have told y’all Isaac was following me,” I say. “Can I sit up?”

“Yeah,” Rowan says as he and Max help me sit up.

“He was following you?” Mia asks.

“Yeah. He texted a few times and I saw him a few times when I’d be out by myself. Getting shot hurts.”

“I’d imagine so,” she laughs.

“Who’s the guy?” I ask, pointing to a guy sitting with Annie.

“Andrew,” she smiles.

“Fuck. Y’all had a trip to go on,” I say.

“You are more important,” she says as she hugs me. “Theo is blaming himself.”

“I figured he would. Isaac went into that building with a plan to kill me. It would have happened either way,” I say. “He acts calm all of the time but I know it’s just an act.”

“It is. He was and still is a mess. It’ll help for him to see you awake. They took you off sedation around five this morning so it taking you twelve hours to wake up freaked him out,” Annie says.

“He’s literally a doctor,” I deadpan and she laughs.

“Yeah, a doctor with anxiety and in love. He said you guys talked?” she asks.

“Yeah. After I threw a temper tantrum,” I smile.

“Then lots of sex I’m sure,” she laughs.

“Yeah. At least I got to have sex before I got shot. You know your husband fucks like a monster?” I say and everyone laughs heartily. The door opens and Theo damn near drops his coffee trying to set it down and come to me. He sits beside me and gently kisses me.

“I’m so sorry, Anika,” he says.

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