Page 100 of Her Wild Coast Promise

I swallow my fears and inhale a deep breath. “Okay.”

Once I’m in the wheelchair, it’s a relief to be off my feet. It’s even more of a relief to be ushered to my destination by someone who clearly knows her way around.

Sarah wheels past the nurse’s station, the triage nurse and waiting area, and across the hall to the elevators. Once inside the car, she taps one of the buttons. My eyes feel gummy, and the lit number swims. Maybe it’s a good thing I’m in this wheelchair.

“You said…he’s hurt?” I ask over the whoosh of the elevator car rising.

“His lungs were damaged and both his eardrums have ruptured,” Sarah says. “No sign of spine or brain injury. Dr. Bailey thinks a chunk of wall landed on you immediately after the blast, creating almost like a shield from the debris that came after.”

Hot tears prick my sore eyes, and I blink them back. “How bad is it?”

“The pulmonologist is optimistic he’ll make a full recovery. His eardrums should heal on their own.”

“His home is destroyed,” I say, and cry into my palms. “He has nowhere to go.”

Sarah kneels down so we’re eye to eye. “He has you, and right now, that’s what counts.”

I gulp a breath and try to swallow the last of my tears. I need to be brave. For Seth. “Okay.”

The elevator doors open and Sarah wheels me out, then we turn down the hallway. She taps her badge on a sensor outside a set of double doors, and they swing open.

We pass a nurse’s station where everyone seems to know Sarah. She parks me outside a room and helps me out.

“My extension is 52. Just use the wall phone in his room. Call me anytime. Even after hours. That line will go to my cell. Hunter will be here in a while, too, and I’m sure there will be others. Let us help, okay?”

“Thank you.” I wipe my cheeks and push to standing.

She smiles. “Of course.”

When I finally limp into Seth’s room, my headache is deep inside my ears. The Tylenol they gave me is helping a little, but I’m sore from how we landed in the bathtub and I have a giant goose egg on the back of my head. My insides flare with a steady, crampy heat, reminding me of what I’ve already lost today.

Don’t let me lose Seth too.

Seth is in a gown, in a bed, an oxygen mask on his face. His eyes are closed and his handsome face looks haggard. The room is dimly lit by a row of lights behind him where all the tubes and cords coming from him are attached. A monitor to his left shows several lines in different colors moving like waves across the screen.

My teeth chatter. Sarah says he’s going to be okay.

Did my research into Peyton’s supporters cause this? Made Seth a target?

Then I remember Rosie’s weird behavior. Tugging on the leash only to sit still. Stubbornly not wanting to leave the house.

Was a bomb at Seth’s house all this time, just waiting for the right moment to detonate?

I pull up a chair so I’m as close to Seth as I can get, then take his hand in mine, and wait.

ChapterTwenty-Nine

SETH

I waketo the dim hospital room. Panic crawls over my skin, making me feel hot. Where is Cora?

There’s an empty blanket on the vinyl easy chair next to my bed, like someone has been here. I try to call out but a wave of pain shoots up my throat, making me nauseous.

Everything hurts. Even breathing, which makes sense considering half of the air sacs in my lungs exploded from the shock wave. It’s an injury most common in war zones. Not in sleepy McKenzie Valley.

I ball my fists. If only I had put the puzzle pieces together sooner.

The ring.

---