Page 121 of Silent Betrayal

I sit in the chair beside her and place my hand on hers. “Sweetheart, can you hear me?”

I watch her face for the slightest sign of movement under her eyelids, but there’s nothing. “You have to come back, you still owe me from our deal, remember? The one we made in Ben’s room when I saved you from Atlas?” I lick my lips before continuing. “Well, I’m gonna cash it in now. And it’s an easy one! You wanna know what it is?”

I squeeze her hand as I lean in and yell, “WAKE UP!”

“Max, what the fuck, man?” Ben yells at me.

But I ignore him. My attention is on the hand, gripping mine back. I stare at it as I whisper, “Mina? Sweetheart?” The room goes quiet. I squeeze her hand again and I definitely feel her squeeze back this time.

“I felt it! She squeezed my hand!” I tell them excitedly and they all move close, surrounding her.

“Angel?”

“Kitten?”

“Malishka, open your eyes!” Everyone talks over each other.

I lean forward to stroke her face and stare at her eyelids as I whisper, “Sweetheart, it doesn’t count if you don’t open your eyes. Come on now.You owe me. You can’t die with a debt to be paid, you don’t want to end up a ghost, do you?”

“Bloody hell, Max!” Gideon mutters.

Her eyelids flutter.

“That’s it, baby, open those beautiful green eyes and look at me. We need you to wake up… right now.”

And then the most wonderful thing happens, her eyelashes start fluttering. She blinks a few times and then her eyes focus on mine. “Max?” she asks, her voice a raspy whisper like the first time she woke up in a hospital bed.

I give her a huge smile and press my lips to hers. She sighs against me. “There you are. We missed you.”

“I… I think I was dead. You were all there, but I couldn’t touch any of you. It was torture. I think it was hell.” I chuckle as, after everything she’s been through, she thinks the worse form of torture is being kept from us.

“Sweetheart, I love you. You scared us to death, no more doing that, okay?”

She looks around at all of us. “I love you guys so much. Thank you for coming for me.” Tears stain her cheeks and everyone takes their turn kissing and hugging her.

She smiles at us all, gripping my hand still, like an anchor and asks, “so now what?”

Dom answers for us. “Now you heal. Then you can do anything youwant.”

Chapter fifty-six

It’s been exactly two months since I woke up in the hospital, for the second time.

The guys have been taking care of me every moment since I got home. I thought I would grow tired of it, but I love having them around me all the time. I’m just tired of being stuck in bed.

Secretly, I started moving around my bedroom two weeks ago on the rare occasions when they would actually leave me alone. Max and Tucker caught me a week ago and, after I explained my frustration of laying in bed and my fear of getting other issues from laying still, they started helping me around my room.

Yesterday, we finally told the other guys that I was able to walk around on my own. They were upset we didn’t tell them, but they had been so overprotective they couldn’t be reasoned with.

At first, nobody would stay in my giant bed with me, afraid of hurting me. They would sit in a chair at my bedside. That lasted all of two days until I broke down in tears, thinking they didn’t want me, and that finally put an end to it. Now, I wake up surrounded by at least two of my guys every day, and I love it.

And today I’m finally leaving my room, on my own two feet. They promised me at the two-month mark I could walk around again as long as I had someone with me at first.

Today, Gideon helped me take a bath and dress, and now he holds my hand firmly as he leads me to the stairs.

“You sure you can manage them, Love?”

“Yes, Gideon, I’m sure, I’ve got your hand and I’m holding the railing.” I roll my eyes at him. I mean, I feel fine, like I could even jog or run, if I had any ambition to do so.

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