Page 92 of Trust No One

Dev’s throat swelled, but he nodded. “Yeah. See you at home.” His throat tightened on the word ‘home’, but he kept his face impassive. He was good at that. He’d learned how important it was in the SEALs.

But maybe it wasn’t so important in civilian life.

Amazing the revelations a person had when your… partner was kidnapped by a maniac and almost died.

Gideon walked out of the room and closed the door carefully behind him.

Dev turned to Mel, sprawled on his bed. Not what he’d ever had in mind when he thought of Mel and beds. But he eased himself onto the bed beside her. Brushed a curl of hair off her face, then curled his pinkie finger around hers. Felt the heat flowing between them, and swallowed hard. If anything had gone wrong at the airport, he wouldn’t be sitting here next to Mel.

Knowing that, and after what Mel had gone through, he wasn’t going to let her wake up alone.

Chapter 31

Dev began to worry when three hours had gone by and Mel was still sleeping. Maybe Gideon had been right. Maybe he needed to take her back to the hospital. Keeping his gaze on her, he fumbled in his pocket for his phone. He’d call Gideon and together they’d get Mel to the nearby hospital.

But as he pulled his phone out of his pocket, he bumped Mel’s hip. She stirred, rolling onto her back and taking a deep, shuddering breath. Finally she opened her eyes. They widened when she saw him sitting beside her on the bed.

“What’re you doing?” she asked. She wasn’t slurring her words anymore, thank God.

“Waiting for you to wake up,” he told her, sliding a little farther away from her.

Mel blinked a couple of times. Started to sit up, then fell back onto the bed. Pressed both hands to her head and dug her fingers into her scalp. “It feels like my head is falling off my neck,” she said. “Oh, my God. My head hasn’t hurt this much since I was a freshman in college and got drunk one night.”

“Big partier in college, were you?” Dev said, taking her hand.

Mel curled her fingers around his as if he were her lifeline. Like it was the most natural thing in the world. Frowned. “Hell, no. Just took one time to learn my lesson.” She shuddered. “Nothing good happens when you mix vodka and orange soda.”

“Oh, my God. You had terrible taste when you were a college freshman.”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” she muttered. “There was this one guy…”

He put his hand over her mouth. Mel wouldnotbe happy when she recovered and realized she’d shared college boyfriend stories with him.

“Anyway, this wasn’t vodka and orange soda,” he said, pressing his cool hand to her forehead. “Do you remember what happened?”

Frowning, Mel turned to look at him. “When? Today?”

“Yeah. This morning. We followed Kingsley to the airport. He was gonna get on a plane, and he grabbed you. Then tried to grab a kid to use as insurance. You blocked Kingsley, and the kid’s mom snatched him away. Kingsley stuck a needle in your arm. Some kind of tranquilizer. Dragged you onto the plane.”

He studied her for a moment. “Any of that ring a bell?”

Mel’s forehead furrowed, as if trying to process what he’d said. She licked her lips. Frowned. “My brain is too fuzzy. And my mouth is really dry.”

“From the drug,” he said. “I’ll get you some water.” He stood up and pulled a cold bottle out of the refrigerator. Opened it and handed it to her.

She struggled to sit up, and Dev finally put his hands under her arms and boosted her up against the headboard. “Better?” he asked.

She shuddered. “Now my head hurts even more.”

“Sit still,” he said, sliding off the bed. He hurried into the bathroom and rummaged in his kit bag. Found a bottle of OTC ibuprofen and dumped four tablets into his hand. Hurried back to her. He hated to see her in pain.

He sat beside Mel’s hip and handed her the tablets. “These should help.”

She stared at them, frowning. “What are they?”

“Ibuprofen, Mel. A painkiller. Go ahead and take them.”

She nodded, then winced. Shoved two of the pills into her mouth, downed them with water, then repeated with the second pair. Her hand shook a little as she stretched her hand holding the bottle toward the night table beside her.

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