Page 10 of Sutton's Shadow

“I know. I know. It’s overstepping. But I couldn’t help myself. You’re Liam’s best friend. He would have wanted me to help you if I had the resources. And I do. Dylan is a friend of mine, and she won’t quit until you have your sister back.”

“I don’t know what to say.” Rubbing the back of his neck, he stared at the ground. The gratitude he felt toward his friends for their support was one thing, but for Sutton to go out of her way to help him... he had no words. The last time he’d seen her was just after Liam’s funeral. She’d been lying in her hospital bed in a medically induced coma. He’d felt compelled to sit with her and had stayed for several days until work called him away. Liam would have wanted someone to be with her.

“You don’t have to say anything,” she said, breaking him out of his thoughts. “I just hope she’ll be able to help.”

They sat in silence, each lost in their thoughts. Wyatt studied her out of his peripheral vision, having a hard time reconciling the woman beside him with the fragile one whose hand he’d held while she lay in that hospital bed.

His eyes traveled up from her cold, pink cheeks to the scar on her temple. She’d come so close to losing her life that day, a thought he was loath to entertain. There was something about this woman that drew him in. There always had been. Even when she’d been at her most fierce and placing others in danger.

But she was Liam’s. She was... off limits.

She must have sensed him studying her as she reached up and brushed her hair out from behind her ear, letting it fall forward to hide her face. He hated when she did that. There was absolutely nothing for her to be ashamed of. He had scars of his own that were far more distasteful than hers.

He caught himself absently rubbing his leg and forced his hand to stop.

It dawned on him then that he’d never expressed his condolences to her. “I’m sorry, Sutton. Liam was a good man.”

Sutton clasped her hands together in her lap, clenching them tightly. She was silent for a moment, breath held before she let it go on a deep exhale. “He was. He talked about you all the time.”

Wyatt groaned. “Whatever you heard about me... it’s probably all true.”

Her hands loosened as she laughed. “Don’t worry. Most of it was good.” He chuckled softly. “Actually, he mentioned many times how much he missed working with you. The rest of his team were good men, but he said working with you felt natural.”

“Yeah, we could read each other well,” Wyatt remarked with a sigh, missing his friend. “How are the other guys doing?”

She stiffened again, and he felt contrite for asking. “Um... I don’t know. I don’t hear from them.”

“What do you mean?” Most of the men that had been on Liam’s security team had been former Ranger teammates of his. They promised each other if anything happened to one of them, the rest would step up to look after any family or significant other that person had. He couldn’t imagine any of them ignoring that promise. While he himself had not had too much contact with Sutton, he’d tried to reach out to her several times a year. Not to mention the days he spent sitting by her bedside while she’d been in the hospital after the incident.

Her fingernails picked at the seam in her jeans as she struggled with her answer. “I haven’t heard from any of them since that day,” she lamented sadly.

“How can that be? We made promises to each other years ago. I can’t imagine any of them ignoring that duty.” He thought of his time with her in the hospital; not one of the other guys showed up to look after Liam’s fiancée. It was odd, but he hadn’t thought to ask any of the guys about it. But now her words annoyed him.

“Well, I believe they blame me for Liam’s death. They aren’t the only ones,” she finished so softly he barely made out the words.

He sat up straight on the bench and stared at her in disbelief. “It’s okay,” she continued, her gaze fixed on the fingers flicking at the seam between her knees. “I understand. They have every right to be angry. If I had done as he ordered, gotten out of there faster, he’d still be alive. Therefore, it is my fault?”

Wyatt surged to his feet. “Fuck no, Sutton,” he growled. He lumbered a few steps away from her, his injured leg objecting to the sudden movement. He ignored the twinge of pain, angry on her behalf. While he admitted he’d had similar thoughts about her and her reckless regard for those around her when he’d first met her, hearing her blame herself for the tragedy had him immediately rejecting the idea.

But for his former teammates to place the blame solely on her instead of the group of evil men who’d done the shooting was unconscionable.

“Those jackasses,” he snarled. “I can’t believe them. How could they think for even one moment that you were responsible?” Glancing over at her, he took in her bowed head. He went to her, kneeling down in front of her. A tear slipped past her lashes, and she reached up with a shaky hand to swipe it away. He cupped her face, forcing her to look up at him.

“It’s not your fault, Sutton,” he said as his thumb brushed another tear off her cheekbone. “Liam’s teammates are wrong. The blame lies with that group carrying out the atrocities. Never with you. There is evil in this world. I’ve seen it. You’ve seen it. But you are not it. You could no sooner be the cause of Liam’s death than I. Do you understand?”

She stared at him, her blue eyes swimming in tears. She nodded. “Say it, Sutton. Say you understand that you are not to blame.”

More tears fell, and he caught them all with his thumbs. They stared at each other for several moments until she took a deep breath. “Okay, Wyatt. I understand.”

“You understand what?” he prodded.

Her chest rose and fell as she huffed out a breath, her reluctance obvious. “I understand it’s not my fault,” she grudgingly admitted. He gazed into her eyes for a few moments more. She didn’t believe it, he could tell, but he let it go for the time being. He’d work on her, vowing to not let it go until she believed it.

Nodding once, he dropped his hands and rose to his feet. “Well, now I understand why I never saw any of the guys at the hospital.”

Her head shot up, her tears having evaporated. “Hospital? What hospital?”

“Um...” he hemmed. He hadn’t meant to mention that. “At Liam’s funeral, I learned you were still in the hospital. I’d made promises to Liam that I had intended to see through.”

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