Page 12 of Jason Bourne
She slipped her fingers between mine, squeezing tight.
“I love you, Jason.”
It was so quiet, so raw, that it punched the air out of my lungs harder than any bullet.
I squeezed back. “Yeah, sweetheart. I know. I love you more.”
12
Jason
Zoe was going to stay with her parents for a few weeks until she was better. Lane and I went to the vet hospital to see Thor.
The emergency vet clinic was nothing special — a squat cinderblock building with flickering fluorescent lights and a bored receptionist who jumped when four heavily armed men and a woman walked in like a SEAL team on leave.
They tried to make Lane wait at the front. Big mistake.
“I swear to God,” she said, you better take me to him. I thought he had died, and I need to see him.”
I hugged her, one hand at the small of her back, steering her gently but firmly past the tech.
“Easy, sweetheart, they are helping him. Remember that.”
She shot me a glare over her shoulder that saidnot helping, but her eyes were pure desperation.
Thor wasin a clean recovery kennel, an IV line taped to his foreleg, thick fur shaved and stitched around fresh pink wounds.He looked smaller than I remembered — no armor, no bared teeth, just a sleepy, loyal old soldier fighting to stay in the fight.
Lane pressed both hands to the plexiglass, breath fogging the surface.
“Hey, baby boy,” she whispered, voice trembling. “Momma’s here, okay? You’re okay. You big dummy, you scared the hell out of me.”
His ear twitched. Then his tail thumped once, weak but there. A soft whine rose in his throat.
The vet, a young woman in purple scrubs, offered a gentle smile. “He’s doped up pretty good, but he knows you. If you want, you can sit with him awhile.”
Lane didn’t answer. She was already inside the kennel before the vet finished speaking.
She sank to her knees beside his padded bed, leaning over him so her hair fell across his muzzle. Thor’s eyes cracked open — cloudy, confused — then cleared when he scented her. He let out a hoarse, pitiful whine that made my throat tighten. Lane lay down next to him until she fell asleep.
Thor licked her forehead and whined. “Shh, I know, buddy, I know. You are the best guard there is. You’re her hero, you know that?” My fingers gently stroked behind his ear in slow, trembling motions. He huffed, tail weakly beating against the metal wall. Before he too drifted off to sleep.
I sit down with my back against the wall, texting the guys to let them know what's going on.
I had my eyes closed when I heard a sniff.
“Hey, tough girl,” I murmured against her hair. “He made it. Zoe made it.And youmade it. All of you.”
She turned just enough to press her forehead to my jaw. “I thought I lost everything.”
“You didn’t lose me,” I reminded her softly. “Or Zoe. Or him. Remember that.”
She breathed out a wet sigh, rubbing her nose on her sleeve. “God, you’re annoying when you’re right.”
I grinned into her hair. “Get used to it.”
We stayed there a long time. Lane half-lay curled against Thor’s side, whispering old secrets into his fur. Every so often, he lifted a paw to bump her face, as if to sayStill here, Momma’s not going anywhere.
And neither was I.
