Page 19 of Delta
“You wouldn’t have hurt her,” he repeats. “When I got there, you were doing everything you could to put distance between the two of you. Which means you were rational enough—even in the panic—that you knew who she was.”
“I was on the way out,” I tell him.
He doesn’t respond.
“I need to keep Delta with me. I got comfortable and left him at home.” He can sense when I start to lose myself, and so far, he’s one of the only things that grounds me in the present. Even my brothers struggle to bring me back from the brink.
More than once, I’ve attacked them in the middle of an episode.
Which is something Emma will never understand. It’s not that I don’t want to be a part of her life. Honestly, it’s the exact opposite.
Emma is everything to me. Whatever tattered remnants of my heart remain will belong to her until they put me six feet under. Maybe even after that.
She’s the air that I breathe.
The sun in my sky.
But that time in captivity changed me.
It made me a monster.
Someone unworthy of even existing in the same space she does.
No matter how badly it hurts, I know that she deserves a lot better than half a man.
Chapter 6
Emma
“He’s alive.”
I remain rooted in place, the receiver pressed against my ear, because I’m sure that I heard Tucker wrong. Even as I’m sure I misheard him, hope burns a hole in my chest. Straight through my broken heart. “What?”
“Dylan’s alive, Emma. We found him.”
“You—” Tears fill my eyes, but I try to keep my voice level as I set the flowers I was arranging aside and grip the receiver with both trembling hands. “How is he? Is he hurt?”
Tucker hesitates. “It’s not great.”
“Oh no.” I choke on a sob. “How bad?”
“I don’t want to get into the specifics, Emma.”
Which means it’s horrific. “He’s alive, though?”
“Yes. Lani thinks he’ll pull through, even with the injuries.”
“Injuries. Where did you find him?”
“He was being held in an underground prison.”
“He was being held captive?” I choke on that last word. Are the injuries because of the escape? Or did they?—
“Yes. Like I said, he’s in bad shape, but we got him back, and that means there’s hope.”
“When will you be back? When can I see him?” Hope shoves aside the grief I’ve carried since we were told he was killed in action.
“We’ll be back stateside in two days. But I think you should wait a bit before seeing him.”
