“I promise, honey. The next twenty-four hours are key.”
Tears flooded Savannah’s eyes and she shut them. She said a fervent, silent prayer, sipped the water Sage offered, then said, “I need to see him.”
“I know you do. We’ll make that happen just as soon as we possibly can. You have my word on it. In the meantime, you need to do your part. You rest and get your strength up and we’ll get you in to see Zach.”
Good. Okay. “Teej?”
“TJ is fine. He’s here. He rode in with Cam and Sarah. You are at the hospital in Gunnison. You are going to be fine, by the way. The bullet went in and out. Nicked a bone and did some muscle damage, but you’ll heal.”
“Kyle?”
Sage’s face went hard. “He’s dead. The woman is, too. She had a shoot-out with Gabi.”
“She killed Francine?” Savannah asked, wanting to be certain she understood.
“Warrior woman,” Savannah murmured, then drifted back to sleep.
The next time she woke, she thought something was wrong with her eyes. She was seeing double. Two identical, tall, handsome strangers stood at the foot of her bed. Both looked tired and wore identical worried expressions as they gazed not at Savannah but at the figure seated in the bedside chair.
“You need to get some rest, Gabs,” one of them said.
“You’ll make yourself sick,” the other added. “That won’t do anyone any good. Max will be landing soon. He’ll be pissed if he gets here and sees you looking like a hag.”
“I don’t look like a hag,” Gabi said. “I’m fine.”
“You should go to the hotel and take a shower and a nap.”
“I will just as soon as they tell us that Zach is out of the woods.”
“But—”
“No, Lucca. Save your breath. I’m not leaving the hospital until I know that our brother is going to survive.”
Savannah’s eyes flew open. She croaked. “Your brother? Survive?”
Holy crap, I hurt.
It’d be easier to sink back into the haze, Zach knew. Awareness meant agony—but something else mattered. Something … someone. Savannah.
In his mind’s eye, he saw her fall. Felt the warm, wet stickiness of her blood. Savannah! His eyelids weighed a ton. Sound. Make a sound. Say her name. “S-s-s-s …”
“He’s hissing again,” Cam Murphy said.
“That’s a good sign,” Gabi Romano added. “Right? Don’t you think that’s a good sign?”
He put all his energy into saying, “Pe-a-ch.”
“What did he say?” Cam asked.
“He said ‘Peach,’ ” a woman’s voice said in a beautiful southern drawl. “He said my name.”
Zach opened his eyes and saw her leaning over him, whole and healthy and full of life and full of love. She wore an angel’s wing necklace around her neck, and it brushed his cheek as she leaned over and kissed his forehead. “Thank God. You’re back. I love you, Zach. You’re going to be okay. We’re all going to be okay.”
He saw tears pool in her big brown doe eyes and realized with only a twinge of embarrassment that his own eyes were wet, too. He managed a smile as his heart overflowed, then he drifted back to sleep. In peace.
“I’m telling you, there is bad juju around the summer arts festival. It needs to be cancelled,” Sarah Murphy said five days later.
“Now, Sarah …”
“Don’t ‘Now Sarah’ me, Zach Turner. You’ve been shot twice—twice!—at our summer arts festival. You lost your spleen, for heaven’s sake. What will it be next time? A kidney? Your liver? That’s bad karma, and I think changes must be made.”
Zach glanced at Savannah, seated beside him here in the hospital cafeteria, the remains of the lunch that their friends had brought with them from their favorite local restaurant scattered around them. “She’s turned into such a diva.”
“You scared her.”
“You both scared me. I don’t want to go through anything like that ever again.” Sarah lifted her chin and added, “It’s not healthy for me.”
“Or me either,” Cat Davenport said.
“Or me,” Nic Callahan concurred.
“Or me,” Sage Rafferty declared.
“Or me.” Ali Timberlake folded her arms.
Each of their husbands nodded their agreement. When Celeste Blessing failed to chime in, the other visitors looked at her. “I wasn’t scared. I knew they’d both make it. And, speaking of angel wings, I think we should get on with our presentation before the nurses come looking for Zach.”
“She’s right,” Sarah added. “Besides, I ate too many enchiladas, and I need to walk around.”
They cleared the tables and tossed the paper goods in the trash as