a relationship. He’d been sent to kill her. They were sworn enemies. They’d never been on a date. They’d been running, hiding, fighting. Hardly the kinds of memories to build a relationship on. Yet the two hours they’d spent together, that afternoon that he couldn’t forget, when she’d given herself to him completely and with such trust- when they’d been able to miraculously shut out the whole world and everything in it just through their touch and words alone, wasn’t easy to forget. He could spend a lifetime trying to. But he knew that one act had sealed something in him – his heart belonged to her. His soul too.
He stepped out of the harsh strip lights at the hospital entrance, through the heated noise and chaos of ambulances and paramedics. Was this why Issa had been so vague about Evie? Was this why she’d tried to stop him coming through the gateway? Because she’d seen this? Because she knew that Evie had moved on?
The blood ran cold in his veins. He needed to get out of here. He started walking blindly but then he stopped, his feet frozen to the sidewalk, his eyes fixed on the man who’d just exited through the sliding doors opposite.
It took Lucas more than a few seconds to understand that it really was Victor. That it wasn’t some mirage, that it was in fact the very same man who’d killed his parents and tried and almost succeeded in killing him.
Lucas was half-way across the street, striding to meet him, his blade halfway out of its sheath, when two policemen came storming out of the exit, grabbed hold of Victor by his arms and hauled him back onto the sidewalk.
For a second time Lucas froze, this time in the middle of the street. What were the cops arresting Victor for?
Evie. It had to be Evie. He’d done something to her. What other reason would he be here for?
Lucas started running, flying past Victor and bursting through the crowded emergency bay, pushing past trolleys and doctors and bleeding patients strapped to gurneys. He was sprinting down the corridor to the emergency stairs, his heart pounding in his throat, when the door flew open ahead of him and Evie appeared.
Cyrus was half carrying her. She was wearing his sweater, the arms trailing loosely over her hands. Her legs were bare, her hair hanging lank over her face which was shining with sweat. He flung himself immediately into the shadows behind a door, pressing himself there, breathing heavily. She was OK. She was OK. She was alive.
So what was Victor doing here? And why had the cops stopped him? Had he tried to harm her? Was that why she was, from the looks of it, escaping?
Lucas watched as Cyrus pushed open an emergency exit door at the end of the corridor. Wedging it open with his shoulder he reached down and scooped Evie up into his arms.
The door banged shut behind them.
Lucas stood there, fading in and out, staring at the empty corridor, something crumbling irrevocably inside of him.
Chapter 39
The back of the taxi was dark, the leather seats worn and springy. Evie could feel her heart fluttering in her chest as though it was still learning to beat. She felt woozy all of a sudden, her head still spinning wildly. She brushed the back of her hand against her forehead. It felt clammy, though her legs were coated in goose bumps.
‘Where are we going?’ she asked Cyrus.
‘I know somewhere safe,’ he said, his gaze skirting up her legs. She folded them beneath her self-consciously.
Cyrus sat back as the cab drove off and lifted his arm. She hesitated for a moment, then gave in and leant back against his shoulder, letting him wrap his arm around her. For a second his hand wavered, deciding where to go, before settling tentatively on her shoulder.
He felt warm. She breathed him in, feeling the dizziness subside. Maybe leaving the hospital hadn’t been such a great idea. But then again, being attached to all those machines had felt a little like being bound with pondweed, the oxygen mask over her face as suffocating as ice water.
‘What happened?’ she asked after a few minutes of silence.
Cyrus took a deep breath. She felt the muscles in his shoulder and across his chest tense beneath her cheek.
‘There were four of them,’ Cyrus said in a hushed voice, his eyes locked on the back of the driver’s head.