CHAPTER 24
The flight to Boulder took only minutes. Harmony cradled Lance's head as Elyiana worked at the wound on his chest, attempting to halt the flow of blood, barking reports over the link at her ear, to the hospital surgeons awaiting them.
"I love you. Don't leave me…" Harmony whispered the words over and over again as she held his glazed gaze with her own.
She smoothed his hair, still feeling the power in his incredible body, the force of the man that he was. God, why had he done something so insane?
"We're landing, Ely," Jonas snapped as the heli-jet began to bank. "Surgeons are awaiting to assist and they have a room ready. Let's get ready to haul ass."
"Don't leave me," she whispered again, shaking, feeling the horror of the night as it echoed through her veins. "Don't leave me, Lance."
He stared back at her, his eyes clearing for a second, just a second.
"I love you… Harmony."
Her tears rolled faster at his words. She hadn't truly believed, not wholly. So much blood had stained her soul that she hadn't believed he could really love her. That she could love.
"Move." The doors whipped open as hands reached for the stretcher and she was torn from him once again.
"Let's go." Jonas was there, helping her from the heli-jet as she stumbled again, fighting to keep up with Lance, and yet unable to.
"They're taking him straight to surgery," Jonas growled in her ear. "The best surgeons in the city were called in the minute we landed in the forest. We have three of the nation's best trauma surgeons here plus Ely."
His arm was wrapped around her shoulders, his other hand holding her arm as he practically carried her into the entrance from the heli-pad.
She was shaking. Harmony could feel the shudders tearing through her, could hear the ragged growls at the back of her throat, and she couldn't stop them.
"He wouldn't run," she whispered. "I begged him to run…"
"You would have run into a trap," he snapped. "There were men coming up the mountain behind you. Alonzo was more than prepared for this, Harmony. Do you actually believe no one knew what you took from those labs? Why do you think those f**king Council soldiers and Coyotes were always after you?"
Lance would have known there were more men coming up the mountain. The winds would have warned him. Why had he done this? It made no sense. They could have run, sent Dane or even, God forbid, Jonas after the information if he had warned her of what awaited them. There had been many other ways to go rather than this one.
"I told him not to go." She trembled as they raced to the elevator. "I wanted to call Dane. He should have called Dane."
"Yeah, running would have been a good idea," he snarled, furious. "Goddammit, I try to f**king save your hide and you keep running."
"Save me?" She jerked back. "You call bargaining for a friend's life saving me?"
"He's the first f**king Leo, you stubborn woman." His canines flashed at the side of his mouth. "I have to find him, I have no choice. And you're so friggin' hardheaded you would have never bargained with me."
She jerked as though he had slapped her.
"I gave you my life," she sobbed then. What did pride matter at this point? None of it mattered. "I stole that information, I killed those scientists and Breeds to save your life." Before she realized what she was doing, her palm flew out, slapping at his shocked, bewildered face.
"She ordered your death," she screamed. "Ordered it and they were going to carry out her demands. They lied to you. They betrayed you. I killed them to save you, you bastard."
Jonas jerked back.
"They would have found a way to warn me."
Her laughter was cruel, hard. God, how she hated him at that moment. Hated every moment she had run, every bullet she had taken and every cold night she had ever spent, alone, because she had loved her brother. "The Breeds plotting to escape with you told her about your plans for escape," she snarled. "The bold idea you hatched to use them to hold the scientists hostage while you connected the communications to an outside line and told the world about us. They used you. Just as Madame LaRue used you."
His eyes narrowed then, his expression turning stony.
"I saved you." Her lips twisted mockingly. "And you never f**king cared, did you, Jonas? You never suspected."
"I cared once I knew the truth," he said, his voice quiet as his quicksilver eyes darkened.