by Lori Ryan
Chapter 43
Warrick could see that Sara had gone still. Too still. Her eyes were open, but she didn’t seem to be seeing anything. He couldn’t let this happen. Fuck, he just couldn’t let this happen.
He realized his limbs weren’t responding as quickly as they should be. Whatever drug Tyvek had given him, it was still in his system and was messing with him enough to even out this fight a little.
An elbow caught him in the face and he grunted and rolled. Tyvek reached for the lighter fluid, not seeming to care if he soaked himself as he drenched Warrick’s chest with it. Warrick coughed as the fumes hit him, as the fluid splashed onto his face.
If Tyvek lit them both up, Sara would get caught in the fire quickly with no one to move her and no way to move herself.
Warrick reached around him, feeling for a rock, a branch, anything. His hand closed on one of the branches Tyvek had piled up. It wasn’t big enough to knock Tyvek out. Warrick brought it up and aimed for Tyvek’s eye, plunging as hard as he could.
The sound that came from Tyvek was guttural, a wounded animal. Warrick shoved, pushing Tyvek to the side.
Sara. He had to get to her. He could see her pushing to her knees, but she was unsteady and blood ran down the side of her face.
He reached her as he saw Tyvek grab the bag he’d been rifling through earlier. The eye Warrick had hit was closed, swollen and angry, but the other eye made one thing clear. Tyvek was beyond reason. The madness had taken hold of him. The transformation from man to monster couldn’t be stopped.
Tyvek pulled out a lighter. Warrick grabbed Sara up in his arms and ran with her.
He hadn’t heard sirens, but he saw Jarrod and his partner come around the side of the house as the same time that flames went up behind him.
Chapter 44
Warrick felt something click into place when Jonathan and Charlotte pulled up to the house. Things had been so off for him for so long. Since long before Vicki died. And they’d spiraled down from there. But Sara was safe. He’d gotten her away from Tyvek. Tyvek was dead. They hadn’t been able to save him, and horrible as it was to say, Warrick felt nothing for the man. He prayed Vicki and their baby were at peace, but he couldn’t care less if William Tyvek rotted in hell for all he’d done.
He looked at Jonathan and Charlotte as they ran up and smiled, but he didn’t leave Sara’s side as she lay on the gurney.
“Oh thank God, Warrick,” Jonathan said and Charlotte came around to Warrick’s side and pulled him into a tight hug.
“Don’t you ever scare me like that again.” Her words were quiet but strong and he had a feeling he’d be hearing more from her on the topic later. She’d probably bullet point it in a presentation for him.
He pulled back when she let go and smiled at her. “I’m sorry.”
“Sara,” Jonathan said.
“I’m okay,” she said, but Warrick didn’t like the way she sounded. He was used to strength where she was concerned.
Jonathan and Charlotte stepped back as the EMTs began to load Sara's gurney into the waiting ambulance, but Warrick didn’t budge. No way he was leaving her side.
He held her hand, climbing in next to her. They wanted him on a stretcher of his own, but he’d already refused. He wanted to stay with Sara until they were sure her head injury wasn’t worse than it was.
He was taking some comfort in the fact they weren’t racing to the hospital with sirens blaring. On the other hand, part of him wanted to scream at them to hit the sirens and the gas and get her to a doctor. That, or climb up front and take care of it himself. He counted it as a small miracle he was controlling himself.
As the EMTs checked Sara’s eyes, Warrick looked down at the mangled remnants of her prosthetic hand. He shouldn’t be surprised she’d come up with a way for him to cut the ropes Tyvek had bound him with. That was who Sara was. Lucky for her, they had a pretty big stash of the bionic hands in her signature color back at Simms II.
He pressed the release for the prosthesis, relaxing the pressure that held it to her arm. She tried to object as he pulled it off but the EMT had put an oxygen mask over her mouth and nose.
“Shh, Sara, let me get it off. I want to check your arm.” She’d have to trust him with this eventually. He held still and watched her eyes, waiting for her to assent.
She gave a small nod, and he removed the sleeve covering her arm. There was some swelling and bruising already forming where she’d wrenched the prosthesis.
“Do you have something for this?” He asked the EMT but they were ahead of him. They’d broken out an ice pack and moved to take Sara’s arm from him. “I’ll hold it,” he said, laying the ice pack in his lap and placing her arm on the towel they gave him. He wrapped the ice pack around to the other side, being sure to keep the towel between her skin and the ice, then looked up.
Her eyes held his and his heart kicked over at what he saw there. She trusted him. It was clear as day on her face.
“I love you,” he mouthed. It was hardly romantic in the back of the ambulance, but he’d do the romance thing later. Right now, he just needed her to know.
Epilogue
A month later, Warrick watched as Sara cut the ribbon on Simms II. The manufacturing facility was in full swing and she was working with a few of her friends on a prosthesis design for leg amputees. She had some ideas for over-the-knee amputees, hoping to cut down on the pain they felt when they connected a prosthesis close to the hip. Much to Jack Sutton’s dismay, Sara had left Sutton Capital and was now working full time on the development side of things at Simms. She and Jonathan had a blast discussing ideas, even though they both worked on very different projects.
Cameras flashed and the employees that made up most of the group standing around them cheered. This symbolized a turning point for Simms Pharmaceutical. Sales in the pharmaceutical side of things had been ticking back up, and they’d soon need to hire more people. Warrick couldn’t believe he’d been looking at laying people off months before.
Hell, for that matter, months ago he was alone with an empty shell of an existence. He grinned at the melodramatic thought. It wasn’t like him, but he couldn’t help it. His life couldn’t be more full with Sara in it. Getting to sleep with her in his arms at night, waking up to her sleepy-eyed smile, having all of her instead of just a piece—it was…everything. Everything.
He was particularly fond of waking her up by loving her. Her eyes would flutter awake to his kisses and she’d smile and reach for him. He never tired of hearing her whisper his name in that moment of recognition when she realized what he was doing.
There were a lot of things he’d never tire of with Sara. Like the way she challenged him. And the way she always needed to have a project to work on, some problem to solve. How she could make him laugh easily and often. How she cared for her friends. How fiercely she loved.
He must have ended up with the kind of stupid smile he’d been told he wore when he was thinking about Sara. His mother touched his arm. “Don’t drool over her in public, son. It’s unbecoming.” Her words weren’t harsh or truly reprimanding. She’d softened considerably and had told him on more than one occasion she liked Sara. She said Sara had “gumption,” and he’d be hard pressed to disagree. She did have that, and more.
“I’m having Jonathan take me home.” Warrick’s mother said. She patted him on the arm. She hadn’t turned into a loving, doting mother or anything that drastic. But she’d shown up at the hospital and dinners at her house now included Sara and a lot less formality. They ate on everyday dishes and didn’t have staff standing over their shoulders the entire time.
He smiled at her. “I’m glad you came.” It was the truth. He’d wanted her to see that their family’s legacy was going to make it.
She looked around at the buildings and the people, and nodded. “You did very well, Warrick. You did quite well.”
He couldn’t hold back a smile as he kissed her cheek.
Sara and Jack Sutton walked up as Jonatha
n and Warrick’s mother walked away. Warrick slipped his arm around Sara. That little feeling of all being right in the world came whenever he held her.
“Can I talk you two into grabbing lunch before you head back to the office?” Jack asked.
“Sorry, Jack,” Warrick said. “We have plans.” He squeezed Sara and smiled down at her.
“We do?” Sara asked, looking up at him, her mouth forming an O.
“We do.” He liked the way she scowled at him.
He had plans for tonight that would, he hoped, call for another celebration. Plans for Sara and a ring and a question he’d been dying to ask her for weeks. He planned to surprise her with a drive to New Hampshire as soon as they were finished here. He wanted to show her the cabin he’d bought and spend the weekend convincing her to marry him.
She’d stopped kicking him out at night, and it hadn’t taken him long to realize waking up wrapped around Sara was something he wanted. Something he never wanted to end. He loved her with all his heart.
That first time she’d told him she loved him when they’d gotten home from the hospital, his world had felt like it had been righted. Like everything had been off and she’d set it right again.
He also knew she’d come to trust him. She didn’t hide it from him when she was in pain. She took her prosthesis off in front of him now and didn’t flinch if her arm brushed him. She didn’t try to pull away if he took both her arms in his hands, like he did now. He wrapped her arms around his back and smiled at her as Jack shook his head with a smile and turned away.
“We’re headed to New Hampshire for the weekend.”
She quirked a brow. “Oh yeah? A cabin? Don’t tell me we’re relocating to a cabin in the woods. I’m not sure I’m cut out to live with no amenities.”
He loved the way she talked about them as if there was no doubt they’d do this together. He thought about his uncle’s question. Is something calling to you?
For a long time, the answer had been no. That had changed. Sara was calling to him. “No, just the weekend. I promise to have you back by Monday. Maybe Tuesday at the latest.”
She grinned and pressed herself to him. “My boss will be mad if I miss work.”
His grin was just as wide. “I’ll have a talk with him.”
* * *
The End
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