She was beautiful, but her eyes were sad.
I tried to place her, but nothing came to me other than pain and throbbing. My throat was dry, and I couldn’t swallow properly. She reached over to touch my face with her hand. Her expression was so tender and familiar, but I couldn’t remember who she was.
As I looked around again, I figured I must have recently finished a tournament though I couldn’t remember the details. All the games kind of flowed together anyway. Obviously I’d won, or I wouldn’t be here at all.
Where’s Landon?
I couldn’t speak to ask.
The woman’s eyes filled with tears. Had I been sleeping with her before the tournament? She wasn’t dressed like a nurse, but she seemed awfully concerned for someone who had just spent a single night with me. Maybe she was just like that. I wished I could remember her name.
“Can you hear me?” she asked.
I opened my mouth, but my lips were as dry and cracked as my throat felt. The woman reached over to the table beside the bed and held a glass of water with a straw up to my lips. I couldn’t lift my head to drink, but she angled the straw for me to take a few sips.
“Are you in pain?” she asked.
I still couldn’t place her. I thought about her question and did a mental evaluation of my body before I tried to speak.
“Leg hurts,” I croaked.
“It’s broken,” the woman said.
I’d assumed so from the cast. I took a deep breath and focused on my other limbs. My right thigh felt a little strange, and I was achy almost everywhere. My head was pounding, making it hard to think.
“What else?” I asked.
She pulled a rolling chair close to the side of the bed and took my hand in hers.
“Your leg was basically crushed,” she said quietly. “You’ve gone through two surgeries to fix it. The ligaments and tendons around your knee had to be repaired, too. You have a really bad concussion, and Landon said you…you…”
She choked up a little, took a breath, and went on.
“You were shot in the leg. He said it wasn’t that bad, but it was infected by the time they found you. They had to give you a skin graft there.”
I closed my eyes and focused on my right thigh for a moment. It was itchy, and I figured that was due to the graft; I’d had them before. I recalled a brief flash of the pain from the bullet, and I remembered the snow and ice surrounding me as I tried to clean it up. It had been too cold to leave my flesh exposed long enough to do it properly.
Cold. Ice. Snow.
“Avalanche.”
“Right,” the woman said with a nod. “You were caught in it.”
A slight dizzying sensation overcame me as I remembered tumbling down the mountainside. The pain in my leg throbbed as I recalled the abrupt stop as I hit the rock ledge below. Visions of being trapped and unable to move traipsed along in my head together with images of a little piece of folded paper with a drawing on it.
It all came back to me like a bright and violent flash of lightning as it strikes a tree.
One final tournament in the frozen north. No one but me and a certified hit man left in the game. Certified and certifiable.
Evan Arden.
We had both been covered by the snow and had formed an unprecedented alliance to free ourselves. I had to survive. I didn’t care about the money or a fucking trophy. I had to get back to her. To them.
“Raine,” I whispered.
“I’m here,” she said.
“Oh, fuck—Raine!”
Ignoring the tug of the IV needle in my hand, I reached out and brought her to me. I’d done it. I’d lived up to my promise to her. She was here with me, safe and protected again. Somehow, I had gotten out alive and back to the one woman who mattered in my world.
With the help of my key competition.
Did Evan make it? Did he get off that island alive? There was only one way I would ever know, and that was if and when I heard that Franks had been murdered. Assuming Evan made it, how long would he wait before taking action? Days? Weeks? Longer?
Would he even bother to fulfill his promise to me?
I only thought about it for a moment before deciding that yes, he would. Evan Arden was about as fucked up as they get, but I didn’t think he was a liar. I also got the idea he was a guy of principle—he’d never back out of a hit. If he did survive, I had no doubt that he would get the job done. I’d just have to be patient.
Not my best attribute.
Raine was crying against my shoulder, and I placed my hand on the back of her head and pressed my lips to her temple.
“I’m all right, babe,” I told her. “I got you.”
“They said you might not make it,” she cried against me. “They said even after the surgery, you might not wake up.”
“I’m awake,” I said. “I’m going to be fine, Raine. I’m going to be fine.”
I had no idea if it was true or not, but I wasn’t going to contradict myself. I made it down a fucking mountain with a crushed leg. There was no way I was going to die in a fucking hospital bed.
I held her as long as I could, but my head was aching, and I nearly passed out again. Raine summoned a nurse to tell her I was awake, and the woman checked my pulse, temperature, and the output of the various machines connected to me.
Raine stood to the side, wringing her hands and biting her lip.
“Where’s Alex?” I asked.
“With John Paul,” Raine replied. “They’re in that building where we were staying.”
“He’s okay?”
“He’s great,” Raine said. “He and John Paul hit it off. I didn’t realize that man was such a child at heart.”
I smiled, but it hurt my head.
“Landon?” I asked.
Raine’s face scrunched up at the mention of his name.
“He left a little while ago to get something to eat,” she said. “He should be back in an hour.”
A doctor showed up and checked me over in greater detail. She pulled back the dressing on my thigh, ordered the nurse to add something to my IV, and shined a flashlight in my eyes.
“How does your head feel?” she asked.
“Like shit,” I replied.
“Bastian!” Raine snapped.
“Well, it fucking does,” I muttered.
“Quite all right,” the doctor said. “He’s got a few reasons to curse. You might want to consider a safer hobby.”
I wasn’t sure what she thought my hobby was, but I figured it was best not to say anything else. Raine watched as the doctor finished up my examination and then left. The nurse came back with a bag of something to add to my IV drip, and Raine gave me a little more water.
“You okay?” I asked her.
“I’m fine,” she said. “Just worried about you.”
“No worries,” I told her. “I always bounce back.”
Landon appeared in the doorway just as the nurse was finishing up. He stood quietly near the entrance until she was done then asked Raine to give us a few minutes alone. She glared at him without responding but stood from her chair. She leaned over to kiss my forehead and run her hand through my hair.
“I’ll be outside,” she said sharply. “I’m going to let John Paul and Alex know you’re awake.”
“Thanks, babe.”
Landon moved out of the way as Raine passed, a slight smile on his face. He watched her walk out before shutting the door and coming to sit by my side.
“You look a little better,” he remarked. “There was a time I thought I’d have to convince them to give Raine your winnings posthumously.”
“Thanks for your vote of confidence.”