Can't Run (Danger and Desire Book 1)
Page 11
“He’s okay, hun, Carrie is sitting with him. I sat with him to give your dad a break, and she offered to stay with him.” Her mother reassured.
“He woke last night,” her father explained, adjusting his glasses, “he asked about you, concerned about your safety. I told him you were safe, I thanked him for going after you and bringing you home… we would have lost you if it weren’t for him.”
Sara saw the tears in her father’s eyes.
“He did save me papa,” she agreed, “Is he going to be okay?”
He nodded, “It’s going to be a long recovery, and he will need time and medical care when we get home. Of course we’re going to cover it and reward him handsomely for saving you.”
“Dad, if you want me to have security I want it to be him. I want him and only him to be in charge of my security. I trust him… I don’t think I could trust anyone else like that… especially after what we’ve been through…”
Her father didn’t need any convincing, Eric had the job.
~
Eric was resting when Sara got to the hospital. She was wearing clean clothes for the first time in weeks, Eric had also been cleaned up and was napping in a fresh white hospital gown.
She sat next to him and ran her hand over his cheek. He slept so silently, hooked up to IV fluids… his pale pallet, and his still so swollen ankle… it broke her heart to see him that way. She sniffled back tears and looked up to see his eyes had opened.
“Why are you crying?” he asked softly.
“I thought I was going to lose you,” she whispered.
He reached out to take her hand and slowly brought it to his lips. His gazed was fixed upon her with insurmountable intensity. “It would take more than a venomous serpent to keep me from you…” he said with a weak grin, “you had better remember that.”
She chuckled as she wiped her stinging eyes, and looked back into his eyes leaning over the bed and brushing her lips against his.
“That had better be a promise.” She breathed, her lips resting by his ear.
He struggled, using all of his energy to hold her back so that she had to look him square in the face, “It’s a vow.” He whispered, before pulling her back to him, his lips against hers binding them together.
~
Sara’s father had kept his word and took care of Eric’s medical bills, he had also hired Eric on a permanent contract to be Sara’s security detail.
Back at school, Sara and Carrie had to adjust to life without Amanda. They realized they would never get over her death and they would have to learn to live with it, and there were so many people asking about what had happened. The official story was that they had been in a vehicle accident in Brazil, Amanda’s family didn’t want the true details of her death getting out. It was just too painful for them.
Sara’s routine went back to normal, with some changes for the better. Eric had become her protector and the equilibrium she needed in her life.
About three months after their return from Brazil, Carrie brought in the mail.
“You got something,” Carrie said with a smile putting the envelope on the table. It had no stamp or return address, “Must be an invite that was dropped off here.”
Sara picked up the envelope with her pile of bills and carried them into her bedroom. She dropped the mail on her bed as she got dressed for a date with Eric. Dinner and a concert, it would be the first normal thing they would do as a couple and Sara needed to look perfect.
After curling her hair into long beach waves and putting on some final makeup touched she flopped on the bed, looking through her mail.
When she reached the envelope she couldn’t help but smile, she loved weddings so an invite would be happily welcomed. Excitingly, Sara teared open the curious envelope.
Inside was a single piece of paper, written in in a red marker was one sentence that made her blood run cold. “You can’t run forever.”
As Sara breathed in a shaky breath, she realized that it wasn’t over.