“Lilly… Chase.” His words were slurred. Such a pretty name. He couldn’t look away. Sugar’d been sexy. She’d been tough. But he never stopped and stared. Listened to her speak. Said her name. “I love you.”

That was what he wanted to say, especially if they were his last words.

Tears ran down her face. Still she was so… pretty. That was the only word he could think of. He wasn’t totally sure what she’d said, but if she kept talking just like that, he could close his eyes, and it would all be okay.

Jared listened, felt, and knew. He’d finally found life, but it was fading.

Sugar wrapped around him. He just knew it. He couldn’t feel it… and he so badly wanted to feel her. A touch. Her warmth. But… nothing.

The voices of his team clamored in his earpiece, tickling his eardrum. Their words held no meaning. Somehow, his strength and coordination flickered back, but only long enough to pull the earbud out of his ear, and then his arm fell limp. He sucked a staggered breath, completely unable to help himself… or to take his eyes off Sugar.

Horrified, she screamed for help. For him. For…

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

All Sugar could do was cry. Her shoulders shook. Her eyes burned. She could barely hold them open because the scene was too horrific to commit to memory. But she couldn’t close them, either. They were too raw, and shutting her eyes did nothing to erase the haunting blood and lifelessness on the ambulance gurney.

The sirens served only as screeching background music as the ambulance flew down the highway. The EMTs worked around Sugar while she clutched Jared’s limp hand, kneading his lifeless fingers, and let tears fall down her face in stricken silence.

Bloody gauze and beeping machines kept the technicians busy, but nothing they did offered much hope. A medic in the front seat was on a radio, giving status updates to the emergency room and talking in codes Sugar didn’t understand. But she knew each one transmitted was graver than the last.

It was in their tone. Their glances. The sympathetic looks sadly said they would be surprised if he pulled through.

Goddamn Jared. Damn him for loving her. Damn her for ever leaving his side, ever testing the boundaries of how far she could push him. Damn her screwed-up fears of love and relationships. If not for those mental hiccups, she would’ve had that much more time with him. She was prepared to barter with the devil for just long enough to nod yes to Jared’s marriage proposal and declare that her love ran just as deeply and was just as strong as his.

She was a moron—a pathetic, scared moron.