When two EMTs approach us with a stretcher it takes everything in me to release my hold on her ass they place her in the back. I stand outside and watch them check her over and ask her questions and she starts to talk about what happened to cause her injuries. Listening to the details, I fight the urge to go back into the bank to deal with Troy myself. It doesn’t take long at all for them to assess that she needs to go to the hospital to get stitches under her chin and checked for a concussion, so I toss my Jeep keys to Miles then get into the back of the ambulance with her and one of the EMTs.

“Call Miles, tell him what I said,” she says, grabbing my attention when the doors close and I focus on her beautiful face. “As soon as he saw one of the notes from inside the chest, he changed, I—” She closes her eyes. “It was like something took over him in an instant and—” She whispers. “I knew he did it and he knew I’d figured it out.”

“I’ll tell him, but right now I want to get you taken care of.” I lean down and press my lips to her forehead, and she lifts her hand to my jaw.

“I tried to get away, I tried to fight him.”

“You did good, Mouse, so fucking good.”

“I was weak.” The tears in her voice cause pain to slash through my chest. I know she hated that—despised that she couldn’t stop him from over-powering her.

“You’re not weak.” I clench my jaw tight to fight back the emotion I feel burning the back of my throat. “You’re strong, so fucking strong.” I drop my head and hold her fingers wrapped around mine to my forehead and close my eyes.

When we arrive at the hospital, she’s rolled into a room then everything happens in quick succession as she’s cleaned up, has twelve stitches placed in her chin and is sent to have a CT scan done after doctors say they are concerned about the lump on the back of her head.

With no choice but to wait, I go to the waiting room and sit with my head in my hands hoping it doesn’t take long for the doctor to come out and say she’s fine and we can go home.

“Any news?” Hearing that question, I lift my head from my hands and watch Sophie walk across the waiting room toward me with Harlen and Harmony following her, along with others I recognize from photos Willow’s shown me.

“Not yet.” I get up to give Sophie a hug.

“She’ll be okay.”

“She has to be,” I tell her, and her face softens.

After greeting Harmony and Harlen, Sophie introduces me to Willow’s siblings; Talon and his wife Mia, Sage and his wife Kim, and her brother Bax. Then she tells me that Willow’s sister Nalia is flying in. When Nico shows up about fifteen minutes later his eyes lock with mine as he enters the room, and he jerks up his chin.