Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 73880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
“I knew he was alive,” I say on a choked whisper. I want to run to him. Touch him. Feel his pulse with my own bare hands.
But I stand frozen in place.
Tears well up in my eyes as I take in his condition — the scratches and angry red marks on his cheeks and arms, welts and bruises, caked blood on his neck and likely elsewhere.
“Timeo,” I whisper.
He opens his eyes and stares at me, but it’s not the look I imagined. It’s the look of someone who’s plummeted to the depths of hell and doesn’t know his way back. Harsh. Cold. Merciless.
“Oh my God,” I say, my voice breaking. “Timeo?”
He lifts a hand caked in blood and gives me a weak wave.
I choke on a sob and run toward him.
Sergio steps in front of me, and before I get three paces, his strong arms wrap around me.
“Sergio! Let me down! Let me see him!”
I push and fight him, but he easily overpowers me and restrains my arms.
“No.” Sergio wrestles me with ease, settling me back onto the floor and pins both of my arms to my sides. He stares at me, stern and unyielding.
“We have to check him, Starla. We have no idea if he’s been compromised or tapped. You can’t be near him until we know he’s safe.”
But that’s one thing no one understands, especially Sergio.
Timeo was always my safe place.
Always.
“Let them, Starla,” Eden pleads with me. She reaches for me, but I turn away. Timeo closes his eyes with a weary sigh.
The rush of emotion nearly consumes me.
Relief — he’s alive!
Anger — he’s barely alive.
Someone hurt him and hurt him badly. I want to hug him. I want to feel him hug me back, but we’ve never been anything but brotherly and sisterly in front of Eden and Sergio.
We’ve barely crossed the line of friendship, though I always harbored hope my infatuation with him wasn’t one-sided.
I want to touch him with my own two hands, to convince myself of his realness, his aliveness. I want to feel the warmth of his hands and steady pulse. I want to look into his eyes and know the man I love is still here. I want to know he’s alright.
But I don’t. I stand, watching.
“You can leave until we’re done if you’d like, Starla,” Sergio says quietly. He stands to the side, and I know for a fact he isn’t leaving.
“What are you going to do?”
“He’ll be isolated. We have to debrief him. You shouldn’t have been brought here. He’ll be examined by a medical team, too. After isolation, you may talk.”
“Are you kidding me right now?”
Sergio doesn’t bother to respond. Not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
A team of doctors stands by the door, waiting for Sergio’s instruction. I want to shove them out of the way.
I want to be the one that cleans those wounds. I want to be the one that makes him comfortable, that gives him meds and food and whatever else he needs.
My hands reach out to him involuntarily; I want to hold him to me and never let him go. I want to stay here with him. I want to make it all better.
“Who’s that?”
I stare at Timeo. His voice is scratchy and husky. My heart begins to beat faster as Sergio and Eden look at each other.
“Who, brother?” Sergio asks him.
He jerks his head at… me.
Me.
Who’s that?
My jaw drops open. “It’s me,” I whisper. “Timeo, it’s Starla.”
He stares at me, unblinking, his eyes still cold and unfocused.
The man in front of me is a stranger.
“Starla?”
CHAPTER FIVE
Timeo
“I’ll show him who Starla is!” Sergio almost misses her this time but at the last second, manages to stop her from storming at me.
I close my eyes against the sudden rush of emotion.
I’d planned to let her go, to let her think I didn’t even remember her, but the second I saw that light in her eyes my plan went to shit.
That’s my girl. There she is. Fierce and determined. The most resilient woman I’ve ever met.
I first met a girl on the cusp of womanhood. And when I look at her now, I can only see the shadow of that girl, the traces of what made her who she is today…a woman, so beautiful she takes my breath away.
I pretend to be tired, but it’s only because I can’t look at her right now. I want to reach for her. I want to hold her. I want to whisk her away and hide her where no one will ever, ever threaten her again. Where she’s safe and protected and all mine.
“Oh, yeah,” she says vehemently in a mocking tone. “I vaguely remember a Timeo. Snarky asshole? Never took anything seriously. Would’ve been God’s gift to women, or so he thought, if not for that damned crooked nose—”