Page 9 of Ruthless

Her last thought before unconsciousness took her again was that as long as Gideon was beside her, everything would be all right.

* * *

St. Lucia Hospital

Cartagena, Colombia

Guilt clawing at his gut, Gideon looked down at the broken and bruised woman lying on the hospital bed. A broken leg and collarbone, fractured ribs, and a concussion were serious but thankfully not life threatening, especially for someone as healthy and fit as Eve. Still, to see her like this, helpless and hurt, shredded his insides.

He had failed at his responsibilities. Not only did seeing her like this crush his soul, what had to happen now because of her injuries would destroy them. He had no choice, though. This was what he’d signed up for…what he had agreed to. He’d just never thought it would end like this.

Knowing he had no choice, Gideon grabbed his phone and made the call. After a series of beeps, a voice said, “Report.”

“I need an extraction.”

“How many?”

“Two.”

“Condition.”

“One serious but stable. Other is fine.”

Fine was a relative term, because when Eve learned the truth, there would be a reckoning between them. One he’d known would one day come, but damned if he was ready for it.

Gideon didn’t miss the slight gasp when he announced Eve’s condition to the man on the other end of the call. There would be hell to pay in more ways than one.

“Thirty minutes,” the man responded.

Pocketing his phone, he pressed a soft kiss to Eve’s forehead, well aware that this might be the last time he would be allowed to touch her. When she woke and learned the truth, she wouldn’t want to see him ever again, much less let him get near her.

Regret lying heavy on his heart, Gideon turned away to get ready for the day he’d dreaded for years.

Come what may, when Eve woke at her new location, nothing would ever be the same again.

CHAPTER FIVE

Bien Espoir Hospital

Amelie

Ile de la Lune

Pain surrounded her, distant but there, hovering on the edge. A part of her mind told her she needed to wake up, get her ass in gear. Important things were going on, and she was missing them. Another part was just as satisfied to keep her eyes closed and delay the inevitable. Something was telling her that when she did open her eyes, everything would have changed. She wasn’t a big fan of change. She liked things the way they were.

A shuffling noise at her side and a calloused hand tenderly caressing her hand told her she wasn’t alone. She knew who was here with her. His presence was always bigger than life. From the moment she’d met Gideon Wright, he had been an integral part of her. Her best friend, her rock when everything else seemed to be falling apart. The man who had never let her down. What would she do without him?

She was glad she didn’t have to answer that question.

As her thoughts coalesced and settled, she remembered what happened. She’d been on a dirt bike, headed down a hill. The front tire had bounced against a rock. The image in her head of her soaring through the air and slamming to the ground wasn’t a pretty one. She barely remembered the intense pain. What happened after that was a blur. Though she did remember Gideon telling her to stay with him, to not close her eyes. She had absorbed his voice like a panacea to her pain, giving her the strength she’d needed.

There was a vague recollection of a stranger’s voice discussing broken bones and the possibility of surgery. That hadn’t sounded good.

She shifted her body slightly and then frowned at the low moan she gave at the flicker of pain. That wasn’t like her at all. She’d taken ten times this amount of pain and hadn’t faltered.

Her eyelids fluttered, weighing heavier than she could fathom.

“That’s it, beautiful. Come back to me.”