Page 72 of Guarded Hearts
After he glanced at the screen, he groaned. “Your cell service is spotty in Wyoming. The calls never connected. But that doesn’t explain how you left the ranch in the first place. Where the hell was Willow? I asked her to stay with you.”
She tried to remember if she’d even spoken to Willow before she left the Black Heart Ranch, but her brain was so jumbled from the concussion that the ER doctor had just diagnosed her with it due to the fact she couldn’t recall the events that led up to her driving to Golden Horizon.
Any further discussion of the details was cut short as the nurse popped back in to say she would be taking Layne to pre-op for surgery.
“I’m coming with her.” Carson stepped closer to the bed as if daring anyone to separate him from her.
“You can come to the pre-surgery room and stay with her until we wheel her into the OR.”
The creases around his eyes didn’t fade. Layne couldn’t tear her gaze away from the handsome, rugged features of the man she loved just as much—probably more—than the boy she once did.
All those letters still waited for her back at Golden Horizon. Suddenly, she wished she’d taken them all with her when they made their hasty escape for Italy.
Everything felt so off. It didn’t help when her stomach was unsettled and she could hardly cling to a single thought for more than a few fleeting moments.
The painful throb in her head only amplified when the nurse wheeled her bed through a maze of hallways. She let her eyes slip shut, fighting the nausea and faintly aware that Carson still clutched her hand as he marched in long strides alongside her bed.
With all that was going on in her current life, she’d ignored her normal one. She never ignored emails or phone calls. Her assistant was practically her bestie. They talked every day, but she didn’t feel like she’d caught up with Hannah in days. It wasvery important to Layne to keep up with her friend and all of her business contacts.
She’d even ignored her father. Ever since learning that he’d intercepted all of Carson’s letters and thrown them in the trash, she didn’t know what to say to him.
Sure, she was angry. But worse, she was disappointed in him. After she never heard from Carson again, her dad watched her grow depressed and burst into tears at any little thing. Then he saw her lose hope.
He must have had her best interest in mind when he made the choice to sever any ties she had with Carson…but it wasn’t what she wanted. Not what she needed.
She squeezed Carson’s fingers in return. He met her stare. Through the sick haze in her head, her heart still beat for this man.
“I love you.” The words came out faint, but he heard.
“Christ, doll.” He bent to scatter kisses over the side of her face that wasn’t ruined and about to be repaired. “I love you too. I’ll never stop.”
After that, she was given some medication in her IV to make her sleepy. Her eyes grew too heavy to keep them trained on Carson’s.
When she opened them again, a new set of eyes was staring down at her. Pale blue eyes.
She blinked at the person.
“Hi, Layne. I’m Dr. Patel, your surgeon. I’m going to suture your wound and there won’t even be a scar on your face when I’m finished.” When he smiled, her heart gave a thick thud.
She recognized him. Knew him, but not as a surgeon.
No!
She opened her mouth to protest. Nothing came out. Words were scrambled bits of molasses laying on her tongue.
Callused fingers squeezed hers. Carson. She didn’t have the energy to turn her head and look at her lover, to try to tell him that something was wrong. Something big and scary.
That her surgeon was most likely her stalker.
In the only form of communication she could think of, she began tapping on Carson’s hand. He would understand what she was saying to him.
He knew Morse code.
* * * * *
Carson watched Layne being wheeled away to the operating room. She would be all right. She had a concussion and that horrific gash on her face, but she was still with him. He’d keep her safe.
He’d fucking failed, though.