The Risks We Take Duet Box Set

82. Carys

CARYS

“ O h, God.” My phone vibrates once from the pocket of my leggings.

Then the obnoxious ringtone Chloe programmed for herself pierces the silence. Everything happens within a split-second after that. But it feels like slow-motion.

A powerful boom discharges.

A flash hits me from the other side of the room.

I’m knocked down, and my head crashes into the corner of my bed before I hit the ground. “Cooper,” I cry. “Oh, God. Coop...”

“I’ve got you, baby. Don’t look.” He cradles my body to his, covering me. “Are you okay?”

“I don’t... I’m not...” Words are hard to form as my vision begins to narrow. “My head hurts.”

He pulls his hand away, and blood covers his fingers. “Oh shit, Carys. Don’t close your eyes.”

“Are you okay?” I whisper. Terrified.

“I’m fine, baby, and so are you,” his voice cracks.

But I don’t think he’s right because my heavy lids refuse to stay open. “Love you, Coop.”

“Don’t go to sleep, baby. Please don’t leave me.”

He sounds so far away.

W hen I wake up, my body is strapped to a board, and an unfamiliar face is above me. “Who are you?” I ask weakly.

Flashes of what happened in my bedroom assault me, and tears stream down the sides of my face. “Where’s Cooper?” I ask the man in a paramedic’s uniform. “Oh, God.” I look around. “Am I in an ambulance? I need Cooper.”

A hand squeezes mine before the stranger can answer. “We’re on our way to the hospital, Carys.” Rook’s voice is calm with an edge of authority. “You hit your head. Probably just a concussion, but you need a few stitches. No big deal.”

“Where’s Cooper?” I try to lift my head, but it’s strapped down. And a new round of fear coats my skin. “Where is he?”

“He’s fine. The police are at the house, and Ford’s with him. Emerson and I pulled up at the same time the cops did.” He moves my hair away from my face, more gently than I thought Rook was capable of. “Trust me when I say Cooper will be at the hospital as soon as possible. I thought he was gonna get himself arrested when they told him he couldn’t come with you.”

I don’t realize I’m still crying until Rook wipes my tears from my cheeks. “It’s over, Carys. Cooper ended it. He did what had to be done.”

He killed someone.

In. My. Bedroom.

My stomach revolts. “I’m going to be sick.”

I close my eyes and breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth, steadying my breath and my stomach until we get to the hospital.

Every part of me hurts as they wheel me through the doors of the emergency room.

My head, my eyes, my body. It all aches, and I just want Cooper here, holding my hand.

“There’s our girl.” Jessie moves to my side, opposite Rook, when I’m wheeled in past a desk. She might as well be speaking another language while she and the paramedic discuss my status.

Once I’m moved to a bed behind a curtain, Jessie and another nurse check me over before a doctor comes in and does the same thing.

Once the doctor steps up next to me, Jess fills him in, kisses my cheek, and tells me she’ll be back to check on me as soon as she can.

Rook holds my hand while the doctor numbs my head with a disturbingly large needle, and my stomach somersaults again.

It takes six stitches to close the gash at the base of my skull before they can take me for a CAT scan. Rook stays by my side until they tell him he can’t go past a certain point.

“Can you call Cooper, please?” I plead. “Make sure he’s okay?”

He nods and leans against the wall of the hallway. “I’ll be right here until they wheel you out.”

“Promise?” I can’t believe how needy I am.

But it hasn’t all sunken in yet, and I keep reliving it.

I still feel the cool metal of the gun pressed against my temple.

The smell of his rancid breath every time it ghosted across my face.

The look in Cooper’s eyes as he silently pleaded with me to stay strong.

Rook lifts his brow. “Never doubt a SEAL, Carys. We’ll prove you wrong every single time. Your boy’s gonna be fine, and so are you. Now go get your cat scanned.” He crosses his legs at his ankles and pulls his phone from his pocket.

“Sir,” the nurse scolds. “You can’t use that here.”

Rook glares until she looks away, muttering about entitled assholes, and wheels me through the door.

W hat feels like a lifetime later, but is probably only an hour, the curtain surrounding my bed in the emergency room is pulled back, and the doctor from earlier moves next to me. He glances at Rook briefly. “Would you excuse us, sir?”

“You’ve got zero chance of me leaving her side, doc. So, you might as well get on with it.” He kicks his legs up against the wheels of the bed and leans back, getting himself comfortable. If it wouldn’t make my brain hurt, I might have even laughed.

“How are you feeling, Ms. Murphy?” He looks one more time at Rook, then takes a step away from the bed.

Like I was just attacked by a crazy fucking sociopath, then watched the love of my life kill him , doesn’t seem to be an appropriate answer. So instead, I go with, “Like I hit my head.”

“How many fingers am I holding up?” He places his hand in front of me at the foot of my bed.

“Four fingers.” I’m already growing irrationally tired of this.

“And do you know where you are?” He side-eyes Rook, who grunts, and I swear this doctor has to think Rook is a threat from the way he’s reacting to him.

I guess, in a way he is, while Rook is playing the part of my bodyguard.

“I’m in San Diego, California. I’d tell you today’s date if I knew it, but my best friend had a baby last week, and I’m not actually sure of the date. October something. Fifth, sixth, seventh? Something like that. It’s Monday. My name is Carys Murphy. The man being a pain in the ass is Rook...” I look at him and tilt my head. “What the hell is your last name, soldier boy?”

“She’s being sarcastic, doc. I think she’s fine.”

The doctor looks between us and shakes his head. “You have a concussion, Ms. Murphy. But there’s nothing leading me to believe you need to stay in the hospital. The good news is you only lost consciousness once. The rest of your symptoms seem to be mild. So, I want you to go home and rest, if and only if ,” he looks hesitantly at Rook, “you will have someone there with you.”

The curtain is pulled back, and Cooper darts to my side, blood spatter still covering his shirt. He wraps his arms around me, and I sob uncontrollably.

Relief, fear, and grief all pouring out at once.

I’m vaguely aware of Rook answering the doctor. “She’s got someone. How about we get those discharge papers now, doc?”