I don’t ask where I’ll be staying. I assume it’s with him, and I assume we’ll be doing a whole lot of getting reacquainted in his bed.
I change into real clothes and sign the discharge paperwork. Liam gets my prescriptions filled. I worry about the medical bill. Only there is no bill. The hospital belongs to the Guardians.
My thoughts turn to Sybil. It’s been nearly a week since we last spoke. So much has happened. I need to tell her about Liam and how I fell in love with the man I held up at gunpoint demanding he take me to her.
I really hope Sybil’s okay. She’s the sister I never had. We share everything, and I feel disconnected. So much has happened.
As I think about her, my phone rings.
I glance around, not sure where it is, and not really sure who would be calling me. If it’s work, I need to answer.
“Do you see my phone?” I pat the covers, getting frantic as it rings and rings. On the sixth ring, it’ll go to voice mail.
Liam helps me search. I’m still stiff and sore from my surgery and recovering from sepsis. “Here it is.” He finds it on the hospital tray table shoved in the corner.
“Answer it.” Something stirs in my gut, a sense that I need to answer that call.
Liam accepts the call then hands me the phone.
“Hello?”
“Maria!”
“Sybil? Oh my God! I was just thinking about you.” My hand shakes, nervous for how she’s doing. “Where are you? Are you okay?”
“I only have a minute.”
“Are you hurt? Are you safe?”
Liam told me Sybil was rescued, but that’s it. I have no details. I need details. I rattle off a dozen questions, barely pausing to let Sybil answer. Her soft laughter is the light of my life through the phone. My friend is okay.
“I’m good. I’m safe. You wouldn’t believe what I’ve been through.”
“Tell me everything. Are you really safe?” My voice cracks and catches on itself as emotion overwhelms me.
“I am. I was rescued, and I’ve been with a protector for the past week. It’s been crazy. Insane actually. It’s a conversation that needs several bottles of wine.” Sybil pauses. “Look, I’ve got less than thirty seconds. I just needed to hear your voice, but I’m good. How are you?”
“Girl, you will not believe what’s happening here. When you went missing, I had a coronary. I barged into security. Had them track you down. Watched you at the elevator, then nothing. You disappeared. They scrubbed the feeds—fuckers—but I knew you were headed to the garage. They didn’t scrub those feeds. When you never made it to the garage … Well, let’s just say I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.” I pause to take a breath.
“Hey, it’s okay.”
“No. It’s not. I need to tell you something about my family.” A lump forms in the back of my throat. All the horrible things that happened to Sybil are because of my family. “Everything people said about my family is true. They’re thieves and criminals.”
“What people, Maria? Who are you with?”
“They call themselves Guardians. They’re like freedom fighters.”
“Oh, the Guardians. Brett is one of them. He’s my Protector. He rescued me, and then we were on the run. There was an alley and a tunnel with rats. We hid out in the desert of all places. There was even a robotic dog. Oh, I have so much to tell you, but I gotta go.” Sybil breathes a sigh of relief on the other end of the phone.
“Where are you?”
“Pennsylvania of all places. Listen, I have to go.”
“But I haven’t told you about Liam.” Liam arches a brow when he hears his name. I can’t help the goofy smile filling my face.
“Liam?”
“He’s a Guardian, and since you have your very own Protector, you know exactly what that means.” My voice turns breathy.
Swoony.
“Maria …” Sybil’s tone turns protective. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing.” I sound all kinds of guilty. When I glance at the poor cactus with the princess cut diamond in the thorns, I can’t help but smile. There’s a whole lot more than nothing happening between me and Liam.
“I know exactly what that means.” This time, her voice turns breathy too.
“We need to trade stories.”
“We will, just as soon as Brett and the Guardians say I can leave protective custody.”
With my uncle under questioning by the Guardians, I have a feeling she won’t need to hide out too much longer.
“I love you.”
“Love you back.”
“Bye! X-o-x-o.” My flippant goodbye is absolutely perfect, totally us.
“Bye, luffs you.” With that, Sybil cuts the connection.
My heart swells with the knowledge Sybil is not only safe, but it seems she found someone special.
For the first time in over a week, I feel like I can breathe again. As usual, we’re totally in sync with each other. We’re both up to no good, and I can’t wait to hear all the gory details.
Until then, I look at the ring trapped inside the cactus. I give Liam a look.
“Now, how exactly are you going to get that out of there? And don’t you dare tell me you’re going to hurt that poor cactus.”
“I thought you didn’t like the cactus.”
“Are you kidding!” I grab the poor plant out of his hands. “It’s everything to me.” And that’s the truth.
Liam’s proposal-that-isn’t-a-proposal is perfectly imperfect, but it’s perfect for us. I’ll make him stew for a few days before giving him a proper answer.
As soon as he liberates that ring from the cactus, it’ll be on my finger. Until then, I’ll pinch myself several times a day. I can’t believe this is my life.
52
MARIA
1 MONTH LATER
I can’t believe it’s been over a month since I held a gun on Liam. I’ll never forget him yanking me into that van and turning the tables on me.
Who knew the sexy Hollywood heartthrob would become everything to me?
But that’s where we are.
He’s my heart, my love, my soulmate.
He’s my other half, and in a few months, we’ll be married in Hawaii. I wanted to get hitched in Vegas, but Sybil wants a dual wedding at her family’s resort in Hawaii.
Although, it seems to be a Guardian tradition—and that of our hosts—to get married fast in places like Vegas or Niagara Falls. For some, they didn’t even know they were getting married. I look at Skye and can’t help but wonder how that happened.
As for me, I have a whole new family to replace the one I lost.
My sister from another mother, Sybil, sits beside me. We exchange a glance that says everything and nothing all at once. It’s not possible to be this deliriously happy, but somehow, we found a way; Sybil with her Protector and me with my Guardian.
“Tell me again,” Sybil shouts to be heard above the voices of so many people. She directs her attention to Forest as he tosses another log on the massive bonfire. “How did this all begin?”