“Get her secured,” someone said.
A hand closed over my arm, then tugged me forward, down a short hallway. “This way, Natalie.”
Felicity. That was Felicity talking to me. She shoved me into a seat and buckled my belt. “Take this.” She pushed something rectangular and paper into my hands, then pressed my head toward my knees. “Just breathe.”
“Fee!” Marco called from somewhere behind me, his voice deep and tinged with an Italian accent much like Luc’s. “I need you to help me hold him in here!”
“I’m coming!”
Felicity rushed away from me. I turned to look after her and realized we were moving. Blurry scenery I couldn’t focus on rushed by the windows. My gaze drifted down to my hands, to what she’d given me, to what I realized was a barf bag.
The sounds of that ritual, the crack of the whip, Luc’s agonizing groans... They echoed in my head all over again.
Sickness threatened once more. I breathed deep, again and again, fighting the nausea, trying not to give in to what I knew was about to be a massive panic attack—one that would put any I’d had on a stupid boat to shame.
The jet’s engines grew louder. Focusing on that sound, I closed my eyes and tried to bring it to the front of all the other noise. Forced myself to feel the rumble beneath my feet, the g-force pulling on my body as the jet streaked down the runway and lifted off the ground. And as I did, I slowly beat back the fear and panic, gradually felt myself coming back.
Something hard thwacked the wall at the back of the plane. My eyes shot open. A deep grunt and a low groan followed.
“Merda,” Marco yelled. “I’ve got him now.”
“Are you sure?” Felicity asked.
I twisted toward the doorway, my pulse shooting up as my eyes widened. Some kind of struggle was happening in the back room. Something I wasn’t sure I was ready to see.
“Porca troia, Luc,” Marco mumbled. “Hold still, you figlio di puttana.”
My heart beat double time against my ribs as I freed my seat belt and rose, turning toward the open doorway and whatever was happening in the back room. Hand shaking, I reached for the doorframe and stopped, looking into the bedroom where Luc was sprawled on his stomach on the bed, dwarfing the mattress with his big body, thrashing from side to side while Marco and Felicity tried to hold him down.
The wounds on his back continued to ooze, only it was worse now. Worse than when they’d pulled him out of that truck. Fresh blood trickled down his back and stained both Marco’s and Felicity’s clothing where they fought with him.
“What are you doing?” Panic built inside me all over again, and I rushed to the side of the bed. “Oh my God, you’re hurting him! Stop.” I grabbed hold of Marco’s big hand and tried to pry it off Luc’s arm. “Stop!”
Luc’s head jerked my direction. Dark, damp hair fell over his forehead. His eyes were tightly closed. But for a split second, he stilled.
“Cazzo,” Marco mumbled, getting a better hold on Luc while he was frozen. “Talk to him, Natalie. Let him know you’re here. He’s delirious from the pain and the drugs, and he doesn’t understand what we’re doing, but he knows your voice.”
Luc grunted and shifted his arms and legs, growing agitated all over again. Beside me, Marco and Felicity fought to keep him down.
“We can’t get these wounds closed until he stops fighting us,” Felicity said between clenched teeth. “Natalie, now, dammit. Talk to him.”
All I could see was blood. Blood and misery and pain. Nausea swirled again, but I forced it back. Rubbing my damp palms along my thighs, I dropped to my knees at the side of the bed, closest to where Luc’s head was almost hanging over the side.
“Luc?” I swallowed hard. “It’s me. It’s Natalie.” I reached out with a shaky hand and brushed the scraggly hair back from his eyes. “I’m right here.”
He slowed his struggling. As if just the sound of my voice calmed him.
“Yeah, just like that.” Marco’s muscles flexed as he shifted his hold on Luc’s arms and legs. “Keep talking to him, Natalie. You’re doing good. Fee, you got it?”
“Yeah. Keep him still.” Felicity grabbed something I couldn’t see behind Luc.
I scooted closer toward Luc, trying not to see what they were doing, focusing on Luc’s handsome face instead. “I’m here,” I said again. “I’m right here. I’ve been waiting for you.”
His eyes remained closed, but he tipped his chiseled face up toward the sound of my voice, and when my fingers grazed his temple and his cheek, I heard him mumble, “Angio...letto?”
Tears filled my eyes all over again, and my chest felt as if it might explode as I slid one hand into his damp hair and used the other to touch his face, his arm, his hand, any part of him I could reach that wasn’t injured.
“Yes, vita mia.” I pushed the words past the tears trying to clog my throat, using the term of endearment he sometimes used for me and which I knew meant “my life”…because he was my life. He was my everything. “I’m right here.”
Luc’s body jerked, and his muscles tensed. Behind him, Marco and Fee mumbled in low voices.
“You’re safe,” I whispered, tuning them out, not wanting him to get agitated again. “You’re safe with me.”
I pressed my forehead against his, then gently kissed the spot with lips I couldn’t keep from trembling. “No one’s going to hurt you anymore. I won’t let them. I’ve got you. You’re mine, and I’m yours, remember? Stay with me, baby.”
“You’re doing good, Natalie,” Fee said in a steady voice. “Keep him centered just like that so we can get these drugs in him.”
“I’m not leaving you,” I whispered, continuing to stroke Luc’s hair. “I’m never leaving you. I love you. Do you know that? I love you so much.” I kissed his forehead again. “I love only you, Luc. Just you.”
Luc tipped his face higher, and his warm breath fanned my throat as I continued to play with his hair.
Closing my eyes, I pressed my forehead to his and held him to me, wanting to do anything to protect him, to help him. Then I felt his arm near me shift. I felt his hand close over mine. Felt him draw my fingers beneath him and close to his chest. Felt him shudder and exhale a long breath against me as the muscles in his body relaxed one by one.
“There.” Felicity pulled a needle out of Luc’s arm. “Good job, Natalie. Worst part’s over.”
He went limp against me, whatever drugs Felicity had given him having already hit his system. But his steady and even breaths told me he was simply sleeping.
I didn’t move, though. Didn’t stop touching him. Couldn’t. Wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to let go of him after everything that had happened.
Marco and Felicity spoke in hushed voices as Felicity turned to grab items from the bag she’d carried onto the plane. Throat thick, I managed to ask, “What did you give him?”
“A drug cocktail that’ll keep him out for a good long while.”
Felicity must have sensed the worry in my eyes because she paused whatever she was doing with her bag and looked across the bed at me. “An antianxiety med to keep him calm, and narcotics for the pain. That’s it. I’m going to start an IV next so we can get some antibiotics in him. The last thing he needs is an infection on top of everything else. He’s going to get through this. Trust me.”