“You’re in charge of your own destiny, cariño.”
I glanced down once more just as the tether snapped, and a voice from below carried by me on a passing breeze.
“We’re losing her…clear!”
Chapter Forty-Three
Brody
I was staring down at my clasped hands when Eden jumped up from the chair beside me. “How are they? How is my husband? Is he…” The words caught in her throat as tears poured down her face. Mateo slipped an arm around her, bracing for whatever news came next.
The doctor smiled. “Mrs. Carrera, your husband pulled through just fine. He’s in recovery.”
Eden let out a sob and covered her face.
I cleared my throat and stood. “What about Adriana?” When he didn’t say anything, I repeated it louder as Leighton took my hand.
His face became solemn. “She coded on the table.”
Sight and sound ceased to exist. My sister’s arm tightened around me, but I jerked away from her. I didn’t want to be touched.
“But we were able to stabilize her at the last minute,” he added. “The next few days will be crucial in Adriana’s body accepting the new kidney. Anything can happen.”
“Does that mean…?”
He smiled. “It looks real good.”
Relief flooded my body, and I dropped my head back as Leighton hugged me. My heart raced with one question. “Can I see her?”
“I’m sorry, immediate family only, and Mr. Carrera is under sedation.”
No! She needed me. After all this, I couldn’t let her wake up to a silent room. She’d think she’d been abandoned all over again.
I dared this motherfucker to keep me away.
But before I could do anything, Eden stepped forward and shocked everyone. “Adriana is my sister-in-law, and as Valentin Carrera’s wife, I suggest you reconsider your stance on that rule. I’m a volatile woman, Dr. Torres. With the trauma my son and husband have endured, I’m sure you understand how unpleasant I can make your work environment should my emotions get the better of me.”
Everyone’s jaw dropped, including Dr. Torres’s who cleared his throat, a bead of sweat forming on his upper lip. “I, uh, I don’t see a problem in Mr. Harcourt visiting Miss Carrera once she’s out of recovery.”
“Wise decision.” Turning, Eden gave me a private wink. “Now, if you all will excuse me, I’m going to check on my men.”
Two hours later, I still waited for her to wake up.
It didn’t matter. I’d waited for her my whole life. I’d wait for two years. Two decades. Two lifetimes. No one was taking me out of this room until she opened her eyes.
I brushed a piece of dark hair away from her cheek, ignoring the wires, tubes, and bandages in my way. Even with ashen gray skin and the quiet drip of an IV feeding into her veins, she’d never looked more beautiful.
This woman.
This force of nature who bulldozed her way into my life with threats and a vendetta.
She challenged me. She argued with me. She made me question myself and everything around me. She was both a brazen criminal and a fierce protector.
She was selfless.
I was the selfish one. I needed her here with me. I needed to hear her voice instead of the damn beep of the machines. And once I did, I was going to kick her ass for hiding something so huge from me.
From all of us.
I pressed my forehead against her hand and closed my eyes. “Just say something. Anything. Let me know you’re coming back to me.”
“Hola.”
My neck snapped up as her eyes fluttered open. It felt like every muscle in my body gave way at one time. “You gave everyone a scare, Carrera.”
She attempted a smile. “I like to keep things interesting.”
I tightened my grip on her hand. “How long have you known?”
I didn’t have to elaborate. By the guilty look on her face, she knew what I meant. “A few weeks.”
A few weeks.
The words settled at the base of my brain, and little clues came rushing back in a blaze of truth. “When you were sick on the plane, and when I wasn’t able to wake you up in Morelia, the dizziness, the coughing, all the talk about the end, and death…all of it makes sense now. I can’t believe I didn’t see it.”
She shook her head, reaching for my arm and wincing as a jolt of pain shot through her. “You didn’t see it because I didn’t want you to. You were never supposed to get close enough, remember?”
I remembered. It didn’t mean I was over it.
“Val gave you a kidney.”
“I know.”
“How?” When she just offered a secret smile, I shook my head. I probably didn’t want to know. “They said you coded. I thought I lost you.”
“You did.”
“Huh?” Something was off about her. Her demeanor seemed too calm. Almost at peace.
“It would’ve been so easy to walk away from everything, Brody. This life hasn’t been kind to me, so I thought the next one had to be better.”
She didn’t say the words, but the implication was there. I knew what she meant, and I stilled. “Do you still think that?”
“No, I’m ready to finally start living. I used to want power, but that was the old me.”
“What do you want, Adriana?” I looked away, not wanting to see her face if her answer wasn’t the one I wanted to hear. I’d laid all my cards on the table. I still had some damn pride left.
“A home,” she whispered, her voice hoarse and raspy. “I want to belong.”
I entwined our fingers together, turning them so her palm faced up. “You have that, princesa, and I’ll never take it from you again.”
She swallowed hard, her brows pulling together. “Does that mean you’ll be going back to Houston soon?”
“I have to. Val needs me there, and it’s my home. He’s put a lot of trust in me, and I won’t let him down.”
“I understand.” She tried to pull her hand away, but I gripped it tight.
Maybe a little too tight.
Because what I’d mulled around while she was in surgery took a lot for me to say. It wasn’t something I offered on a whim, and it made zero sense.
Maybe that was why I trusted it.
“Come with me,” I blurted out.
Her mouth dropped open. “What?”
“We have hospitals in Houston. You can recover there. I’ll take care of you.”
“What are you saying?”
What was I saying?
Standing, I leaned over the bed and braced my hands on either side of her head. I got as close as I could to her without touching her, my lips hovering above hers.
Above the kiss I knew was mine and mine alone.
“I’m saying I love you, Adriana Carrera. I love the rival you were. I love the fighter you are. And I don’t want to miss a moment of the leader you’ll become. I don’t know how to do this. I’m winging it. I’ve only begged a woman one other time in my life, and now I realize it wasn’t out of love. It was out of fear. Fear that I wasn’t good enough for anyone else, or that I was just too fucked up for anyone to look beyond the mask to see the man. Then I met you. I met a stubborn, bossy, mouthy—”