“Hey.”
Graham jumped at the sound of the voice and the accompanying hand that landed on his shoulder.
“It’s just me,” the voice continued and Graham relaxed as it sank in.
Liam. His best friend. Not a threat. Sasha was still safe.
“What are you doing here?” he asked Liam, who was supposed to be with his new girlfriend Cara.
“Heard you were here and wanted to come and check on you,” Liam replied.
“Shouldn’t you be with Cara?”
“She’s resting, and she wanted me to come. We heard about what happened, with the woman.”
“Sasha,” he corrected.
For a long moment Liam just stared at him, and he got the feeling his friend was reaching into his brain, assessing his thoughts, and coming to conclusions Graham wasn’t ready to make yet.
“Like that is it?” Liam asked.
He could lie, say he didn’t know what his friend was talking about, pretend that he hadn’t fallen for Sasha over the last several hours. Hours? Was that all that had passed since he met her?
“Yeah, it’s like that,” Graham agreed. “I just need her to be okay, need her to make it through surgery, through her recovery. Not just physically, she’s been through so much, and I want her to make it through to the other side. I just … need to see her. Anticipation is going to kill me. I know she’s safe. She’s here at the hospital, in surgery, no one can get to her, and I’m not leaving her side any time soon. But …”
“But?” Liam prompted.
Fighting a shudder, Graham looked around him. “I keep feeling like there are eyes on me. Like someone is watching me. Waiting. I know it’s no one. I know that the men who hurt her are all dead.”
“Actually,” Liam said slowly.
“Actually what?”
“I heard that there were only seven bodies found but there should have been eight.”
And just like that the bottom dropped out of his world.
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