Page 115 of Dear John

I didn’t feel lucky. I felt like since I’d moved to Kansas, my whole world had gone to shit. But in reality, it would havehappened no matter where I lived. “Where am I?” I suddenly wondered.

She frowned at me. “In the hospital.”

“I know that. I didn’t hit my head,” I chuckled. “I meant, where? I don’t know where they took me.”

“You’re in New Jersey.”

“No offense, but I don’t think I’ll be visiting again,” I grumbled.

She chuckled as she wheeled me toward the door. “I can’t say I blame you after all you’ve been through.”

A few heads popped up to look as we made our way down the hall. Nurses smiled at me as if they knew me, and a few police officers tipped their hats.

“Don’t they want to talk to me?” I whispered to the nurse.

“They do, but you have some very persuasive friends who have convinced them to give you some time before they start interrogating you.”

“Interrogating?” I asked sharply.

“Don’t worry. From what I understand, they already have a confession from the people who took you. Your statement will only close the file.”

I wondered if I should be more concerned about who took me, but at the moment, all I could think about was seeing IKE. The rest could wait until later. Another nurse hurried over to assist with the door, and then I was wheeled inside.

Even though I knew IKE was in here, it still stole the breath from my lungs when I saw him in the bed. Everything about him was always so lifelike, yet he laid in that bed and looked almost depleted. Bandages were wrapped around his hands and something came out from under the blanket near his feet.

“Warming pads,” the nurse whispered. “For his feet.”

His feet. Because he’d taken off his shoes and socks and given them to me. Not that they were especially warm, but it was better than nothing.

“Is he…”

“He’s okay. Just sleeping.”

The nurse wheeled me closer, and as if he knew I was there, his eyes opened and those blue orbs locked on mine with an intensity I hadn’t felt since those moments in the container when he confessed his feelings for me. Pain lanced through my chest as tears welled in my eyes. We were alive.

A sob broke free from my chest, and before the nurse could tell me to sit down, I was pushing out of the wheelchair and stumbling over to the bed. With his bandaged hands, he caught me and pulled me into the bed beside him, holding me tight to his body.

I buried my face against his chest, my fingers digging into the rough cloth of his hospital gown. No matter how hard I pressed my body closer to his, it was never enough. The tears wouldn’t stop coming as the terror of the last few days finally caught up with me.

“It’s okay,” he murmured, pressing kisses to my hair. I felt the bandage scrape against my back as he did his best to console me.

“I never thought I’d see you again,” I whispered, the tears still falling down my face.

“I know.” His voice was rough just like mine, and when he shifted the hair from my face and pressed his lips to my skin, I felt the crack in his lips, just like mine.

How the hell had we survived that? Was he hurt? Why did he have bandages on his hands? A million questions flowed through my brain as I laid next to him, crying against his chest. I felt like nothing would ever be right again, and that so much had changed in the course of four days. I didn’t want to think aboutwhat would happen next or how I would move on with life. As long as I was here in IKE’s arms, it felt like everything would be fine.

40

IKE

She wasalive and in my arms.

I swallowed back the fear and pulled her closer, sliding my hand up and down her back as she cried in my arms. I knew the feeling all too well. The relief mixed with a sense of doom that it might not really be over—that this might all be a dream neither of us would wake up from.

But I could touch her, feel her heart beating under my fingertips. She was real and she was here. I pressed my lips to her head again, unable to stop myself. In my whole life, I’d never cared for anyone until Jane, and that seemed an impossibility as I realized how much danger I put her in. That and the fact that she was in love with IRIS.

And then I saw her. The fight in her eyes in that alley, the way her body didn’t tense around me, as if she knew I was dangerous but wasn’t afraid. It was something in those green eyes that captured me, almost like holding dynamite and knowing it would go off any second. It was dangerous as hell, but you needed to see what would happen if you held on. Maybe that was foolish, but I couldn’t help myself.