Liam nodded, disappeared around the corner.
Alone again.
She looked back at Noah.
Her mouth tightened into a dark line.
He wanted to pull her into another embrace, finish what they’d started. But he’d learned something dangerous tonight—she’d awakened parts of him he’d tried to bury with his wife.
It would be so easy to fall in love with her.
Too easy.
But he couldn’t walk that road again. Wouldn’t survive losing someone else.
She studied his face, waiting. For reassurance, maybe. A declaration. At minimum, acknowledgment that the kiss hadn’t been a mistake.
But it had been a mistake.
A mistake that had probably cost him his best friend, because after tasting her lips, he wasn’t sure morning coffee together was possible anymore. Every second alone, all he’d think about was finishing that kiss.
And that couldn’t happen. Still, “She’ll be okay, Meg.”
Coward.But that was all he had. All he could give.
Noah walked out of their moonlit sanctuary without looking back.
Cruel.He knew it. But giving her hope for a future together would be crueler.
Even if it killed him to walk away.
FIFTEEN
Liam stood in the middle of déjà vu.
The sounds hit him first—people rushing around, voices echoing off sterile walls, the squeak of gurneys on polished floors. Then the smell. Disinfectant mixed with despair, the same cocktail that had filled his nostrils in that Swiss hospital six months ago.
His stomach lurched.
Not again.
Bitter coffee burned his throat. How many cups now? Five? Six? Each one tasting more like liquid regret as he waited for someone in green scrubs to walk through those double doors and confirm his worst fears.
He should have gotten on that chopper with her. But there hadn’t been room—and he had a job to do, taking care of those teenagers and…
Yeah, he should have gotten on that chopper.
He tried to pray, but it felt like his prayers hit the ceiling and dropped back.
Liam pushed up from the plastic chair, boots squeaking against the polished floor as he paced the waiting room of UMC Trauma Center in the heart of Vegas. Normally she would havebeen taken to a hospital in Phoenix, but due to a car pileup, they’d redirected the chopper here. But as one of the top Level 1 trauma centers in the country, he couldn’t help but be glad she was here.
Eighteen hours ago, Nimue had been wrapped in his arms, both of them shivering in that cave. His biggest worry then had been the Bratva.
Turned out the canyon was more dangerous than the Russian mafia.
After the helicopter disappeared with Nimue, the crew had worked together to get the teenagers to safety. Meg and Noah had stayed behind to tend them while he had run with Teague back to the Rim offices to secure more transport.
Teague had handled the family phone calls while Eden worked with South Rim services to transport the kids.