That was why he cared.
Setting his arm onto his thigh, I forced myself to slide over onto the floor beside him. With a sigh, I sprawled out right there, slipping my hand under my head and closing my eyes.
“Eat some of your bar. They’re in my pocket,” the man named Alexander said steadily.
“My head hurts too bad right now. I might throw up,” I told him.
“You haven’t eaten since they took you.”
He was right, but it didn’t change anything. “Give me a minute and I will,” I lied, dead serious about throwing up. Draping my other arm across my eyes, I sighed, way more reassured than I should have been by knowing he was two feet away from me. That if I reached out, I could poke him.
I really was glad he was here, even though the only thing that mattered at this point was him getting out. I couldn’t forget that.
I was a fucking liar.
And that was exactly what he said at some point later on.
“You said you were going to eat.”
Palming my head with both hands, I could hear how nasally my voice was as I muttered, “I will.”
He huffed.
I pressed my lips together and bottled the moan in my throat. It felt like my nose was made of ground beef. I squeezed my face between my hands like that would help my headache. It didn’t.
What could have been two minutes or twenty later, I heard the crinkle of a wrapper and opened an eye to find one of the nutrition bars a few inches away from my hip.
“Eat it,” he growled.
I tried to growl back, but it came out as a cough. “I’m not hungry.”
“I don’t care if you’re hungry. Eat it,” he demanded.
The urge to argue with him was right there, but so was the pounding in my head. Instead, I flicked my fingers weakly in his direction. “Later. Let me try and take another nap first.”
“You need more water.”
I covered my eyes with the inside of my elbow. “In a minute.”
“You need water,” he repeated, his tone gruff.
“I know.”
Alexander sighed. “Fine. Be dehydrated.”
I’d forgotten he’d given me a real name to call him. It almost made me feel better. Almost.
Restless, I rubbed my face and shifted my legs around, shivering hard. “Did they lower the temperature in here more or am I imagining it?” I pretty much whimpered.
“They did.”
They were trying to kill me. That shouldn’t have been a surprise. Fuck. I needed… to stay up a little bit.
And I needed to bring up the elephant in the room.
Him. His health. That was the elephant in the room.
“Are you… feeling even better?” I managed to whisper.
“I am.”
Lord, he could toss a dog a bone here. “Back to normal?”
There was a brief pause. “I’ve regained a significant amount of my energy and… everything else.”
Everything else?
My heart started pounding even harder. Reality settling in. I knew what was going to happen. We both did. They were going to come for him. There was a reason he was here.
But I didn’t want to be left behind. I didn’t…
If I could have mustered up a tear or two, I would have, but I knew what I was doing. At least, I understood why I had to do what was necessary. “Hey?”
“Shut up and rest,” he grumbled, pretty half-assed.
“But—”
His sigh was long and clear. “Whatever energy you’re about to waste, save it.”
Did he sound less grouchy or was the fever messing with my ears?
I squeezed my eyes closed as my head swam, and I tried out his name with my lips and tongue. “Alexander?”
“Yeah?”
I rubbed my face. “I think you need to—”
The Defender groaned. “Don’t bother finishing that sentence. I’m already regretting telling you my name.”
This butthole. “I regret opening my door. I guess we’re even,” I told him quietly, joking. Mostly.
And I thought… I thought I imagined it… but I didn’t.
The crazy bastard huffed. A little. But it was pretty damn close to a chuckle.
It was the warm touch on my face that was my silent alarm clock.
But it was the sight of a big palm retreating that had me flinching.
I opened my mouth to make a sound, to say a word, but everything crusted in my throat and dried out before I could even squeak.
Alexander’s face moved into my line of sight. The line was back between his eyebrows, his mouth flat. “Your fever is higher.”
No surprise. My brain felt like it was going to explode. I shivered and tried to find the words, pushing them through lips that felt too dry. “If something happens to me… I hope every person in this building gets a paper cut on their tongue. I’m going to poltergeist them, don’t try and talk me out of it.”
He ignored me. “You need water.”
I did need water, some antibiotics too. I needed to move. I knew I needed to. When my grandma had gotten sick, her not wanting to move around had been the source of a lot of our arguments, if you could call them that.
“Get up, Gracie.”
I had no energy, but I needed water… and movement… and food, even if I didn’t want it.
It took a second for me to get to my side and then another few seconds to pull my hands and knees under me before pushing up onto them. For a split second, I thought about trying to stand but realized almost immediately that wasn’t going to happen.
I thought about asking him for help, but if he’d wanted to, he would have already. Just like he’d done last time. Was he testing me? I wasn’t going to ask. He was already doing so much.
I could do it.
It took too long to crawl toward the sink, then even longer to actually manage to stand up. My legs shook as I leaned against the wall and tried to catch my breath. It took a long time to cup water under the running tap and bring it to my mouth. I didn’t drink enough, I knew it wasn’t enough, but when my legs shook too bad to keep me up, I pretty much slid back down onto the floor and spread out on it.
“Eat the nutrition bar,” a bossy voice said from somewhere close by.
I closed my eyes instead.
I was shaking so hard my teeth rattled.
I had to be morphing into a literal pile of shit. I was turning into the poo emoji on my phone.
I slept but didn’t. I rested, but I stayed awake too, so uncomfortable—that word was the understatement of the century. I would have sold my soul to feel better.
But it was during one of those times that I opened my eyes when I felt myself being moved. Being lifted just a bit. My head drooped for a second before…
Prying an eyelid open even more, I found a leg stretched out in front of me. I was still on my side. Rolling onto my back and ignoring the ache in all my bones, I found The Defender’s face looking down at me. All smooth, unreal skin. All that perfect bone structure. Those beautifully shaped and colored eyes. All that wrapped into one being.
And he was letting me use his leg as a pillow? Why did that suddenly seem like the nicest thing in the whole world? And why did it make me want to cry?
I sniffled, and that unbelievable face tipped down, his gaze moving over me.
I think my heart broke a little bit. “Why are you so beautiful?” I whispered.