𝐏𝐈𝐄𝐑𝐂𝐄𝐃 // 𝐇.𝐒.

72.

Chapter 72

HARRY

I'm in the hospital. I wake up with my wrist handcuffed onto the side of the bed I lay on. I hear the beeping of the heart monitor on my left and it might be picking up as I look around the room. I tug my wrist, in hopes that the chain would break but I have no luck.

I remember being pulled from the ladder and up onto my feet. I remember trying to run away from the men who said I had to come with them. I was tackled to the ground and I remember feeling the pain on my wounded side when that happened. I tried to find Elle, I tried to get to her, but then it all became a fucking blur.

This can't be fucking happening.

I sit up and I wince over the ache. Again, I tug my wrist but of course, my hand won't slip through the cuff. I try again and again, but my wrist only turns red.

"You're up."

When I look over to the door, I recognize one of the men who pulled me from the water. I tighten my jaw and I create a tight fist as he steps into my room. Instead of the bulletproof vest, he wears a jacket now with the same title in white bold letters on it.

"I'm Agent Hill," he introduces with a hand out for me to shake. He puts his hand back down when I don't shake it. "Listen, you're not in any trouble."

I frown at that. "Then why the fuck am I here?" I finally speak, but there's a rasp in my voice. "I shouldn't be here! I should be with my- Where's my—" I couldn't breathe at the thought of not being with her. "Where the fuck—" I feel as if my chest was closing in on itself. "Let me fucking go!" I screamed this time, using all my force to break from the cuff but it only led to me breathing uncontrollably. My ears began to tune out the beeping, tune out the Agent who was trying to tell me something, and I reach for my throat when it turns tight.

My vision is blurry, but I see a woman come through the room. She makes her way to me and the ache is beginning to fade. She tells me it's okay and she brings an oxygen mask over my mouth. As I inhale, I don't breathe as rapidly anymore.

I close my eyes.

"That's it. Just breathe," my Elle says and it doesn't sound tuned out anymore. I hear her sweet voice as clear as day.

With her hand on my shoulder, I reach for her wrist in pure relief that she's here. I breathe even slower. Thank God. Thank you. Thank you.

"You're not helping the situation. Give the boy time," she scolds the agent, but then I notice that the voice speaking doesn't belong to my Elle after all.

When I open my eyes, an older woman in scrubs holds my oxygen mask for me. She's squeezing my shoulder while frowning at the agent.

"Sorry, I can't leave," he tells her and I watch it upset the woman who I assume is a nurse.

My hand slips from my hold on her wrist. I mistook her for my wife and the ache slowly comes back, but I breathe slowly to keep from hyperventilating again. When I hold onto the mask myself, the nurse tells me, "I'm going to get your doctor."

I lower my mask, but she leaves before I get the chance to form any words. As Agent Hill comes up to me again, I ask him, "Is she here? Please... Tell me she's here." I sit up again despite the excruciating pain coming from my side.

"She's not here, but she's safe."

Agent Hill hadn't said that. Behind him, my brother, Finn, walks through the door.

"I pulled her out of the water when she went in after you," Finn continues, stepping closer to my bedside when Agent Hill had stepped aside. "She's in her father's care."