Free When You Are Mine by Kennedy Ryan

back. “You can take me home, Cam, but I want to know if there’s any change. Okay, Walsh?”
    He nodded without turning from the window, studying the suddenly fascinating parking lot.
    “I’m gone then.” He knew she was giving him one more chance to offer any other response. He nodded, stuffing his fist into the pocket of his jeans.
    “See you tomorrow.” He freed his voice of inflection, leaving it flat and disinterested. “I’ll be fine.”
    A lie, of course.
    He was getting good at those.

Chapter Nine
    K erris almost danced off the elevator and down the hospital corridor in her lemon-colored sundress, short, fitted denim jacket, and worn cowboy boots.
    “Morning, Dr. Myer,” Kerris greeted the tall, fair-haired physician who rounded the corner with head bent and hands buried in the pockets of his lab jacket. “I’m glad I ran into you. I wanted to thank you again for all you’ve done for Iyani.”
    “Kerris—”
    “No, really.” Kerris rushed the words, excited and steadily plodding her way to Iyani’s room, in step with the doctor. “I know I’m not family or anything, but she’s special to me. And we were so worried that something would go wrong during surgery.”
    “Well, if you remember, Kerris, the time after surgery was just as crucial,” Dr. Myer said, his eyes just shy of meeting hers.
    “Yes, but she got through that, too.” Kerris refused to entertain any negative possibilities. For once things were working out as they should. “I know she’s anxious to get back home, but I’ll miss her. Selfish of me, huh? If you feel confident, though, that radiation and chemotherapy will be fine administered in Kenya, who am I to—”
    “Kerris.” Dr. Myer’s tension-filled voice sliced into her cheerful chatter like a serrated knife. “I don’t know a better way to tell you this than just to say it.”
    “Say…say what?”
    Kerris’s smile wobbled. The doctor’s eyes softened, but Kerris didn’t like the straight line he disciplined his mouth into.
    “Iyani died about an hour ago.”
    “No. No, but…what happened? I just saw her yesterday. She was fine.”
    The world stopped making sense. Pain sank its fangs into her fast-beating heart. She felt it physically and clutched the soft denim jacket covering her chest. Tears burned behind her lids and stung her nose.
    “Her brain began hemorrhaging this morning. It was an unavoidable complication. We couldn’t save her. I’m so sorry.”
    “Oh, I…I…thought…”
    Kerris didn’t know what to say, to do. She only knew what she felt, and it was an oppressive grief for a young warrior angel she had known for only a few weeks, but who had left an indelible imprint on her heart.
    “I suppose Walsh has been notified.” She spoke into the silence Dr. Myer was affording her to process the news.
    “Yes, I believe he’s in her room now. As you can imagine, he’s having a pretty tough time with it.” The doctor’s eyes drifted to the left and then to the right and then down to his watch. “I’m sorry, Kerris, but I have a patient waiting.”
    Kerris brushed past him, heading toward Iyani’s room. She watched Walsh for a moment from the doorway. He’d settled his leanly muscled length in the middle of Iyani’s bed, long legs pulled into a loose lotus position, forearms resting on his knees. She crossed to him without thought, slowing her steps the closer she got, until she was standing directly in front of him sitting on the bed.
    “Walsh, I’m so sorry.”
    For a moment he didn’t acknowledge her presence, but continued to stare down at his fist, clenched around Iyani’s bracelet. She covered his hand with her own.
    “Just in case.” The heavy fist of grief flattened his voice.
    “I’m so sorry.” Saying it again didn’t help, but she couldn’t hold back the useless words.
    “I just,” he started and stopped, a muscle flexing in his jaw before he continued. “I just don’t get it. She came through the surgery