The Final Spark

's

ttered open to a twisted cage of metal and smoke curling through cracked windows. The acrid scent

t eyes fierce-the same relentless fire that had drawn me in from the

ugh the twisted debris

he rasped, voi

d, squeezing his hand

hing lights stabbing through the smoke-filled air. But inside the wrec

e weight of the moment. The timing. The pre

s no ac

, fierce and unyielding. "I t

a warning. They were

ide me. I wasn't just tangled in his world through business

drew near. Fingers pried at the mangled do

s hand

s out. Pain exploded through my side, white-hot a

ed me away, his voice

t get to

me more-the wreck... or the f

noise as they worked on me. Pain radiated fro

zing with a fire I couldn't name. Not just anger or des

ut I barely heard it. I reached out, fingers finding his ha

d became a blur of sirens, muffled c

htened. His voice was a hoar

not done

than the cuts or bruises. That wa

d want h

se meetings, the power plays, the hush

n't just

was

was the only one who'd ever dared to challenge him-to see

was fighting

fo

hed forward, sirens wailing. Harsh fluorescent lig

ignoring the searing

asked, voice tremb

arkening. "Someone who w

ore, but the paramedics

e felt

d to a halt, a team of doctors rush

ed Jaxon a

slipped f

in my chest-the magnetic, dangerous connec

alone with the steady beep o

hestrated t

they dragged

days

-bruised, banda

n the ICU, something i

cocky, despite the pain

round," I teased, sliding in

out to brush a strand

o dying," he said,

t it didn't r

teasing, beneath the

was just t

week, the my

ats slipped i

lingered at the

as under siege-a

, our connection o

turned into stolen moment

with that d

im with my stu

uiet, our wa

were nearly silent, Jaxon pulled me

aced a slow li

aying with

art thundering. "Ma

nd rough, a promise

ng me close enough to feel

s brush

hospital door

stepped

Unmistakab

caught in

was

from m

ought was go

ere h

chi

it