Chapter 25

It had all happened so fast. One minute, Hannah was talking with the tall New Englander thinking they were finally getting somewhere. The next, she found herself thrown to the ground as gunfire erupted over them.

As quickly as it started, it was over. She didn't even have time to think before Myles struggled to his feet, pulling her up with him. Maybe it was something in his voice, but Hannah didn't argue when he grabbed her clothes out of her cabinet and told her to change. It wasn't until she'd helped him to his room, and they'd made their way stealthily toward the elevator did she begin to question him.

"Are you mad?" Hannah exclaimed, hearing Myles staggered back against the wall with a groan of pain. His face contorted grotesquely and his eyes opened, watering with tears of agony.

"We've got to get out of here, now!" he warned through his teeth in a horrible voice. It had taken all he had to pull on a pair of jeans over his pajamas bottoms. However, without Hannah's help Myles never would have been able to exchange his shirt for the light blue button-down his sister had brought him.

"Oh, right!" Hannah stared in his general direction, more angry than she could remember being in years. "And just how do you expect to do that? I can't see, and you can barely walk three feet," she asked as he pressed the freight elevator button.

"Listen, someone just shot at us, and I don't think that little 'calling card' at the Pavilion was just a coincidence," Myles told her as she helped him onto the elevator. "They've already made it past hospital security, and I have no idea where the agent Jack set up is. I'm not taking any more chances," he finished as the elevator began to descend.

Quickly thinking over what he'd said, Hannah nodded knowing there was little other choice. She slipped her shoulder under his armpit when the elevators dinged on their floor.

"Are you sure you can do this?" she asked, looking at up him.

"Sure, angel," Myles replied, tugging her closer with the arm around her shoulders. Despite not being able to see his face, Hannah blushed under the scrutiny of his gaze almost as if she could sense the look of gratitude in his eyes. It seemed that nothing inside her was solid anymore.

Myles hadn't seemed to be a heavy man until Hannah tried to bear his weight. His lean physique hid a frame of iron, she decided as they staggered forward out of the elevator. He was almost a full head taller than she was. Though he tried valiantly to walk by himself, his legs where still much too weak from their ordeal.

Hannah thought they must look like a pair of sailors on the town as they swayed and staggered toward front exit. She wondered fleetingly if security would stop them, as they looked very suspicious. However, despite the many people she heard passing them, no one came to offer aid, or to question where they were going at this time of night.

They got no more than ten feet from the front door when Myles suddenly slumped against her. It was all she could do not to buckle under his weight. Fortunately, the brick wall of the hospital was close by, and Hannah was able to shove his back up against it. She heard him bite off a cry of pain as the impact jarred him from head to toe.

"Sorry," Hannah huffed, out of breath as Myles groaned with the effort to stay upright. He grasped her tightly about the shoulders and leaned closer until his lips were warm against her brow. "Maybe we should go back. I can get them to send out a wheelchair for you," she stated worriedly, her arms wrapped around his waist as they leaned heavily against the wall.

"I'm not going back!" Myles snapped, the tone of his voice belying the pain and weakness she knew he felt. It was implacable, unemotional, and immutable. "Just call me a cab."

"You're a cab!" Hannah actually giggled though she felt him stiffen beside her as if he would like to strangle her. Nerves were making her giddy. "Okay, we don't have time to debate the various degrees of our acts of idiocy tonight. Someone is going to discover we are missing any second now. What do we do?" she asked, looking up at him for guidance.

Myles shook his head as if to clear it, and then looked at her. He couldn't believe the trust he saw in her face as she stared up at him waiting for instructions. He knew she was the same independent, stubborn woman he'd met so many weeks ago in Texas, but circumstances had changed things to that now she had to rely on him.

While he knew her tentativeness was primarily due to her loss of sight and being in what had to be a strange environment, it was still disconcerting for him. For a fleeting second, Myles felt a moment of misgiving as he wondered if he was putting Hannah into more danger instead of protecting her. However, he felt he had to do this in order to keep them both safe until they found out who was coming after them.

On the other hand, Hannah wondered what it was with this man. She had only known Myles a few months and had already been buried alive, gassed, almost blown up, lost her eyesight, shot at, and now on the run for her life. However, she couldn't think of anyone she'd trust more.

"We need to get a cab," Myles finally was able to say, lifting his hand to brush a stray hair from her face.

"Stay right here," she told him, slowly moving toward the road once she was sure he was safely leaning against the wall. "I'll be right back."

"Hannah? Where are you…?" Myles asked worriedly as he watched her feel her way toward the curb her hands out in front of her, her feet searching.

It took under two minutes for her to finally flag down a taxi with Myles telling her when to wave. Hearing it stop not far from her, Hannah reach out, feeling along the side of the car until she came to the open window.

"Can I help you, ma'am?" the driver asked politely, though his tone made Hannah self-conscious of her vision loss.

"Ah, yes," Hannah responded, knowing she had to sound convincing. "I don't know what they gave my husband for pain in the Emergency Room, but they said it would make him drowsy. I guess it worked faster than we expected."

"Uh, do you want me to take you back around to the ER?" he questioned, obviously confused since they were standing outside the hospital. Hannah could have sworn it sounded like he leaned over the steering wheel a bit as he tried to get a better look at Myles against the wall.

"Oh, I don't think that will be necessary," Hannah tried to brush him off nonchalantly. "I'd just like to get him home, and I could use your help getting him in the car."

"Sure thing, ma'am," he responded brightly as she heard him getting out of the car and turned back toward where she left Myles. Though she couldn't see him, Hannah could tell that every second had cost him when she returned with the taxi driver.

The Myles Leland she knew had been very careful of his appearance, yet now his shirt was sweat-sodden as she touched him. It dampened her blouse where he embraced her while she helped him to the car. Under her fingers, she felt Myles stiffen with pain as Hannah urged him the few steps to the car.

Hannah murmured angrily to herself as she helped him into the passenger's side rear door. Nothing had occurred between them that she couldn't have told a stranger about without blushing. So why was she unable to think of anything but the pressure of his hard sweating body draped against hers, and the clutch of his fingers under her rib cage? Why was she miserably happy that they were here together? The several shocks of the last couple of days must be affecting her mind.

Hannah angled her body so she could help the driver lower Myles onto the car seat. He sank down heavily onto the cracked leather, the weight of his body pulling her down beside him. For a moment, he held her close even as the driver watched them with mild amusement.

Myles released her slowly and tried to lift a leg into the car. However, he stopped mid-motion, issuing a sharp grunt in response to the pain coursing through his body.

"Let me help you," the driver offered, reaching past Hannah for his legs.

Finally, they were settled in the backseat, and the driver pulled away from the curb again. With his body pressed against hers hoping to cushion some of the jarring caused by the motion of the cab, Hannah found her mind awash with thoughts she knew she shouldn't be thinking. Rubbing her cheek against his chest, she didn't hear where Myles told the driver to take them. Frankly, she found she didn't care as long as she was with him.