Her Obsession (by Sheridan Hartin) novel Chapter 28

Her Obsession.

A Reason To Stay.

Sage

I woke to the sound of silence. Not the comforting kind, either, the sharp kind. The kind that feels like something’s wrong. My body was heavy. No, not just heavy, anchored. My shoulder pulsed with heat and pressure, and every muscle in my back screamed like I’d been thrown from a building…Oh. Right. I peeled my eyes open slowly. The light hurt. Everything hurt. The ceiling above me was unfamiliar, cream-colored, cracked faintly in the corner. High. Too high for any safe house I’d ever used. Linen smelled like cedar and clean cotton. Not hospital-grade bleach. Not blood. Not mine, at least not fresh. I shifted and groaned as pain stabbed through my shoulder. A soft gasp caught in my throat. Fuck. Clean bandages. A lot of them. My mouth was dry, tongue thick, and I could still taste iron at the back of my throat. Then I realized, I was warm. Too warm. A blanket tucked up to my ribs, and beneath it, bare skin met soft sheets. Not my clothes. Not my shirt. Not my gun. Panic sparked behind my ribs, weak but real. I tried to push myself upright, but my left arm was useless. I winced, grinding my teeth as my good hand fumbled under the blanket. Cotton. Loose. Big. Not mine. It was a man’s shirt and it smelled like Conner. The sound of a chair scraping nearby made me snap my head toward the corner, instinct before reason. He was there. Sitting in the dark, his elbows on his knees, watching me like I was something holy. Or haunted. His shirt clung to my frame, sleeves rolled up past my elbows, swallowing my body whole.

“You’re awake,” he said softly.

I swallowed. Tried to speak. Failed.

“You’ve been out for almost two days,” he said. “You lost a lot of blood.”

I blinked at him, fighting the wave of dizziness, memories swimming back in fragments. The rooftop. The rifle. The shot. Falling.

“Thought we lost you,” he added, quieter this time. “You scared the hell outta me, ghost.”

I wanted to roll my eyes. Or curse at him. Something sharp and sarcastic. But my throat cracked instead. He was up in an instant, a glass of water in his hand before I even registered him moving. He held the rim to my lips, tilting gently. I drank because it was easier than fighting him. And maybe because some part of me didn’t hate the way he looked at me, like I mattered.

“Your shoulder’s gonna be a bitch for a while,” he murmured. “The doc said you’ll heal clean, no nerve damage. You were lucky.”

I huffed, voice rough. “I don’t believe in luck.”

“No?” he asked, setting the glass down. “What do you believe in, then?”

I looked at him. The blood had been cleaned from his hands. He was in fresh clothes. But the hollows under his eyes and the weight in his jaw said he hadn’t left my side.

“Preparation. Exit strategies. Backup plans,” I croaked.

He smiled. Just a little. “Then you’ll be happy to know Liam, Matteo, Nico and I used every single one of yours.”

I blinked slowly. “You listened to me?”

He leaned closer, elbows on his knees again. “I always listened. You were just too far away to hear it back.”

I hated how that landed in my chest.

I looked down at the shirt I was wearing. “You undressed me.”

He didn’t flinch. “I had to. You were bleeding through your jacket. The doctor cut it off. I…” He paused, voice softer. “I cleaned you up after. You were covered in blood. Hair was matted. You deserved better than that.”

Something in me twitched. Not pain. Something worse. Something warmer.

“Didn’t think ghosts needed looking after,” I whispered.

“Well,” he said, brushing silver strands away from my cheek with careful fingers, “this one does.”

1/2

7:58 pm P p DD.

A Reason To Stay.

And fuck. For the first time in years, I wasn’t sure how to disappear. But I knew I needed to. I had to leave before I made it worse, before the next bullet hit him instead of me. I shoved the blanket back and swung my legs over the side of the bed with a groan that tore from deep in my chest. Pain flared across my shoulder, white-hot and punishing, but I welcomed it. It was grounding. Reminded me I was still alive and still a liability.

“Woah, easy there.” Conner’s voice was tight, close, too close. “Where are you going?”

“Away,” I muttered, bracing my good arm against the bed to push myself up. “Far away.”

But I didn’t get far. His hands were on me, gentle, steady, but firm enough to make my ribs ache when he pressed me back down. He loomed over me, eyes sharp, jaw tense.

“No.” He crossed his arms, voice low and unyielding. “You don’t get to run away this time.”

I looked up at him, heat burning behind my eyes. “You don’t get to decide that.”

“The hell I don’t,” he growled. “You nearly died for me. For my men. You think I’m just gonna let you vanish again like you were never here?”

I clenched my jaw and looked away, ashamed of the way my breath hitched.

“I didn’t do it for you,” I lied.

“Bullshit.”

His voice cracked like thunder, and for the first time, he didn’t try to hide the storm.

“You climbed that goddamn building with a bullet in your shoulder. You covered my men, saved their asses. You warned me, when you didn’t owe me a damn thing. And you took that shot because you were watching me.”

“Doesn’t matter,” I whispered. “None of it matters if they come back. If he comes back…or worse, if Yakov finds out.”

“I don’t care if the devil himself walks through that door,” he said, taking a knee in front of me. His fingers brushed mine, careful not to hurt. “I’m not letting you disappear again, Sage. Not when I finally have you.”

His words dropped between us, raw and final.

“You can’t keep me,” I said softly. “I don’t belong in any of this.”

He met my eyes, his voice steady. “Then I’ll build a place where you do.”

And something broke in me. Not like glass, sharper than that. Like the snap of an old lock finally giving way.

“I don’t know how to stay,” I admitted.

“That’s fine,” he murmured, brushing his thumb over my knuckles. “We’ll figure it out. But you’re not leaving tonight.”

I looked at him, really looked. And for the first time since I was a kid, I wasn’t searching for the exits. I was searching for reasons to stay.

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2/2

7:58 pm p p DD.

Her Obsession.