His breath was whooshing in and out between his parted lips and his head snapped back as Emrys latched onto the front of his shirt and gave him a shake. “What happened?!” She sounded frantic and hysterical.

Lane reached his hands up and circled her wrists as a single, fat tear started to roll down his handsome face. “He opened his eyes.” The words were a whisper, but they shouted things like hope and optimism. He shook himself loose from Em’s hold and looked at me over the top of her head. “I have to go tell Cy and Brynn. We are far from out of the woods but everyone in there,” he hooked a finger over his shoulder toward the hectic room behind him, “seems to think it’s a good sign. If his blood pressure stays stable throughout the night, then they want to roll him into surgery first thing in the morning to get the rest of the bullet fragments out. There’s one close to his spine that they’re worried about shifting and causing some serious damage.”

Lane practically bowled both of us over on the way to his family, but I couldn’t blame him and I had my hands full keeping Em from pushing past all the doctors and nurses in her way so she could get to Sutton’s side. They didn’t want anyone who wasn’t necessary in the room as everyone raced around to keep the middle Warner brother awake and well. He had so many tubes and cords running all over him that I could barely make out his form in the center of the bed but Em seemed to know right where to look.

“He’s looking right at me.” Her words were so soft I wasn’t sure that was exactly what she had said. However, she turned to me and repeated them, her heart in her eyes and hope clear on every feature of her face.

I felt a warm hand settle on the base of my spine and didn’t have to look to know that it was Cy. Every part of me recognized him, because he was the only one who had ever made me react to something as simple as the brush of fingers along my spine. All of me wanted all of him, so whenever he was close, my nerves fired up and my senses honed in on his nearness.

“Seems like good news.” His voice was gruff in my ear but I could hear the hesitant relief in it.

Brynn was bouncing up and down on her toes next to me, clapping her hands together. “Of course, it’s good news. He’s awake.”

Lane put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “One step at a time, darlin’.”

The brothers didn’t want to get their hopes up to have them dashed if Sutton’s condition crashed again. They were bracing for impact.

Abruptly, the body in the middle of the bed started to jerk and twitch. Cy swore over the top of my head and Brynn gasped so loudly that one of the nurses closest to the door where we were lurking turned to look at us with narrowed eyes. Lane rubbed his hand roughly over his face and I jerked forward to grab Em as she lurched toward the door.

“Is he having a seizure?” When no one bothered to answer her, Emrys shrieked the question again at the top of her lungs, which had one of the doctors exiting the room. He took one look at her face, pale and patch-worked together with a million stitches, and put a hand on her arm that she immediately shook off. “Is. He. Having. A. Seizure.” She enunciated each word coolly, and crossed her arms over her chest.

I was secretly elated that she was standing her ground. It made me hope against hope that the road back to the old Em wouldn’t be super long and twisted.

“Not a seizure. He was reacting to the breathing tube and all the lines we have running into him. He’s in a lot of pain, and all that thrashing around isn’t good for that bullet still stuck inside of him.” The doctor looked at the brothers. “His situation is still critical but this is a big step in the right direction.”

Lane looked down at the ground and sighed deeply, while I could feel Cy dip his chin down in acknowledgement. “Let us know how we can help, Doc.”

“Don’t give up on him yet. They build cowboys tough out here. I have faith your brother will pull through.”

We all turned to look at the nurse, who had been scowling at us after Em’s outburst, as she poked her head out of the door and interrupted our little party.

“He’s trying to say something, but he can’t talk around the breathing tube. It’s agitating him, do you think we should pull it?”

The doctor shook his head. “No. I don’t want to move anything until we get that last shard out of his back. If it hits his spine we could be looking at a whole new problem. Get him something to write with or give him a phone and see if he can type out a message on that. Frankly, I’m stunned he has so much fight in him after the blood loss and the trauma to his body.”

Lane snorted. “He’s a stubborn bastard.”

There was movement around the bed, and without warning, a phone beeped. Cy looked at Lane. “I came from the middle of the forest with him in the helicopter. I haven’t seen my cell phone in a month.”

Lane pulled a phone out of his pocket and read over what was on the screen. He frowned, looked at me and then at Emrys, before silently handing the cell over. “Keep in mind he’s been through hell and has God only knows what kind of drugs pumping through his system right now.”

Em gasped and the phone fell from her fingers, as she dropped it like the device was covered in shards of glass. Lucky, Cy had quick reflexes and managed to move forward and grab the device before it hit the tiled floor. Em put her hands to her face and turned her back on all of us as she slowly started to make her way back down the hallway toward her room.