CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Jude gained a gradual awareness of pain. He couldn’t pinpoint its location exactly, but it was a pretty good indication that he was still alive.
He opened his eyes, blinking a few times as he tried to take in his surroundings. The room was dimly lit, and judging from the beeps and hisses he was hearing, he figured he must be in the hospital.
Without moving, he took stock of his body as his mind fed him bits and pieces of what had led to him being in the hospital.
Jim… He’d somehow found them.
Jude remembered telling Angela to drop so that he could shoot the man, but had he been successful in protecting her?
Fear shot through him as he tried to remember if he'd seen Angela hurt. The memories were fragmented—the explosion of glass, the burning pain in his shoulder and side, Angela's screams.
Had she been shot too?
He tried to sit up, but pain lanced through his chest and shoulder, forcing him back against the pillow with a grunt. The movement sent fire down his left arm and made his vision blur at the edges.
"Easy there."
The familiar voice made Jude turn his head, though the motion sent another wave of pain through his skull. Duncan sat in a chair beside the hospital bed, looking like he hadn't slept in days. His usually immaculate appearance was rumpled, his tie loose and his shirt wrinkled.
"Angela," Jude managed, his voice coming out as a rasp. His throat felt like sandpaper. "Is she—"
"She's fine. Thanks to you, she’s just fine.”
Relief flooded through Jude so powerfully that his eyes slipped closed for a moment.
"Thank you, God," he whispered.
When he opened his eyes again, Duncan was leaning forward in his chair, studying him with the intense focus Jude had seen him use in boardrooms and crisis situations.
"Jim?" Jude's voice sounded foreign to his own ears, hoarse and weak.
"Dead." Duncan's expression was grim but satisfied. "You got him with two shots to the chest. He died at the scene."
The knot of tension in Jude's chest loosened slightly. Jim would never hurt Angela again. Never take her from her family. Never again make her live in fear.
"How long?" Jude tried to shift position and immediately regretted it as pain shot through his shoulder and down his arm.
"Two days. You've been in and out of consciousness, though mostly out. The doctors had to remove a bullet from your shoulder and another from your side. They said you’d lost a lot of blood."
Jude's hand moved instinctively toward his shoulder, but the IV line in his arm pulled taut. The movement sent a sharp reminder through his body that he wasn't going anywhere soon.
"Where is she now?" He needed to see Angela, needed to confirm with his own eyes that she was truly unharmed.
"Getting some coffee. She hasn't left the hospital since we arrived." Duncan's expression softened slightly. "She's been beside herself with worry. I had to practically force her to go eat something."
The thought of Angela sitting vigil beside his bed while he was unconscious made something warm unfold in Jude's chest, despite the pain radiating through his shoulder. She'd stayed. She'd waited for him to wake up.
"The doctors said that if Angela hadn't applied pressure to the wound when she did…"
Duncan didn't finish the sentence, but Jude understood. Angela had saved his life.
The memory came back in fragments—her hands pressed against his chest, her voice fierce and determined as she told him about their future together. The kiss. Brief as it had been, he could still feel the soft warmth of her lips against his.
He was a bit surprised that this event hadn’t frightened her off. It was the worst-case scenario.
“Also, I’ve managed to keep your mom at bay with frequent updates, but she wants to fly out to see you.”
Jude nodded, not surprised at all by that. This was his mom’s worst fear come to life. He just hoped she didn’t blame Angela for what had happened, since he’d been protecting her when the attack had occurred.
Had he been protecting her, though? Or had he been too distracted by her—trusting that being alone with her in nature would be protection enough?
“Everything is fine, Jude,” Duncan said, his voice firm but understanding. “You did what you were supposed to do.”
“I didn’t see him coming,” Jude confessed.
“We had no reason to think he was in the area.”
“I don’t like that he got the jump on us. If he managed to spot me, I should have spotted him.”
“We found his vehicle,” Duncan said. “He’d parked a little way from where you and Angela were. When they searched it, they found a package of GPS trackers with a couple missing. We searched our vehicles and found two had trackers on them. One of them was the vehicle you were driving.”
“How did he get trackers on the vehicles?”
“We think that he may have spotted Kiara or Annie in Serenity and put trackers on the vehicles they were using.”
Jude realized that was very possible. When Kiara and Lucy had gone into the library and bookstore in Serenity, Jim might have seen their vehicle and planted something.
It irked Jude that Jim had outsmarted him. At least to the point where he’d managed to shoot Jude twice right off the hop.
Jude wanted to take credit for having killed Jim. But the reality was that he’d struggled to free his gun and then to lift it to aim. Some might say it was a rush of adrenaline that had helped him.
Jude, however, believed his strength had come from God. In that moment, he’d sent up one simple prayer. Please, God, help me protect Angela.
And it seemed that God had answered that plea.
The door to the room swung open, and Jude turned his head on the pillow in time to see Angela step into the room, a cup in her hand. Even in the dim light, he could see her face light up.
“Jude!”
She hurried into the room, handing the cup off to Duncan before rushing to Jude’s side. “How are you feeling? Are you in pain?”
“A little, but I’m okay, all things considered.”
She leaned over and pressed her forehead to his. “I was so worried.”
Mindful of the IV, Jude lifted his hand and gripped the back of her neck, holding her close as he breathed in her familiar scent
"Thank God you're alive," she whispered, her breath warm against his cheek. "I don't know what I would have done if—"
"I'm okay," Jude assured her, though the pain radiating through his shoulder and side told a different story. "Thanks to you."
Angela pulled back slightly, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. She looked exhausted, with dark circles under her eyes, and her normally neat hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail.
Duncan cleared his throat. "I think I'll go make some calls, let everyone know you're awake. I’ll also try to keep the nurses out for a few more minutes.”
Jude was grateful when his boss stepped out of the room, leaving him alone with Angela.
The moment the door closed, Angela straightened, then carefully perched on the edge of the bed, taking his hand in hers.
“Thank you,” she said, giving him a smile that momentarily energized her tired features.
“For what?”
“You saved my life. If you hadn’t shot Jim, he would have dragged me off again.”
“You did your part though,” Jude said. “You used what we taught you, and then you did what I told you to. I said drop, and you dropped. I couldn’t have protected you if you hadn’t done that.”
“I’m just glad it’s over,” she said, then frowned. “It is over, right?”
“I don’t have any details on what’s happening with Craig, but as far as Jim is concerned, it’s over.”
Angela’s relief was palpable. “I’ve prayed that the situation would come to a resolution so that we could move forward with our lives, but I didn’t imagine this would be the way it ended.”
“Me, either,” Jude agreed.
“I wish you didn’t have to get hurt in order for that to happen.”
“I’m glad it was me and not you.”
Angela frowned. “Well, I wish it was me and not you.”
The very idea made Jude feel sick. In his mind, their roles being reversed would have been the worst possible outcome.
“Let’s just accept how it happened and move forward.”
He could see that Angela wanted to argue with him. But in the end, she nodded.
His memories from that time in the truck wouldn’t leave him alone, but not all of them were bad. Things had been said that couldn’t just be ignored.
“So, if I recall, you proposed to me while I was half out of my mind in the truck.”
Angela’s eyes widened, then narrowed. “No. Something must be wrong with your hearing. I believe I told you that you’d be proposing to me.”
“Are you sure?”
“Very,” she said with a decisive nod.
“And you have no part in what’s supposed to happen?”
A small smile crossed Angela’s face. “I had a small part.”
“A small part?” he asked. “And what part was that?”
She shrugged a shoulder. “The part where I said yes. So you see, it’s a small part. Just one word. You have to say four.”
Jude chuckled, then inhaled sharply at the pain that streaked through his chest. “Well, I must say, from my perspective, that even though it’s a small role, it’s the most important one.”
Angela wrapped both hands around his. “I guess we both have an important role to play in that little scene.”
“Did you have an idea of when you want this performance to occur?”
Angela’s thumbs brushed across his hand. “Sooner rather than later, perhaps.”
Jude’s heart thumped heavily against his ribs. “Really?”
He wasn’t sure that her definition of sooner was the same as his. Sooner rather than later to him was more like a matter of weeks, if not days. Given how much younger she was than him, her definition might be in months. If not longer.
“I know that might seem like I’m rushing things, but when you know, you know.” She shrugged. “And this whole… incident has shown that life can end at a moment’s notice. I already know that I want a life with you. I love you, Jude.”
The words she spoke—this time without the pressure of life-threatening circumstances—resonated deep within Jude. He understood what she meant.