Page 24 of Black Hearts
“Tired,” she said. “No matter how much sleep I get, I’m still so tired.”
That meant she’d been awake before. I made a mental note to scold Jaxon for keeping the update from me. Still, Juliet was awake, and I couldn’t have been more relieved. “But you’re alive,” I reminded her. “You’ll probably feel tired for a while. Your body’s been through quite a shock.” If getting stabbed was what you’d call a shock, that was. I certainly would call it that.
We were on the phone for a while. I didn’t ask about what happened, didn’t poke, didn’t prod. I’d already heard enough from Jaxon about that. I simply let her talk about whatever it was she wanted to, whether that was her conversation with the police or how tired she was of the hospital food.
Juliet quieted after that, and it looked like she was lost in thought. She bit her bottom lip, and I could tell something was on her mind. Turned out, I didn’t need to ask, because after another minute of silence, she asked, “What’s going to happen, Theo? That man—”
“The one who gave you back to your father?” She nodded. “Johnathan.”
“Johnathan,” she corrected herself. “He wasn’t… I can see why Markus is why he is, but I—I don’t know if I want to come back to the house if he’s still there.” Her trepidation was evident, and she almost looked like she wanted to be sick, just talking about it.
“I understand, and I don’t blame you.” I rubbed the side of my face with my free hand, thinking it over. “It’s probably not smart for you to come back here, anyway. Not yet. I don’t know how Johnathan will react to you coming back with the others.”
“And Markus?” She waited a moment to add, “Jaxon won’t let me call him.”
So Jaxon was doing a little bit of gatekeeping? Not surprising, considering what Markus tried to do before this whole Johnathan mess. Hell, I hadn’t even spoken to Markus since they’d left to go after Juliet, and the man himself had steered clear of me in the house. It was almost like he punished himself for what he’d done by keeping himself in the dark on this whole thing.
I decided to tell her the truth: “I don’t know how Markus is, or what he’s doing. We haven’t really spoken since… since before Johnathan arrived.” I didn’t want to tell her the last time I’d spoken with him was when I’d gone to him in a fit of rage and indignation after he’d barely stopped Lincoln from raping her.
I still couldn’t wrap my mind around that whole situation. Like, what the hell was he thinking?
Juliet appeared sad, but she didn’t push it. “I wish things could go back to the way they were.” To say she sounded wistful would be the year’s biggest understatement, I think. As she said it, I couldn’t help but wonder just when exactly she was pinpointing the time she wanted to go back to. As far as I knew, her time in the house had never really been calm, and as far as our relationship went, we’d only come together recently, after the whole ordeal with Markus and Lincoln.
But maybe that wasn’t quite what she meant.
“Hopefully someday soon things will calm down,” I reassured her, though I knew I could make no promises of such. It was my turn to ask a question. “You really want to come back to this house, after everything?”
“I do,” she whispered, eyes pleading with me. “Bad things might happen there, but… but it’s home.” There was a pause before Juliet added, “You’re all home to me.” Me, Jaxon, Will, and even Bennet; we were home to her.
And who could forget Markus? The man who had her brought here to begin with, the man who entangled us all with Juliet without meaning to. He’d wanted her for himself, and his scheming had backfired spectacularly.
My eyes darted to the door. I was alone here, yet that didn’t stop me from lowering my voice to a hushed whisper when I said, “I can try to get him out of here. I don’t think he’ll go unless the house bands together and tells him to fuck off, to quote Bennet.” Somewhere in the room with Juliet, I heard Bennet huff and swear at me. Inside, I knew what that meant, too, what had to happen in order for Johnathan to leave the house once more.
Markus had to lead the charge, which meant I had to talk to him and fill him in. Granted, it was something I should’ve done before, but the selfish part of me had won out these past few days.
“Be careful,” Juliet said. The emotion in her azure stare trapped me, and I wanted so badly to reach into the phone and touch her cheek, pull her close to me and feel those lips on mine once more. Feel her body breathe against mine, her sweet, soft sighs filling my ears. I would give anything to have her here with me again. I’d do anything.
“I will. You need to focus on getting better. Can you do that for me?” I gave her a soft smile.
She matched my smile with one of her own. “Yes.”
“I love you.”As much as I wanted to continue to stare at her beautiful face, I knew I couldn’t, so I hung up the phone after telling her, “Call me later. Get some sleep.” I set my phone down on my desk, staring at it for a while.
Try and try as I might, I just couldn’t stop myself from falling in love with that girl. Regardless of how many times Markus had warned me, had warned this entire household that Juliet was off-limits, I’d fallen for her still. Being with her, talking to her, listening to her and trying to help her see how wrong everything Fred had done to her was had only helped fuel the fire.
It was like Juliet had caught me on a web. Like I’d strolled right into it, wholly unsuspecting and oblivious, believing I could follow Markus’s orders without question. The tables had turned a long time ago.
And now here I was, about to scheme with the house to try to get Johnathan out of here, keeping Markus in the dark on purpose. The old me would’ve been shocked and flabbergasted at the current Theodore Ward.
I grabbed my phone and got up. After sliding it into my pocket, I left my office, in search of one particular person—and that person wasn’t Markus. Not yet. He was on my list of people to visit, but he’d come last. First, I had to talk to the woman keeping tabs on everyone in the house, making sure everything ran smoothly while Markus was off brooding because the elder Scott was here.
I found Ed in the kitchen, working on tonight’s dinner. He was the best cook in the house by a longshot, and I think the only thing he enjoyed doing more than cooking was killing. Actually, I wasn’t sure which one he liked better, and I wasn’t going to ask him.
Ed’s blond head was dipped low as he measured ingredients, but the moment I walked in, he glanced up at me. “Doc,” he said, giving me an easy grin as his blue gaze twinkled. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” He stopped, rubbing his hands on the apron tied around his waist.
“I was looking for Stella. Any ideas where she is?” This house was so huge, it would take me forever to go room by room by myself. The kitchen was the closest to my office; the other place I’d check next would be her bedroom.
“Uh, if she’s not in her room, she’s probably out by the pool,” Ed told me. “She’s hated being in this house ever since the old man came back. Can’t say I blame her. He might be the one who agreed to take me in, but…” His shoulders went up and down once. “Let’s just say I have no love for the man. I’d much rather have Markus tell me what to do than him.”
