Page 59 of Midnight Salvation

“Why did you text me tonight?”

That was an entirely different story, and since Jordan’s clean-up crew had arrived in the background, not one I was about to start. “It’s a long story, but I did it to protect you.”

Her gaze moved to the dead men being moved into the back of a black van. “Why should I trust you?”

“Because there is no one else you can trust right now. I’ll explain everything later, but right now I need you to allow me to protect you.”

“Dad will kill me for climbing out the window.” Her head dropped and her fingers of her right hand clenched and unclenched repeatedly.

I stood up and held my hand out to her. Over the past few times we’d met, she had started to relax around me, and I hoped that it was enough for her to take a leap of faith.

“Okay, but you’ll need to explain all this to Dad and that it’s not my fault that you don’t want to marry me.” She took my hand and allowed me to pull her up. The expression in her eyes was filled with fear and I hauled her into a hug instinctively.

Nicole stiffened before she relaxed. “This isn’t really appropriate, considering that you are already married,” she pointed out with a nervous laugh.

“Zee, can you take Nicole in your car? I don’t think she likes my driving.”

“Yeah, no worries, man. I don’t blame her.”

Since my brothers were safely beyond Dad’s reach, and we’d started a war, I allowed myself the luxury of leaning into the wall for some support. I’d spent enough time trying to sort out the assholes in my family. Right now, the only place I wanted to be was with my wife.

I’d tried to ignore the nagging worry that they hadn’t gotten the Prussian blue into her in time, but now that my mind was empty of every other problem, that fear came back full force. An overwhelming terror threatened to consume me with the very real possibility that my wife could be taken from me by the one enemy I couldn’t fight. Death.

***

Chapter Eighteen

Lucrezia

The room door burst open and the doctor strode in with two nurses. He gave me two tablets to swallow while one of the nurses started taking blood tests, the other recording my pulse and temperature.

Marigold threw me a troubled look at all the activity in our room.

“There’s nothing to worry about,” I tried to reassure her. “I keep being told that the antibiotics will help with the infection.”

The doctor glanced away for a moment and put a second pair of gloves on before he examined my wound. “I made a liquid version of the tablet up,” he informed me. “I’ve no idea if it’ll work in the same way, but it can’t hurt.” He injected something into my drip.

“Do you know what’s wrong with me?” I asked.

His tight smile did little to reassure me. “Ash sent me some information tonight and asked me to administer this medication as a precaution.”

“For what?” Marigold demanded and grabbed my hand.

“We’re running tests now and I can let you know when we get the results from them,” he replied evasively. It did little to reassure me. “In the meantime, drink plenty of fluids.”

I slumped back on the bed after they’d left because I was exhausted by just trying to breathe.

“I’m glad Ashton finally found someone to love,” Marigold said in idle conversation. “For a moment I thought he was going to marry Nicole. She seems lovely, but almost vacant.”

A smile ghosted over my lips. “He’s very hard to say no to when he gets a notion in his head. I fell in love with Ash when I was fifteen, and no matter how much I tried to forget him, no other man interested me. It is the curse of our family.”

“Love is only a curse when it is turned against you,” Marigold replied. “Once you feel it for someone, it doesn’t matter if they never know, it will always exist inside you.”

Marigold stood up and fussed around me with my pillows before pouring me a glass of iced water. Even trying to sip the drink felt too much, but I didn’t want to upset her. She seemed like a genuinely nice person and if Ash brought her here, he trusted her.

“What was Ash like as a child?” I asked in an attempt to take my mind off my current problem.

She smiled and sat back in her chair. “Quiet and serious. He was a grownup even as a baby.” She paused. “Ash is the best person in our family, and to this day I don’t know how he turned out the way he has with a father like Matteus.”

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