Page 103 of Midnight Racers

I punched Martin’s ugly face until my knuckles hurt and he was barely recognisable. Then, I slit his throat and stepped back as he bled out.

Charlotte was mine alone to protect, and I left Martin’s body as a warning to any man who ever thought to lay a finger on her silken flesh. I walked away from the death in this house, knowing my men would cleanse it away, because I finally had something to live for.

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Chapter Thirty-One

Charlotte

When I was five, I fell off my bike and knocked a tooth out.

When I was ten, I tumbled out of a tree and gave myself concussion.

When I was twenty, I got knocked down by a car on a test run that didn’t see me and broke my leg.

I had no idea what happened me, but I had never felt so rough in my entire life. A groan escaped my lungs and I tentatively put a hand to my head to see if it was still attached to my shoulders.

It was, unfortunately, and throbbing with pain. I began to slowly take stock of my arms and legs. I think there was an area on my left side that didn’t have pain. I tried to move again and discovered that my body had lied to me and there was pain in that area.

One eyeball at a time, I managed to open my eyes that felt like they were stuck together with a heavy weight sitting on them. The room was too bright and my mouth was drier than the bottom of an iguana’s cage covered in sand and shit.

A rhythmic beeping sounded somewhere to my left, and cool air blew up my nose. I tried to remember what happened, but all my memories seemed to be layered on top of each other in a cryptic mosaic that refused to come into focus.

I stared at the ceiling and took shallow breaths as my ribs felt like someone had danced Riverdance on them before leaving me lying here.

“Charlotte?” I knew that voice. “Are you awake?”

“Mum?” I rasped out through my dry lips, my throat sore and scratchy.

Her face appeared above me. “I’ll get a nurse,” she said.

I shook my head slowly, my hand reaching for her. “What—” I tried to swallow. “Happened?”

She pushed my hair back from my face. “We were in a car accident.”

I couldn’t remember a car accident. The pain I was in agreed with her story. I winced when I tried to turn toward her. The blankets on the other side of the bed held me static.

“You need to stop moving, hunni. The doctor said you were lucky you had your seatbelt on and that the airbags deployed. Nothing is broken, but that doesn’t mean you’re not injured.” She lifted something from beside me on the bed, and the door opened a few seconds later, a nurse joining her at the side of the bed.

“Let’s make you more comfortable,” the nurse said, fussing over me, and bringing a jug of iced water over.

It burned the back of my throat in the best possible way as I gulped it through a straw.

“Not too much, or you’ll be sick.” She smiled down at me. “Now I’m going to go and get the doctor so he can check you over.”

I tried to push myself up, but my right hand landed on something and I snatched it away. The something started to move and morphed into a person, one with black hair and deep green eyes. My mouth dried up again for a different reason and the heart monitor gave me away as my pulse raced.

“Hey.” He looked exhausted, like he hadn’t slept for days. “You finally decide to wake up?”

“She was trying to push herself up,” Mum said.

Flynn unfolded himself from the uncomfortable-looking chair and loomed over me, his hands sliding under my arms to lift me effortlessly up the bed. He looked exhausted, but smelt divine as my face brushed against the soft fabric of his T-shirt.

“You look great,” he said, tucking my hair behind my ears.

“Liar,” I whispered.

He shrugged one shoulder, that half smile making butterflies emerge in my stomach. “Never.”

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