Page 54 of A Man of Power

“Alexis? Are you OK?” he asks, his voice laced with concern. “Shit, I shouldn’t be telling you these things yet. You need to rest.”

My thigh suddenly hurts, and I reach down to feel a scratch.

“I thought she said…” I trail off as I raise my hospital gown to look at the inside of my thigh. “Is that a word? What is that?”

Sebastian bats my hand away and covers me back up. “It’s just a scratch. You need to rest. Lie back down. We can talk more after you rest.”

I want to talk more now but I comply because I know he won’t take no for an answer. Sebastian sits back down next to me and grips my hand again in his. He draws lazy circles on the back of it with his thumb as I slowly drift to sleep. I swear I hear him say that he loves me, but then sleep pulls me under.

The next time I wake, I hear another man’s voice. My eyes fly open to find Conner Sterling standing next to Sebastian. They are whispering.

“Sleeping beauty is awake,” Conner says with a smile.

Chapter23

Sebastian

I lookover to find Alexis staring at us.

Conner has stopped in twice now. The first time was to tell me that he may have cracked open one of the mysteries in our search. He has been trying to figure out how the drugs from Confervo’s Geneva lab are getting here. But he needs to do more research. He thinks they may be coming in on ships, but he hasn’t found anything conclusive yet.

Conner has always been the edgy tattooed bad boy of our group. He’s the one that looks the part. No one ever wants to cross him and that’s not just because his father is a shipping mogul that is also part of the brotherhood’s elders. Conner is savvy as fuck. He’s ten times smarter than anyone gives him credit for, which lets him overhear many things he shouldn’t. It’s his secret weapon, and I have zero doubts he’ll figure this out.

I walk back over to my little dove and feel her cheek. She looks better after a few hours of sleep. The color is back in her face.

“How are you feeling?” I ask.

Her tongue darts out to lick her dry lips. Shit, her toiletries that Erin brought.

“Better.” She looks past me to the door to the bathroom and then down at the IV in her arm.

“Hold on, I’ll call a nurse,” I state as I press the call button next to her bed.

Dr. Farley walks in and looks at us. I can tell from her face that something isn’t right.

“Everything OK?” I ask.

She quickly changes her frown to a smile. “Yes. We’re going to run a little more bloodwork, just to be cautious, but overall, your numbers look good. I’m going to discharge you but I do want you to follow up with your regular physician as soon as you can.”

“Why? What’s wrong with my bloodwork?” Alexis asks.

“It may have just gotten contaminated, which isn’t typical but can happen. We just saw some chemical compounds that aren’t normal. I want to make sure we get a clean read on it, but it’s nothing that’s alarming and everything else seems fine.”

“What chemical compounds?” I ask, stepping forward. Dr. Farley looks at Conner and me nervously.

“I…let’s just run the additional bloodwork. I’m going to grab a fresh sample right now and then we can get this IV out. You can clean up and we’ll get you discharged,” she says with a tight smile. Fucking hospital privacy rules.

Conner gives me a look and I know he’s thinking what I am. What are those chemicals? I have a sneaking suspicion that we may already know, and I don’t like it.

“I’ll give you some privacy,” Conner says as he looks at us. “I hope you feel better, Alexis.”

“Thanks,” she says with a small smile as he leaves, the doctor takes her sample and leaves us as well after a nurse comes in to remove the IV and provide discharge papers. She helps Alexis to the bathroom so she can change.

“I got it from here,” I assure her.

She gives me a look and rolls her eyes as she walks out of the room and shuts the door. I hear something fall in the bathroom and I throw the door open. Alexis clutches her hospital gown to her chest. I look around and find a hairbrush on the floor. I reach down and pick it up.

“Here,” I say softly as I grab a sweatshirt from the bag Erin dropped off.

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