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“Not the hospital.” Her voice was just above a whisper now.
I shook my head. “The hospital came to us,” I told her. Something she would understand soon.
My keeping this from her until I thought she was ready had almost gotten her killed. I should have trusted she’d not leave me. I should have told her the fucking truth before. She would know soon.
“He shot them,” she said as she looked at me. “I didn’t see it. But I heard it.”
I nodded. The guys hadn’t known how much she’d heard. It didn’t matter now. The family was not going to be a secret I kept from her any longer.
“And I will answer every question you have for me. I swear it. But first, I need you to heal. Rest. Let me take care of you.”
She said nothing for a moment and stared at me, only blinking slowly. “I thought I was going to die,” she said.
If someone had taken a fucking knife and sliced open my chest, it would have hurt less than hearing her say that.
I swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “I won’t let that happen.”
She looked down at my hand holding hers. “That wasn’t the first time they’d killed someone.”
She had heard it all.
“No, it wasn’t.”
When she finally lifted her eyes back to mine, she gave me a weak smile. “And you’re the boss.”
Thirty-Two
Madeline
Blaise looked like he hadn’t slept in days. He was looking at me like he would do anything I asked. There was pain and relief in his eyes. It wasn’t clear, everything that had happened, but pieces were coming to me as I looked at him.
“I’m going to let the nurse know you’re awake and get the doctor here,” he said.
“Sax?” I asked, remembering he had been there. Outside the restroom.
“He’s fine physically. Mentally though, he’s beating himself up. There was another door to the restroom. It went into an employee entrance. He didn’t know you had been taken or hurt until he waited eight minutes, then went in after you. You were gone, but he saw the blood. He called me immediately.”
I sighed in relief. He was okay. I hadn’t been the cause of him getting hurt.
He let my hand go and pulled out his phone. I listened to him tell someone I was awake and that Carmichael needed to get back. Once he was done, he put his phone away and reached for my hand again.
“My head doesn’t hurt like it did,” I told him. There was still a throbbing, but it was nothing compared to what it had been.
“You’re on pain meds,” he replied with a small grin that didn’t meet his eyes.
“They’re good ones,” I told him, and this time, he laughed. I liked hearing him laugh.
“It wasn’t a coincidence was it?” I asked him, realizing that his fear had been for a reason.
He hadn’t simply wanted me to be careful. He’d known something.
“What?” he asked me.
“When I was lying there, tied up, in pain, I thought it was odd.” I paused and swallowed. My mouth was dry.
Blaise moved and held a straw up to my mouth. “Small sips,” he told me.
I wanted to suck it all down, but I did as he’d said. When I was finished, he took the cup and set it back beside the bed.
