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“You fucking cunt.” Spit flies from his mouth, but he halts, mid-swing, as a voice abruptly shouts out, “Stop!”
My heart skips a beat as I try to look around the men to see if my eyes can confirm what my ears are telling me, unsure if it’s who I think it is or not.
“Don’t fucking look at him,” Miller growls and tries to block my view as he stands there with his arms crossed, but the man belonging to the voice pushes his way through the men.
“Daddy?” I can’t help the word that leaves my mouth and the sob that follows as I completely break down. I give myself permission to be weak and vulnerable for the moment, but under any other circumstances, I would have done my damnedest to maintain control.
“Fucking hell, what have you assholes done to my daughter? I told you to capture and detain, not beat the shit out of them.” Dad hurries toward me, the bright red blood blotch across the front of his white shirt as noticeable as ever, providing a shocking reminder of what I thought had happened. He undoes the shackles holding my arms and legs down before pulling me into his arms.
“I thought I’d killed you,” I murmur around a mouthful of tears, blood, and snot, adding to the mess on his white shirt. “There was blood, a lot of fucking blood, and then I couldn’t see you. I… I thought you were dead.”
“Oh, baby, I’m sorry. I didn’t play fair, did I? I set you up. I rigged up a blood pack under my shirt like they use in the movies. I thought if you saw the blood that you would be sloppy and get caught, I just didn’t think it would go quite this far.” Dad pushes strands of hair that escaped my ponytail back from my face as he scans it. His eyebrows are pinched together, and a frown completes the look of a devastated father who’s seeing his broken and bruised daughter.
“Did he say daughter?” I hear one of them ask, but I don’t hear the response because Dad tries to help me up, and I scream in pain because every bone in my body hurts. Fuck maintaining control and trying to be brave right now.
“Theseus, get me a medic, she needs to see a doctor.” My uncle must be somewhere behind the others, because I hear him shout for medical assistance. Dad leans in, gently picks me up into his arms, and carries me out of the interrogation room. I pant heavily, closing my eyes and clenching my jaw as I breathe through the burning ache throbbing heavily throughout my body.
“Are you going to explain what’s going on?” Dayton asks my dad tersely.
“Not another fucking word from any of you until I have made sure my daughter doesn’t have internal bleeding, or worse,” my dad snaps in response.
When he gets to the corridor, there’s a gurney and medical staff waiting to fuss over me. I’m whisked away to one of the hospital rooms deep below the surface inside the Lighthouse, where I’m poked and prodded and sent off for various scans to make sure that nothing is broken or hemorrhaging from my fall down the stairs. They confirm my nose is broken and my cheek is fractured from Miller’s hits. The doctor shifts my nose back into place and tapes it, shoving some cotton packing up my nostrils to keep it aligned.
“Well, this is just delightful,” I grumble, sounding like I’m congested as I’m brought back into the room in a wheelchair and helped up onto the hospital bed.
Dad sniggers but winces with sympathy as he takes in the state of my face. The doctors hook me up to a drip with some painkiller in it, and I lean back on the pillow and close my eyes. I know I look like shit. Both of my eyes are black and swollen from having my nose broken, not to mention the first hit I took from Miller. I can’t believe that asshole hit me even though he knew I hadn’t killed my dad… or maybe they were just as surprised to see him as I was, and I just wasn’t paying attention.
“Sweetie, I’m so sorry. I told them to catch and detain, but I guess they thought my death was real and took it out on you, disobeying my direct orders.”
I try to lift my hand to wave him off, but I can’t lift it high enough without it aching, so I drop it back down. “Don’t worry about it, Dad. I totally would have done the same thing if the roles were reversed.” My words start to slur, and I try to widen my eyes. “What did they give me?” I try to tug the drip out of my arm. I thought it was just a painkiller, but it must have a sedative in it as well.
Dad reaches out to stop me then runs his hand over my head, pushing my hair back in a soothing gesture. “Don’t fight it, Kenzie, just rest, and we’ll talk about your new team when you get up.” His words register, and I try to fight the sedative.
“You cheated,” I slur, but my eyes close as his chuckles reach my ears.
“Yes, yes I did. You shouldn’t have underestimated what I would do to get what I wanted. I’m the boss for a reason.”
His words echo in my ears as my mind slowly fades to black.
* * *
The first thing that registers as I wake up is how badly my body hurts. What the fuck did I do to it? Groaning, I try to roll over, but something stops me. Opening my eyes, I groan again. That’s right, I fell down some stairs and then got punched in the face—twice. I squint at the bag attached to the tube in my arm and find the damn thing empty. I guess the drugs have worn off. Thank fuck. Trying to sit up in bed, I look around the room to locate a buzzer to call someone to help me, but I lock eyes with the black-haired, blue-eyed, bespectacled sexy nerd, Lathan Campbell.
“Great, just what I need, a witness to my humiliation,” I grumble as I still struggle to sit up. He doesn’t react to my movements or comment, just reaches for his phone and calls someone like a good little soldier.
“She’s awake,” he says to whoever is on the other end and then hangs up. No expression shows on his face, but he does run a hand over his stubbled jaw. I’m not sure what he sees, but he sighs and puts his laptop down before standing up and walking over to me.
He reaches out to help me, and I study his hand like it’s going to bite me, not trusting him one bit. He sighs again, a bit more dramatically.
“Just let me help you, Kensington.”
I look up, and his face is still expressionless, but there’s something in his eyes, probably guilt, that’s practically begging me to accept his assistance, so I take hold of his hand, and he slowly helps me into a sitting position before putting a pillow behind me to help keep me propped up. He leans over me, and I catch a whiff of something delicious as he presses the buzzer for the nurse before he straightens up.
He doesn’t say another word as he goes back to his chair, and I wait for the medical staff to come check on me.
“Where’s my dad?” I ask him, not liking the loaded silence sitting between us.
“He had a meeting he couldn’t get out of, but he should be on his way.” My dad must have been the one he called. Thank fuck it wasn’t anyone else from Team Basilisk.
