Page 26 of Sinful Lord

You were too late, I tell myself. You got too cute. You should have broken down the door of that bar she worked in and dragged her somewhere safe the second you knew she was there. Instead, you let the city take her. You let the cold win. Never again.

When I lay her down in the hospital bed, a part of me stays with her. But all I can do is step back and let the doctors get to work.

I wish I could fix her up myself, but I’m better at making wounds than mending them.

“Will she be alright?” I ask a doctor, pulling him into the hallway outside.

“She should be,” he says. “She’s just in shock. Something has invaded her system and it’s not mixing well with the hypothermia. But we’ll reheat that frozen blood of hers. Get some warm fluids into her veins. And make sure she’s back on her feet in no time.”

My relief is palpable.

“Thank you,” I nod. Looking back into the hospital room, I watch as the nurses stick her pale skin with needles.

The sight makes me flinch. She doesn’t deserve this.

Slowly, my fury is allowed to return. Now that I know she’s going to be okay, I can get angry.

“What happened to her?” the doctor asks.

“I don’t know,” I sneer. “But I’m going to find out.”

“Well, the sooner you do, the better. We should know what drugs she took before—”

My mind goes blank at the accusation. Suddenly, my hand is around the doctor’s throat and I’m pinning him against the wall.

“She’s not a junkie,” I growl. “If there are drugs in her system then it’s because someone forced them into her.”

The doctor’s eyes bulge with terror. “I… I’m sorry. I didn’t… I didn’t mean to imply that she was an addict,” he chokes. “I… I just need to know everything… in order to treat her properly… I need to know everything that happened…”

“Fuck,” I grunt.

The moment I let go of the doctor’s throat, he slides down the wall and lets out a deep gasp.

“I’ll find out what happened,” I tell him. “I fucking promise you that. Until then, what else can I do?”

He’s still struggling for air when I reach a hand down to help him up. He hesitates to accept my help, but I’m not exactly in a patient fucking mood, so I reach down, grab him by the collar, and pull him up myself.

“You… you can make sure she rests,” he sputters, his pale cheeks slowly regaining color. “No big surprises over the next few weeks. And definitely no wrestling matches.”

I keep my fingers tied tight around his lab coat

“What is that supposed to mean?” I growl.

“Are… Are you her boyfriend? Brother? Or—”

“I’m her guardian,” I interrupt, immediately regretting it. But not because I don’t think it’s true—rather, because it only highlights how badly I’ve fucked up.

If I’m actually Mel’s guardian, then I failed to protect her. There’s no point in taking that anger out on this guy.

I let the doctor go again and he lets out a sigh of relief. But my rage only grows as I glare back into the hospital room. It’s a chaotic scene. A team of nurses rush to save the girl I’ve prematurely claimed.

But clearly, she isn’t mine yet. Because no one in this world is foolish enough to knowingly fuck with what’s mine.

I’m going to have to change that, and it starts punishing those responsible for this.

“Make sure to keep me updated on her condition,” I tell the doctor. I’m already too restless to stick around. This wrong won’t right itself, and, like the good doctor said, there’s nothing I can do now but let Mel rest.

Grabbing the notebook and pen protruding out of his lab coat, I scribble down the number to one of my burner phones, as well as an encrypted email address I only use for personal matters.