I was barely lucid when a second agent smashed out the Buick’s front window to replicate the outcome of someone being ejected from a vehicle on impact. Proof of this was displayed in the worst light when I let out a shocked giggle about them dumping one of Maddox’s running shoes partway between our wreckage and him to authenticate their ruse. It was sadistic of me, and it has me worried I’m more like my uncle than perceived, but I was so dazed and confused, I couldn’t hold it back.
I was also grateful Maddox was alert enough after our accident that they had to subdue him with a sedative. He was alive. It was only his heart Agent Machini was determined to destroy.
“H-How did she know we w-were going to run?” I ask when the complexity of the situation dawns on me. This wasn’t an on-the-whim ruse. It was a thoughtfully hatched plan.
The blond agent’s lips tuck at one side. “Macy has a way of reading people. She knows what they’re thinking long before the words have left their mouths.” He drops his eyes to mine. They’re full of cockiness, but there’s also a gleam to them that makes me feel safe. “After speaking with you both, she knew the instant you saw each other again, those hooks would sink back in.”
“S-She spoke with Maddox?”
He gestures his hand to a rusted car parked halfway up the dirt road we’re walking before notching up his chin.
I wet my lips with the hope it will ease out my words before asking, “What did h-he say?”
The agent assists me into the passenger seat of the car he pointed at, jogs around the hood, slips into the driver’s seat, then hands me a cap. Once I have it covering my throbbing skull, he mutters, “It’s just one of those days.”
The knowledge that Maddox agreed with Agent Machini’s plans won’t remove the frantic screams he released while endeavoring to free me from the wreckage from my head, but it does give me enough peace to answer the pleas of my thumping brain.
I pass out before the ‘d’ of my name leaves the unnamed agent’s mouth.
“Hey there, baby girl, welcome back.”
With my vision too blurry to take in the person’s features in front of me, I leave it up to my intuition. “Caidyn?”
“Close,” the stranger whispers. “But I’m ten times better looking…” I realize who he is when he laughs “… have at least a dozen more tattoos, and let’s not get me started on my cock.”
“All right, Rocco. E-Enough showboating. Can you help me up?”
“I’d rather you stay down—”
“And I’d r-rather you not talk about your cock, but w-we can’t always have what we want, can we?”
With a chuckle, he helps me into a half-seated position. I don’t know why the change-up unclogs my ears, but I go from not hearing Agent Machini’s heated conversation with a male voice I don’t recognize to hearing every single word.
“She’s badly concussed. We can’t move her now.”
“If we don’t move now, we will lose the opportunity. Is that what you want, Macy? Do you want her stuck here for eternity?”
“No, of course not,” Agent Machini answers. “But I don’t want to compromise her health for her safety.”
“You’re a trained trauma nurse—”
“Who is advising you that moving her now could end disastrously.”
I shift my eyes to Rocco when their conversation either hits a stalemate or they take it to another location. My eyesight is still too poor to see the concern in his eyes, but I can feel it. “What’s t-that about?”
I hear Rocco scrub his hands together while he replies, “They’re worried about how much you’re sleeping.” I whack him in the arm when he adds with a breathy laugh. “I told them to buy you a couple of pregnancy tests.”
He’s just like Maddox. He tries to suffocate every bad situation with humor.
“Has a-anyone heard from Maddox?”
After a brief cough to clear his throat of nerves, Rocco replies, “Yeah. He’s okay. He did spend the night in the hospital, though.”
I cut him off by leaping to my feet. My brisk movements almost send me toppling onto my ass. I’ve never felt more dizzy in my life.
Rocco guides me back to bed before saying, “He isn’t hurt… physically.” I sigh when he mutters, “Those Petrettis are hard to get over. Even an ox needs a moment to gather itself.”
Maddox told me about Rocco’s multiple slip-ups about Ophelia. It’s clear even years later that it still affects him. I can only hope Maddox’s grief doesn’t last as long. It was never my intention to hurt him this badly. I just wanted him to be free of the burden of my protection.
