“It—” Anna stole a breath that did nothing to relieve the anxiety. She met Madlyn’s concerned eyes. “David never defends himself.”
Giving her a capricious grin, Maddy said, “Ah. So you’re not worried aboutthem—you’re worried abouthim.”
She squeezed her eyes shut.
“He’s going to be fine. He has that magic voice that will keep anyone from hurting him. You saw what he did to that crowd, right?”
Logically, Anna knew this. David had been through worse ordeals than purging Indies and survived, but she thought of the starburst scar, the faint puckerings and slashes across his torso that whispered of violence, and she cringed.
“Anna.” Maddy’s tone changed, and Anna wasn’t sure she liked the new curious edge in it. “Is anything going on between you two?”
She shook her head reflexively. Because nothingwasgoing on. Something had gone ononce—okay, a lot of times—five days ago, but nothing since. She needed to come to terms with the fact that he’d used her as a distraction, that she was nothing more to him than a friend.
“Of course not.” She forced an expression of disgust. “Can you imagine? He’s—ugh. Gross.”
Maddy shrugged. “Is he? Seems pretty yummy to me.”
Yummy?
“I wouldnever,” Anna said, silently adding anagainto that statement, though she wasn’t entirely sure it was true.
“If you say so.”
A knock had Anna darting to her feet. She wrenched the door open to find Cole on the other side, his mop of mahogany curls rumpled. Backing up, she let him enter their suite. “Did you hear anything?”
Cole waved at Maddy. “Yeah, they’re back.”
With a relieved cry, Anna launched herself at him, throwing her arms around his neck. He stumbled backward but caught her waist. “Whoa.”
“Are they hurt?” She jerked back to look him in the eye.
“What? No. They’re— They had Isobel with them.”
“Told you!” Maddy called from the sofa.
Cole’s face softened as he took in Anna’s expression. “They’re fine.”
The tight fist that had kept Anna’s heart from beating properly finally released.
He chuckled. “Were you really that worried?”
“Can I see them?” she asked.
Raising his hands, Cole said, “I’m not your keeper. Do what you want. Autumn showed up to Mom’s suite and told us they’d made it back fine. I haven’t seen them yet because you ordered me to tell you if I heard anything, so here I am.”
Now that the relief had numbed everything else, Anna found it in her to throw him a devious smile. “Autumn, huh? Did she have anything else to say?”
A curious tinge of red stained his cheeks. “Shut up. Do you want to see them or not?”
“Yes!” She moderated her voice. “Yes. Yeah, let’s go.”
“Have fun,” Maddy singsonged, resuming her…knitting? Crocheting? Something Anna couldn’t be bothered with.
Nerves reaccumulated in her stomach as she walked beside Cole to the Sovereign Suite. Rowilda’s bell was answered after a pause long enough that Anna thought they might not be inside.
Finally, Sean’s tired face smiled out at them. “Hey. Guess I don’t need to let Aunt Blaire know I’m still alive?”
Cole laughed softly. “How’d it go?”
