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We need her.

We need her more than anything. So I’ll do what it takes to keep her, even if it makes me a hypocrite and a liar.

Dov carries her into the drawing room and carefully places her on the couch. It’s warmer in here, logs crackling and snapping in the fireplace.

“We can’t warm her up too quickly,” I tell Dov. “But we need to get her out of these wet clothes.”

I don’t even care about her modesty. That doesn’t matter right now.

We work carefully together, keeping her as flat as possible so we don’t cause an arrhythmia. She ran out in completely unsuitable clothing for the weather—a thin sweater and jeans and sneakers. They’re all soaked through from the snow, now that’s it’s melted. Even her underwear is wet, and we strip it off, leaving her completely naked.

I catch Dov staring. This isn’t the first time he’s seen her naked body. I’m aware of the cameras located around the hotel, including in her bedroom, and the way he likes to observe her when she’s sleeping. I know he’s done more than simply observe—Aspen told me as much when she’d been trying to taunt me.

“Get the throw and cover her with it,” I tell him, giving him something to do.

He nods and pulls it off the back of the couch, wrapping up her pale body.

I give him another instruction. “Put some extra wood on the fire.”

I make sure her arms and legs remain exposed. Cold blood in her extremities, pushed toward her heart, could cause a heart attack. It’s a careful balancing act between warming her up but not doing it too quickly.

I touch her cheek with the back of my hand. It’s cool but clammy.

“Pen? Can you open your eyes? You’re safe now.”

She might not think she is. She ran from us, and we’ve brought her back here. The last thing she’s going to feel is safe. I want her to know that we won’t hurt her, though. We need her, and we’ll cherish her.

If she can ever forgive me.

How’s she going to react when she wakes up? If she wakes up?

She will. We can’t lose her. I can’t lose her. I want to take her hand, to squeeze her fingers and bring them to my lips, but I can’t risk warming them up too quickly.

Movement comes in the open doorway, and I turn my head.

Levi enters the room and stops dead. “What the fuck happened?”

I drag my hand over my face. “She knows the truth about her boyfriend. About what happened to him. What really happened to him.”

His face pales. “Fuck. Why isn’t she wearing any clothes? She’s so white.”

“She tried to leave in my car and went off the road. She was out in the cold for a while. I’m not sure how long. I think she’s got hypothermia.”

His blue eyes flash with fear. “Surely, if she was cold, she’d be shivering?”

“It’s not a good sign,” I tell him. “The body shivers to keep warm. When it stops, it’s because the brain has gotten too confused to know how to work properly.”

“Fucking hell. Is she going to be all right?” He steps in closer then notices Dov by the fire. “What’s he doing here?”

“He’s the one who found her. He saved her life.”

Levi rakes his hand through his dark hair. “Christ.”

I know why he’s worried, and it’s not just about Aspen’s physical health. Dov can’t always be trusted—but then I guess neither can I nor Levi. If I didn’t keep Dov here, he’d be behind bars by now. His impulse control is even worse than Levi’s, and that’s saying something.

Except with Dov’s size, it means that he’s also lethal. No one can fight back against him. He’ll literally crush a man’s head if he gets between him and what he wants. I know he got his size from me, but at least I have control of myself.

That doesn’t make me a good person.