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The sting of a needle burns my arm, and my head falls softly into his chest as I feel my body go numb. The scent of him is comforting, and I let it bring me peace. If I’m going to die, then at least I won’t die scared. I’ll be in the arms of a man I love.
“We’re going to figure this out, we’re going to keep you safe,” he says as the world fades to a black void around me.
What he doesn’t know is, his people are the reason I’ll never be safe again.
???
I wake up again and get the feeling that I’m alone. My limbs are so heavy, they feel like they’re being held down. It takes so much energy to move them. I look around the room, needing to know if I’m correct, and there's no one here waiting. My head is throbbing, and my skin feels pulled tight around my face. Slowly, I let my fingers touch it, feeling patches of steri-strips holding split skin together.
A new IV is in my arm, and a new gown is on my body. Everything looks clean like my disaster of an escape attempt didn’t even happen.
I can still smell Lev on me, though, and that makes me think it wasn’t all a dream.
How do we get out of here? Think, E.
I look around the room again as my vision clears, and I see a tray set up by the bed. They must have used it to stitch me up. Bloody gauze sits around it, but my attention latches on something else. Something that might just save me.
A scalpel sits out, still sitting in the half-opened packaging. I wince in pain as I reach over a little too quickly, and my eyes dart to the monitor when, what sounds like a warning beep, goes off. I stay still and take a calming breath through my nose, hoping no one comes running in. After a minute of silence, I try it again, just a little slower.
My fingers wrap around the cool metal, and I bring it close to examine it. Just when I’m about to tuck it under my blanket, the door begins to slide open slowly as if not to wake me.
I swiftly push my hand under the blanket, but I’m not fast enough to feign sleep and catch whoever it is by surprise.
Alexi’s head comes into view as he walks into the room. “Hey, Princess,” he greets me like we’re old friends.
I put my guard up, remembering how we left things with each other. He’s the only one of The Kings I don’t know how to read, and it puts me on edge. The monitor starts to beep as he gets closer to me.
“Calm down, I’m not here to hurt you,” he says gently, sitting on the edge of my bed. He looks at the monitors as the beeping dies down. “My father's here, he wants to talk to you.”
My body goes cold with those words. The worst thing that could have happened, happened. My uncle tried to warn me, he tried to keep me safe. And what did I do? I walked right into the arms of the monster that I’ve been running from for as long as I can remember.
Chapter 61
I was afraid bringing up my father would trigger her. Evie’s reaction is enough to put me on high alert to his presence and keep him away from her until she can fill us in on what's happening. He still won’t tell me why he’s here, but he insists he talks to her as soon as she wakes up.
After Lev told me how she reacted when he came in before, we made the nurse give her some extra medications to make her feel weak, so she couldn't re-injure herself again. They had to redo twenty-three stitches and give her another full bag of blood to replace what she’d lost. She’s only been out of surgery for eighteen hours, and they almost had to take her back again.
While she slept, we’ve been racking our brains, trying to piece together all of the information we know, but we aren’t getting anywhere. There’s a vital piece missing, and I’m afraid only Evie can tell us what that is.
I try to move closer to her, to assure her my father won’t be coming in without her permission, but she moves her hand from under the covers with a scalpel aimed right at me.
I have to give her some credit. She was just beaten to near death, underwent major surgery, and has a shit ton of stitches, sedatives, and other medication pumping through her. But still, she chooses to fight.
Too bad I could see her little attack coming from a mile away. She must not realize how slow she is because the look of shock that crosses her face when I easily grab her wrist and twist the knife out of it, actually makes me feel bad.
The sharp medical instrument crashes to the floor, and I make no move to pick it up. I’m not here to hurt her. We are all here to help her. Laney lost her shit when I said I planned to be there when Evie woke up, claiming I’m the last person that could help this situation. Now I’m starting to think she was right.
“Will you listen, please?” I ask her. She tries to twist out of my hold, but her breath catches in pain. “Stop hurting yourself, and just listen to me. Or we will have to keep sedating you,” I threaten.
It’s probably not the right move, but it’s the only one I have right now. She sits back, grimacing from the pain again. I press the button next to her that should help bring her some relief. Her eyes widen with fear. She must think it’s a sedative like I just threatened.
“This is pain medicine, press it when you need more,” I tell her. She turns her head away from me.
“I don’t need any,” she says faintly, looking down, “I deserve to feel it all. I want to feel it all. If I’m at least feeling pain, then I know I’m still alive.”
She shakes her head, closes her eyes, and leans back.
“Princess,” I say, but she doesn’t move. “Evie, look at me.” Her left eye is almost swollen shut, but her right one opens just slightly. “I need you to tell me what’s happening. We are trying to put it all together, but only you can do that for us.”
