AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her eyes widened. “You’re going to just leave me alone here with a complete stranger?” The idea of that terrified her so soon after seeing a corpse and being hit on the head by the men responsible.
The fact they might have killed her too made her body tremble and her hands shake.
* * *
“No, I’m not going to do that,” Darius gently assured, well aware of how shaken Mia still was.
Which wasn’t the only reason he was going to remain with her while the doctor was there.
Inside him, that uncharacteristic possessiveness he now felt toward Mia was shouting abso-fucking-lutely not and hell, nowaywas he leaving her alone with another man!
“I’m capable of multitasking,” he assured. “Which means I can make the call to Fletcher’s office at the same time as I’m standing in the room while the doctor is examining you.”
She wrinkled her nose at him. “Very funny.”
Darius hadn’t meant to be amusing. He was merely stating what was going to happen. But he could see he’d hurt Mia’s feelings with what must have sounded to her like sarcasm from him in the midst of a situation that had, and obviously still was, causing her great distress. Although Honey’s presence seemed to be helping to keep her grounded.
“It will be okay, Mia.” Darius gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze on his way out to the hallway to meet and talk to the doctor who privately tended to all the family’s medical “emergencies.”
Discreetly, because some of those injuries hadn’t been legitimately acquired. Until they knew more about this situation, Darius was going to treat the attack on Mia as requiring that same caution when it came to involving the police or medical profession.
The next fifteen minutes were taken up with the doctor examining Mia. Long minutes while it took all of Darius’s self-control not to order the man to take his fucking hands off her. If Honey hadn’t padded over to his side and pressed herself against his thigh, helping to calm and ground him, then he probably wouldn’t have been able to restrain himself from doing exactly that.
He had never felt this level of possessiveness over anyone before Mia. Never had to clench his fists tightly at his sides so as not to hit someone. Never ground his back teeth together simply from seeing another man put his hands on a woman.
Onhiswoman.
Darius had no idea how or why he knew that with such certainty, but he did. He’d only had to see her again today to know Mia was his. Now that idea had taken root, no matter how he tried or how he listed the reasons why they could never be, he couldn’t seem to dismiss it.
The doctorfinallydiagnosed that Mia had a slight concussion and seemed to be suffering from shock, but other than the bump on the back of her head, she had no obvious physical injuries. He advised that she would need someone to check her throughout the night, to make sure she suffered no ill effects from the concussion.
When he suggested Mia go to the hospital to have her head X-rayed as a precaution, she had absolutely refused to go.
“Mia—”
“No,” she stated firmly, her rebellious gaze meeting Darius’s unwaveringly until he told the doctor there would be no hospital or X-rays. “Did you call Giles’s office?” she demanded the moment Darius returned from walking the doctor to the elevator.
He nodded. “He isn’t in today and he hasn’t called in sick either.”
Her eyes lit up before clouding over again with uncertainty. “That still doesn’t mean he’s been murdered… I can’t even believe I just said that.” She gave a pained groan. “Maybe he just decided to take the day off to go and play a round of golf.”
“He could have,” Darius agreed. “But his secretary said he always calls if he’s going to be delayed or away for the day. She’d already tried calling his cell phone, but he isn’t answering.”
“That still doesn’t mean his body was carried away wrapped inside a rug.”
“It doesn’t mean he hasn’t either.” Darius was pretty sure events had happened exactly as Mia described them.
The smell of death was distinctive and could never be forgotten.
Darius had breathed in that odor the moment he’d walked into Fletcher’s apartment. For a moment when he saw Mia lying on the floor, a brief and sickening moment, he had thought she was the one who was dead.
Mia released a heavy sigh. “Half of me wants him to walk back through the door of his apartment as if nothing has happened. The other half of me knows that if he does, then I must have something seriously mentally wrong with me.”
Darius shook his head. “I haven’t known you very long, but I’m pretty sure there’s nothing wrong with you, mentally or otherwise.” As far as he was concerned, everything was right about Mia. Everything.
“But—”
“Mia, I made two phone calls while the doctor was here. The one to Fletcher’s office, the other to my eldest brother, Sinclair. I asked him to send our company forensics team to go through Fletcher’s apartment.” He glanced at his wristwatch. “They should be in there right now.”
