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I looked back at him. “You don’t think she is?”
“I’m not sure. But what I do know is that she cares about him, and she hasn’t cared about anything other than killing Aryans for the past four months.”
I released a heavy sigh.
“We don’t know what her plans are with him,” Stefan said. “But if you’re determined to make things right with my daughter, you need to figure out if raising your enemy’s son is something you’re capable of doing first. For your own sake and for my daughter’s.”
* * *
Louie’s bedroom was dark when I entered. I walked through the room blind until I reached the window. I pulled back one of the curtains, letting in just enough light to make everything visible.
“Hey,” Louie said, his voice laden with exhaustion.
I moved toward the bed where he was resting. Propped up a little by pillows, he watched me as I came to stand by the foot of the bed.
Like Maura, he should have been in the hospital. The bastard had lasted all of twenty-four hours before he’d unhooked himself from all the monitors, ripped out his IV, and made Brenna and Finn, who I had assigned to watch over him at the hospital, bring him to Quinn Manor.
“What the fuck?” I had said to him as he’d walked through the front door, barefoot and only in a hospital gown. His arms had been slung over Brenna’s and Finn’s shoulders. I’d been able to tell by Brenna’s and Finn’s strained expressions that they had been doing most of the walking for him.
“I hate hospitals,” Louie had said as if that had been a legitimate reason as to why he’d left.
“You’re a dumbass,” Brenna had muttered under her breath as the three of them had made their way to the stairs.
“No one asked you, baby Quinn,” Louie had said, his voice breathy and strained as they’d taken that first step up the stairs.
Brenna had grunted as they’d gone up another step. “Don’t test me, Louie, or I will leave you on these fucking stairs.”
“Maura really did help you find your backbone, didn’t she?” Louie had grumbled.
Following through on her threat, Brenna had dropped his arm from her shoulder, stomped back down the stairs, and disappeared down the hall that led to Stefan’s study.
Finn had let out a curse as he’d strained to support Louie. “You just had to be a dick.”
“My bad,” Louie had said. “I’m not the nicest when I’m in pain.”
I’d rushed up the few steps and thrown his arm across my shoulders. “If you’re in that much pain, you should have stayed in the hospital.”
“I need to be here,” had been his response.
Not wanting to argue because I understood, I had helped get him up the stairs. After Maura had run away, Louie had practically moved into the room across from mine. That was where Finn and I had taken him and that was where he had been since.
“She’s home,” I told him.
He sat up quickly. Before he could do much else, he hugged his middle with an arm and breathed between clenched teeth. “Is she hurt?”
I went over to his nightstand where a glass of water and multiple bottles of pills were, courtesy of Dr. Ben. I grabbed his pain meds, poured a couple tablets into my hand, and gave them to him with the water. “They beat her pretty bad.”
After taking his meds, he handed me back the glass of water to set on the nightstand. “Did they…” he trailed off.
I shook my head.
He closed his eyes and relaxed back against his pillows. “How’d you find her?”
Stuffing my hands into my pockets, I began with how I’d received a call from the guards at the front gate that Brenna had just left the property in Maura’s car.
* * *
Louie and I talked for a while. Most of what we talked about was Maura and the devil’s spawn she had brought home with her. Louie didn’t seem all that worried about him. Mostly he was intrigued.
