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“Isabella,” I say, putting my palms on her shoulders and pushing her back down on the bed. “It’s alright. It’s—”
“Rico.” Her eyes lock directly on mine for a few seconds before sliding out of focus again. “It’s okay. You’re safe.”
The lead doctor gives me a look while increasing Isabella’s dose. “She’s a bit loopy from the painkiller and the blood loss.”
“You’re safe,” Isabella repeats, her gaze once again zeroing in on me for a few seconds. “I didn’t tell them where you are. I didn’t tell them.”
My blood freezes in my veins.
I can hear my own heart pounding in my ears as I gently place my hands on Isabella’s cheeks and turn her head back so that she is looking at me again.
“Is that why they tortured you?” I ask, my pulse thrumming. “Because they wanted you to tell them where I am?”
Her eyes slide out of focus again.
“Isabella,” I demand, because I know that this is my only chance to get a truthful answer out of her. She would never admit to anything like this if she wasn’t high on painkillers and delirious from blood loss. And I need to know. “Did they torture you like this because you refused to tell them where I am?”
She blinks, and her eyes finally focus on me for another second. “Yes. But I didn’t tell them. I didn’t tell them where you are. You’re safe. You’re…”
Her eyes close and she drifts off mid-sentence as the painkillers take effect again.
For a few seconds, all I can do is to just stand there next to the bed, my hands still cupping her cheeks, and stare down at her.
She was tortured. She endured all of this. Endured all of these cuts and bruises and everything else that they did to her that didn’t leave a mark. Because she refused to give up my location to the other cult members.
Pain slices through my heart like a burning blade.
Why would she do that? Why didn’t she just give me up? She should have given me up! She can’t possibly—
“Please give us some space to work,” the lead doctor says, her dark eyes meeting mine with a pointed expression.
I take my hands off Isabella’s cheeks and step back.
Time seems to both rush by and not move at all as the doctors work on her injuries and then clean the blood off her.
When they’re at last finished, they ensure me that she will be fine but that she needs rest. I nod, feeling like I’m in a daze, as they file out the door and go back to the beds that my guards dragged them out of.
Kaden and Jace hover by the door.
“When she saidthey,” Jace begins, tearing his eyes from Isabella and instead locking his gaze on me. “Did she mean those two men who killed your parents?”
“Yes,” I reply. “They… Fuck!” Panic surges through me, and I hurry towards the door. “I need to call Federico.”
After a quick look over my shoulder, to make sure that Isabella is sleeping, I stride into the hallway and then into my room. Closing the door behind me, I slide out my phone and call my grandfather.
He knows that I would never call at this hour unless it’s important, so he picks up after only three signals.
I quickly inform him that Derek and Sebastian were spotted close to the park tonight. Just as when I told him the other information about them that Isabella gave me, my grandfather assumes that it comes from an intelligence network that I have set up on campus. It’s more or less true, anyway, which was why I was able to convince him of that in the first place.
On the other end of the line, he immediately starts issuing orders for people to comb through that entire part of the city right away. He promises to keep me updated, and then hangs up.
I’m only just sliding my phone back into my pocket when Jace knocks and then opens the door without waiting for an answer.
“You should come quickly,” he says.
My heart lurches, and I hurry after him and back to the spare room.
When I reach it, Kaden is trying to keep Isabella from getting out of bed. Even in her weakened and drugged state, she is surprisingly tenacious.
