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Vincent’s eyebrows jump up, and his face pales as he looks at me. He realizes I’m no longer his clean-handed daughter. I’m fully capable of spilling blood when I need to.
I press my lips together and stare Vincent down, waiting for him to show the same appreciation that he does with River. He loves how strong she is. He loves how she can shoot better than any man and defend herself just as easily. I’m waiting for him to tell me how proud of me he is.
He sinks into the chair next to me and takes my hands into his lap, rubbing over the top of my hands with his thumbs. He doesn’t speak.
“I thought that’s what you always wanted from me. You wanted me to be able to protect myself like River can. I don’t understand why you’re disappointed in me,” I say.
His head snaps up, and there’s pain in his eyes. “No, I’m not disappointed in you. I could never be disappointed in you.”
“What then?”
“I’m disappointed in myself, in how marvelously I have failed you.”
“You haven’t failed me. You’ve kept me safe. You sent me away to save me. And you found me a husband to protect me. But I don’t need anyone’s protection anymore. I’ll agree to the husband I believe is the best man for the job, not because I need his protection.”
Vincent shakes his head again. “But you shouldn’t have ever had to get your hands bloody. I promised your mother that I would never let this life take hold of you in that way. Now that you’ve experienced bloodshed like that, you won’t ever be able to escape it.”
“I’m strong enough to handle it.”
“I know—I know you are. I just didn’t want this for you. I tried to keep you from this, and I failed.”
There’s a knock on the door. Vincent stands and walks toward it. He cracks the door and speaks to one of his men on the other side before closing it again and facing me.
“I have a meeting I need to take. I’ll be gone two hours, three tops. We can continue this conversation when I get back, but I’m not sure I can honor your request. If you want an annulment, then Lennox must die. And I’m not sure the men will wait for you to be the one to do it. And many of my men distrust Andrea, so it will be an uphill battle to make him my replacement.”
“I’m pregnant,” I blurt out.
Vincent freezes. He doesn’t congratulate me the way he did River. He doesn’t get excited that he finally has an heir to pass everything to. He doesn’t ask whose baby it is. He doesn’t say anything in response at all.
He just walks out the door without another word, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
And I have a lot of thoughts as I head back to my old room. I end up falling asleep on my bed, eventually waking to an anxious knock at the door.
“Come in,” I say drowsily.
The door opens, and one of Vincent’s men enters. “I’m sorry to bother you, Rialta, but…”
“Spit it out.”
“Vincent’s been shot.”
Chapter 20
Lennox
“I made coffee and omelets,” Hayes says, carrying a tray into Ri’s room. “But no one will eat any of the omelets, even though we should.”
He starts passing out coffee and plates of eggs. Beckett takes his coffee cup but immediately places his plate on the end table beside Ri’s bed. Gage politely holds his plate in his lap, and he begins to down his coffee. And I hold mine in each hand as I sit in a chair on the other side of Ri. Hayes takes a seat in a chair next to Gage near the foot of the bed.
This has been the arrangement for three days. We all brought chairs in, and we’ve been staying vigilant around Ri. She hasn’t opened her eyes or done much other than breathe since we brought her here.
The doctor checks in twice a day. She said there’s nothing physically wrong with her. She performed a small surgery to clean out her uterus and make sure she doesn’t get an infection. The rest of her wounds are beginning to heal. She just said these things take time.
Beckett sets his coffee down, so he can hold her hand again. The IV tubing swings as he knocks it before taking her hand in his. It’s the only sound in the room.
None of us know what to do—we are all so hopeless when it comes to Ri. And we have no idea how to help her.
I stare down at the eggs on my plate. The only way I know how to help is to take care of everyone. I set my coffee on the end table, and I start eating. Slowly, I force each bite into my mouth. My stomach curls as the first bite hits it, and I realize how badly I need food, how much we all do.
