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My life was about hard truths and cold realities. About staying alive long enough to see another day. Fairy tales were for the privileged.
“Please, Bax?” she asked through a yawn.
Christ. How could I refuse such a sweet request?
I decided to go with the partial truth. My voice low, I said, “There once was a powerful man, one the entire city feared. His every waking moment was consumed by thoughts of money and power.”
She remained quiet, her soft exhales warming my skin.
I stroked her back with my palm. “This man had been raised with nothing, a forgotten soul in a city of forgotten souls. Vermin, they called him. As a boy he vowed to conquer the island, to make every single person bow and scrape at his feet. To get revenge on those who wronged him. And he succeeded. He’d never let anyone hurt him or make him vulnerable again.”
Belle’s breath was even and steady, so I peeked at her face. Her eyes were closed, lips parted slightly. She’d fallen asleep.
“Then he met a woman. A fierce angel who was so much more than she seemed. And his world turned upside down.”
A sense of contentment washed over me, a sense of rightness. I always trusted my gut, and it told me this was exactly where I was supposed to be. With this woman, here in my saloon.
I stared at the ceiling, feeling no desire to move whatsoever. “What the hell are you doing to me, widow?”
CHAPTER8
Isabelle
Icame awake slowly, every bit of me sore. Especially my head. In a flash it came rushing back—the building, the attack, firing the pistol—and panic bubbled up to rob me of air.
“Calm down,” a feminine voice said. “You’re safe. You’re at Bax’s place.”
Oh, thank goodness. I wasalive. I hadn’t died on the dirty floor of that empty building.
Wait, I was at Bax’s place? As in, Bax’sbed? I vaguely remembered him lying here with me, talking to me as I tried to rest. It seemed like a far-off dream, one I knew I needed to recall but couldn’t.
Matty, Bax’s guard, was sitting in a chair beside the bed. I blinked at her. “Why?”
“Why did he bring you here, or why does your skull hurt like hell?”
I struggled to sit up, then reached for the water glass by the bed. Matty merely watched, her flat, emotionless stare making me slightly nervous.
After I drank, I set the glass back down with a shaky hand. “Why am I here?”
“Haven’t you figured it out yet?”
“No.”
Matty folded her hands and leaned back in the chair. “Why were you in that building?”
“A note was delivered, saying they had information regarding my father’s whereabouts.”
“And the man who attacked you? Did he say anything?”
I searched my memories. Snippets of those terrifying moments came back to me like flashes. Being grabbed, the smothering feeling of going without air for so long. His deep voice.Caught you.I took a deep breath and fought the wave of dizziness that came over me. “He said ‘I wonder how much he’ll pay to get you back.’”
“Any idea who ‘he’ is?”
“No.”
“Anything else?”
“Not that I can recall.”
