Azrael
There’s no sign of Jensen as I jump out of the SUV, and I expected as much. He will be with Hevan, protecting her as I requested.
I rush past my men bleeding on the steps of the mansion and head straight up the stairs to her room. Then I turn, remembering I placed her in my room.
Would she have been safer in her own room?
Have I put her in jeopardy by placing her in my room?
I push the thought aside and swing open my bedroom door. There’s blood on the carpet, items strewn over on the floor, the sheets are tousled, and there’s glass from the open balcony door covering the floor, but there’s no sign of Hevan or Jensen.
There’s a sound from down the corridor, and I move quickly toward it, where I have more spare bedrooms for guests. “In here,” Czar shouts, and I run his way.
The door is pushed open, revealing a scene that almost brings me to my knees. She’s lying in bed, covered in cutsand scrapes. Her face is swollen, with stitches in her forehead, and her lip split and bloody.
Every wrong in the world, I want to right.
Every pain I’ve inflicted on others, I willingly accept on myself.
I’d take it all for her to be free from the shackles of my hellish world.
My feet move on their own accord, and I glance at the intravenous drip already set up.
Jensen sits beside her like a guard dog, and I can feel his stare on me. He’s calculating my movements, watching for my motives, searching for a sign of what I’m going to do. Much like Czar, he knows me well. He knows the torment swelling inside me; he knows I want to unleash my anger for retribution, but he also knows, above all else, I want to fix my girl.
A throat clears, and I spin to face one of the young female doctors I recently added to our books.
“Sir, if I could explain the patient’s injuries?”
I give her a swift nod, unable to construct words while fury ravishes my veins. He hurt her, a woman who would never hurt anyone, all to hurt me.
I take Hevan’s hand in mine and bring it to my lips.
“I stitched the cut on her head. It’s not too deep, but I suspect it will scar. She suffered a concussion from the force of hitting an object.”
It’s like someone has aimed a swift punch to my chest, and I refrain from flinching with the agony surging up to my temple, causing it to pulsate violently.
“She was molested, sir, but my understanding is the perpetrator was interrupted before it went any further.” She glances toward Jensen, but my focus remains locked on her. There’s no doubt in his mind she was about to be raped, andwhile I’m beyond grateful for Jensen’s quick thinking, that doesn’t eradicate the fact that she was touched where only I have ever touched her.
He hurt what was mine in the most brutal of ways.
Another punch, this one crippling.
She shifts from foot to foot. “I’m afraid she…” She stares back at me, then blows out a deep breath as my glower on her intensifies.Just fucking tell me, I want to scream, but nothing comes out. “I’m very sorry, I suspect she lost the baby, sir. She’s bled a lot.”
I can’t breathe.
I’m suffocating with her words.
I can’t fucking breathe.
Before I know what I’m doing, I move to her. She has to be wrong, but Hevan’s soft hand slips into mine, anchoring me to the spot. I turn to face her, and her eyes shimmer with the tears I’ve commanded she controls, but in this moment, I don’t care; she deserves to feel the relief that comes from shedding them. “Please don’t hurt her,” she croaks. “She helped.”
She knows I plan on killing her the moment she leaves this room; the prospect of leaving her alive and at my father’s mercy for answers is far too risky. “Promise me, Azrael,” she implores. “She helped.”
“I-I…” I can’t bring myself to make her a promise I know I can’t keep.
“You owe me this.” She places her free hand on her stomach.
