The home was fairly close to the hospital, and I knew that’s where she would be. In the week since she had agreed to be my wife, I hadn’t seen Amy go home for more than a few minutes. She spent every hour she could at the hospital.
“Amy.” Striding into the hospital room that belonged to her sister, I quickly looked around. I knew it was just her and her sister because I had men watching her every move, but I liked to make sure of these things myself.
She was alone, well, alone apart from her sister. For a second, I stared at the woman in the bed. They looked alike.
Amy’s head snapped up like she had been dozing off, and I felt a little guilty for waking her up. I doubted she had been sleeping at all.
“What are you doing here?” Standing up, her sister’s hand slipped from hers and fell to the bed.
“I came to fetch you. Come along now.”
She looked confused, glancing between her sister and me like she didn’t know if she should step forward or not. I laughed impatiently. I really didn’t have time for this. “Now, Amy,” I snapped. “I have things to do and don’t have time for this.”
“My sister is sick. I can’t leave her,” she said finally.
Pursing my lips, I blew out a breath. “Seriously, Amy, you are trying to stall. You agreed to this and—”
Her face crumbled in on itself. “Alex, please.”
Guilt gripped me. It was the way she said my name in her sweet little voice, like she believed that begging me would make any difference to me. People begged me all the time, on their knees and soaked in their own piss, they begged me to spare their lives, and I never did.
Why did she think giving me puppy dog eyes would make a difference?
Only, they kind of did.
“Amy,” I said, softening my voice. “I know she’s sick, and my promise still stands. I will help her in any and all ways that I can, but you must come with me now. We have things to discuss.”
Amy sighed, her shoulders heaving. “OK,” she whispered. Bending over the bed, she pressed her lips to her sister’s forehead, and I watched open-mouthed as two tears fell.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can. Just hold on, OK? I’m going to make everything better.” She choked on a sob. “I love you. Please don’t die.”
I rolled my eyes, striding across the room. I took her by the elbow. “That’s enough of that.”
She didn’t put up a fight when I led her out of the hospital. My hand curled around her elbow. Forcing her into the back of a waiting car, I instructed the driver to drive, and we quickly pulled into traffic,
“This isn’t your usual car,” she said after a few minutes. “Don’t you usually drive yourself?”
I turned to her in shock. “How do you know that?” Through narrowed eyes, I searched her face.
“You’ve been following me,” she said simply, turning her face in profile to look out into the rain-soaked street. “I’ve seen two black cars and a silver one, both at the hospital and at home. It didn’t take a genius to figure it was you. Or—” her eyes darted toward the back of the driver’s head. “One of your cronies.”
I couldn’t help it. I laughed. “Cronies? I’ve never heard them called that before, but you are right. I have been keeping tabs on you.”
“Why?”
“Why? Because I think you might be up to something. I don’t think you are what you seem, Amy, and if you are going to become my wife today, I need to know all of your secrets,” I growled. “I will find out what your plan is.”
“I don’t have a plan, Alex. I am just a normal girl trying to do the best she can and hold it together. Not everyone around you is out to get you. Most of us are just trying to survive,” she paused, and a line appeared between her eyebrows. “Wait, did you say today?”
I nodded silently.
“I am becoming your wife today?”
“Yes.” I was quickly losing patience. Nothing I had said was cryptic or vague. “Did you think we would have some long, drawn-out engagement. This isn’t a love match.”
“I know that.” Her voice was ragged. She reached up and tugged at her hair, gathering it up in her hand and securing it on the top of her head.
I watched as she did it. It was a security thing I realized with a start. She put her hair into one of those messy buns when she was feeling overwhelmed or threatened. Staring at her profile, I took in the slight upturn of her nose and the way her lips did a weird sort of inwards trembling when she was trying to figure out what to do next.
