Dante paused, his gaze meeting hers. His face was tight with both anger and anxiety. “You are more fortunate than wise then.”
Amaryllis felt blood flood her cheeks, but she could hardly argue the point. It had been a stupid, careless thing to do and it might have cost both her and her baby their lives—the unknown life form. Tears filled her eyes. Her chin wobbled. “I didn’t know,” she said in her defense.
Some of the anger left him. “A mission without proper reconnaissance is always unwise, particularly when there was no good reason for it in the first place and one very good reason not to.”
Amaryllis glanced toward Cain accusingly. Unfortunately, he had his back to her and missed the look.
“Do not blame Cain. Your condition is far too noticeable now to be anything but what it is. I had suspected weeks ago, but thought it could not be. Otherwise, you would have told me.”
Amaryllis bit her lip, but she somehow doubted that he wanted to hear her explanation.
Reese and Cain, having checked each of the fallen warriors to make certain none were a threat any longer, moved toward them. Reese studied her for several moments and turned to look at Dante. “She is alright?”
“Minor cuts. They will heal soon. I will need to examine her more carefully, but we must get her home first.”
Reese nodded. “The … infant?”
“I cannot tell without a scan, but I do not believe it has come to harm either.”
Amaryllis couldn’t help but notice he refused to look at her, or speak directly to her after that first accusing glance. He leaned down when Dante moved away, scooping her into his arms. “I can walk,” she said stiffly.
He ignored her, tightening his grip on her when she began to struggle to be released. She subsided, sulking.
Silence reigned during the long trek home. Amaryllis had time to experience the full range of emotions attached to her situation—several times. She didn’t have time to wonder what would happen if the authorities discovered it was her that had broken into the med center. She was too worried about what Dante, Cain, and Reese intended as punishment.
All three were totally pissed off at her, though, and she expected to catch hell as soon as they were certain she was alright and they had the time and privacy to give her a taste of their tempers.
She didn’t know whether to be relieved or sorry when they arrived at the plantation and Dante merely escorted her to her room and left again. The lock clicked audibly, and rather ominously, as he closed the door. She sat on the edge of the bed for a while, waiting to see if any of them meant to come back.
Reese and Cain did, but not directly. They arrived at her bedroom windows and, after a great deal of hammering, secured bars in place.
She pointedly ignored them.
When they’d gone away again, she trudged into the bathroom and soaked until it took all she could do to drag herself from the tub again. Wrapping a towel around her, she went back into the bedroom, collapsed on the bed and, in the middle of worrying what they would do next, lost consciousness.
Chapter Twenty Nine
Amaryllis was totally disoriented when she woke. Her brain was sluggish anyway, as if she’d been drugged, and she simply stared at the feeble light outside her windows for some time, trying to figure out why it looked like dawn when it had been around midday when they’d arrived at the plantation.
She finally decided that it was either evening, or she’d slept throughout the afternoon and night.
She felt like she could sleep another ten or twelve hours and wondered what had awakened her. Almost on top of the thought, she heard a scraping sound in the corridor outside her room and the tread of booted feet. Someone was moving something. That must be what had awakened her, she decided.
Slipping from the bed, she padded over to the door and grasped the doorknob. It took her several minutes to figure out that the reason it wasn’t opening was because it was locked.
She’d forgotten she’d been locked in.
She stared at the door for a few moments, trying to summon anger and found she couldn’t. Turning, she stared at the bed listlessly for a minute and finally staggered back to the bed and climbed in again, this time pulling the covers over herself. Despite her sluggishness, though, she discovered she simply couldn’t summon sleep once more no matter how hard she tried. The longer she lay in the bed, the wider awake she became, particularly since the noise outside her room continued unabated.
Finally, she heard footsteps approaching her door and the click of the lock. She debated pretending she was still asleep on the off chance that she might be allowed to avoid a confrontation a little longer, but when the door opened, she sat up, eyeing her visitor warily.
It was Cain. His gaze dropped to her bare breasts, lingered there for several moments and returned to her face. “Did you sleep well?”
It seemed an innocuous enough question, but Amaryllis was wary of where it might lead. She nodded.
After several uncomfortable moments, he moved across the room and sat down on the edge of the bed. He rubbed his hands over his face tiredly. “Why did you do it? Where did you think you would go?”
Amaryllis was on the point of trying to explain why such a stupid decision had seemed like a very sound one at the time when his last question sank in. “What?”
