The nurse came in, smiled, and moved to hook up the new saline bag to act as a carrier for her pain meds.
After her vitals had been checked, the nurse smiled and left.
Dex sighed.“Anyone else thinks it’s weird that I can be sitting on one guy with another holding my feet, and the nurse took it as normal?”
Etienne laughed softly.“The omega ward has seen much stranger behaviour between the alphas and their treasures.”
“Okay.That’s enough.”She pulled her feet away from Tosh and tapped Etienne.“Let go.I have seen you with yourtreasure.It definitely wasn’t me.”
Etienne froze.
Tosh looked at her.“He just went grey.”
“Yeah, seven years ago, just to drive home a point, he used his master key to open my workshop and fucked his current girlfriend on my workbench.There were new cameras aimed into the shop and stains I had to deal with in the morning.He repeatedly called her his treasure on the video because when he spoke to me and turned down the overture I hadn’t made, he said no alpha could find a treasure in a woman like me.”
Etienne said softly, “I am sorry.”
“You want to prove you are sorry so I will believe it?Clean my workshop by hand.”
“Dex...”
“That’s my criteria.You gave me extra work.It made me late.My dad put me through the drywall at his home because I was late...You figure out cause and effect.”
“I am so sorry.”
“Why did you do it?I didn’t give a frosty fuck about what your parents were angling for.You acted like I was humping your leg on stage.”
“I...At the time, I was fixated on appearances.”
“I look the same now as I did then, just with paler hair and less bruising.”
Etienne whispered, “Less?”
“Yup.If someone grabs you by the neck and slams you into a wall, they aren’t that concerned about you hitting a stud.I had to go in and get my shoulder relocated and had several scans done for my injured skull.I knew when I saw that hand coming at me that I was going into the wall.”
“I didn’t know.”
“It’s a fucked-up situation, and it is where I live.I got punched unconscious when he found out that Dr.Aquilar was trying to set us up as well.I told him that nothing was going on, that you had no interest in me, but he just continued to hit me until everything went black.”
Tosh said, “Why didn’t you use lightning?”
“Mom was always there.I didn’t want to kill her as well, and she wasn’t going to inherit.I would have to support her, and that wasn’t something I wanted to deal with.I would recover from the beating.I always did.”
“They got worse the older you got?”Tosh asked.
“Yeah.My phone has images of most of the bruising over the years.I reported it to the police and child services several times, but he is a convincer.He loved that he was able to get them to believe I had somehow managed a man-sized handprint on my own features.”
“Tosh, take her.I am going to be sick.”He handed her off carefully and actually threw up in her bathroom.
Dex looked at Tosh.“Do you have an idea?”
He shook his head.
The toilet flushed, and water splashed.Etienne came out.She knew that face.“You spoke to John, and he gave you information he needed you to know.”
He nodded.“You know?”
“I know that expression.That is how they always look when they hear and believe the truth.I am guessing he said I was a nasty little gold digger who chased every swinging dick in town?”
