“Who?” he asked in a deadly voice that didn’t sound like his own.
CHAPTER 3
Becky’s body was shaking from the inside out. She had never seen Sloan this angry, and she had seen him pretty pissed off. She wasn’t afraid of him, not at all. What she had told him was true. She was afraid. Terrified she had made a huge mistake, but she didn’t know why she felt that way. All she knew was something wasn’t right. It hadn’t been right for a while now.
“Who, Becky?” Sloan asked again, his voice a little calmer, but his eyes were still blacker than she had ever seen them.
“I don’t know,” Becky said as she stood, nervous energy pushing through her along with the nausea.
“You said they,” Sloan pressed. “Who is they?”
Knowing she had to tell him everything, Becky let out a breath. “I’ve always had issues, Sloan. Female issues. At twenty I had cysts removed from my ovaries. It runs on my mom’s side, so it wasn’t a surprise I had the same problems as her. I’ve always kept up with my appointments. Never missed one.” She glanced at him, then looked away. “My regular OB suddenly closed hispractice, but his office referred me to another doctor. I’d never seen anyone else, but I knew I had to have a doctor. I signed my records over, made an appointment, and went.”
She paused, her brow pulling slightly. “I was comfortable with the new doctor at first. He asked a lot of questions… which I guess is normal for a first visit.”
“What do you mean, you guess?” Sloan asked, his voice steady.
Becky glanced at him again, her stomach tightening. He hadn’t moved, hadn’t said anything else, but the room felt different. Tighter. Like the air had been pulled thin.
“I had Dr. Knipper since I was fourteen. He was my mom’s doctor. I don’t remember my first appointment with him, so I don’t really have anything to compare it to,” Becky said. “But some of the questions… they didn’t feel right to me.”
Sloan didn’t respond right away, and that almost made it worse.
“What kind of questions?” he asked finally, his voice low.
“Dr. Knipper knew about you. You were my emergency contact, so you’re in my records,” Becky said, starting to pace again, trying to settle her stomach. “This new doctor, Dr. Phillips, started asking about us. Personal questions about our relationship. If I’d ever taken your blood.”
The second the words left her mouth, she noticed the tick in Sloan’s jaw and knew he was doing his best to control his rage. Becky stilled for a second before forcing herself to keep going, her mouth dry.
“I asked him why he would need to know something like that.” She swallowed. “Dr. Phillips said that with humans and vampires being together more, there’s been research. He saidtaking your blood could speed up cyst growth. It… made some sense, but…it just didn’t feel right to me and yet, I trusted him with the information.”
She shook her head slightly.
“I told him I had taken your blood, but I didn’t go into detail. Even when he kept asking how much and for how long.” She added, then finally looked at Sloan.
That was a mistake. Because whatever she saw on his face made her fear triple. She had done the wrong thing.
“I’m sorry, Sloan. I shouldn’t have put you down as my emergency contact. I know you guys like to keep a low profile, but...I didn’t think. I’ve never had an emergency contact before and well—” She shrugged biting her lip. “I just didn’t think.”
Sloan stood and took her into his arms. “Don’t,” Sloan said, his voice low, controlled. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“But it feels like I did.” Becky looked up at him, tears in her eyes. “I’ve wanted to tell you, but you’ve been so busy and well, I thought I was just being paranoid, but—” Her rambling trailed off as she pulled completely away from him, then wrapped her arms around herself as she stared at the ground.
“But what?” Sloan’s tone had an edge to it as if he already knew what she was going to say, but she knew that was impossible.
“Dr. Phillips lied to me.” Becky frowned, anger pushing past the fear that had been riding her for weeks. One minute she was terrified, the next pissed off, then confused, then just… exhausted. “He told me I had two small cysts. Put me on medication to try to shrink and stabilize things before removing them. Three weeks later, I went in for an outpatient procedure.”
Becky paused, watching Sloan, trying to read him.
“Why did you keep this from me?” Sloan asked, his voice not angry… just confused.
Becky dropped her head, wishing now that she hadn’t. Her past had a way of creeping in whether she wanted it to or not. “You’ve been busy and?—”
“Dammit, Becky,” Sloan growled, cutting her off.
Her head snapped up.
“You are my world. Do you understand that? Nothing—and I mean nothing—is more important to me than you.” He said, but not in anger. He sounded hurt, and that made her feel terrible.
