Page 10 of It Starts With A No

Clary assumed it was just his aversion to being touched. She wasn’t going to grab him again. Not when there was no need to worry about him getting into the car with the assailant.

“It’s okay.” Seth held his hands out, palms facing her. He ran a hand through his straight hair when she didn’t respond to him. “You can put the knife down.”

Clary frowned, then looked down at her hand—her blood-coated hand—and realized she was pointing the blade toward him.

She dropped the knife, and Seth rushed toward her.

He opened his mouth to say something, but never got to it.

Vaguely, she registered the roar of an engine.

Then Seth’s arm was around her. He pulled her along as he leaped behind her car, just as the assailant’s dusty gray sedan sped away—barely missing them.

Safe in the small space between their cars, he asked, “Are you okay? Miss Fiore.” He gave her a light shake when she didn’t answer him. “Clary.”

“I’m fine,” she blurted.

“Is that your blood?”

She lifted her bloodied hands and flexed her fingers. That caused the slash across her left palm to open up. “Oh, God.” She shut her eyes when she saw the flesh parting like the Red Sea.

Except bright red blood rushed to the surface instead of receding.

Seth cursed and grabbed onto the back of her hand, probably to close the wound.

She wouldn’t know. She wasn’t looking. Breathe. Just breathe.

She tried to fight the darkness encroaching on her mind. It had been a long time since she fainted from the sight of blood. Just breathe. She’d gone through therapy. She’d already overcome this.

“Clary.”

Just …

Chapter 3

“What the hell are you doing with an Eolenfeld?”

Seth shot a glare at his brother Elton. It was a simple message: shut up.

His brother, however, refused to cooperate. “That family is nothing but trouble.”

Seth sighed. “Don’t you need to get back to work?” His brother was supposed to be working in the emergency room, not up here in a cushy hospital room which was basically a hotel suite.

The room had been personally arranged by the hospital’s director, who had come down to the emergency room to check on Clary himself.

The power of Eolenfeld money.

Word must have gotten around. It had spread much faster than Seth expected. The hospital staff had just brought Clary to the room, and he hadn’t even had a moment alone with her when Elton came bursting in.

“Have you lost your mind?” Elton continued.

Seth sat on the light gray leather sofa and peered over at Clary, whose attention was on her phone. Enough, he mouthed to his brother.

Elton ran his hand through his hair. “I can’t believe I helped an Eolenfeld. I should’ve let her bleed to death.”

Seth poked his tongue into his cheek. There were plenty of other hospitals. Why did he insist the ambulance come here? “I told you. She got hurt because of me.”

“I—”

---