Page 2 of Regal Queen

Dante's eyebrows pulled together in a deep scowl, his lips parting but no words came out. Instead, they clamped back together and he wiped his face of all emotion. "Yes, sir."

I shifted my feet, allowing the doctor space as he moved to the other side of Coulter's bed. "Where were you?" The words I'd longed to say from the minute I saw him. “You were supposed to protect him."

"So were you." He met my gaze defiantly.

"I was in the room with him, you asshole." I didn't say the words burning in my mind. That the bullets had been meant for me. That the reason Coulter was lying almost dead in this room was because he stepped in front of me, taking the hits meant for me.

My little brother finally stepped up, and at the worst possible moment.

I was going to ream his ass out for it when he finally woke.

"I was chasing down the Bratva, if you must know." His voice was a hiss. “Under Coulter's own orders. All while you were chasing some ass."

I was on him in a second, my hand locked around his throat as I slammed him against the wall. “Say one more disrespectful thing about her and you will lose your tongue."

Dante's jaw worked, his gaze still defiant but he bit down on his words, instead nodding respectfully. I gave him one last threatening glare before I let him loose, turning my back on him.

We were all at fault here, and blaming Dante wouldn’t bring Coulter to life.

The room fell into silence as I watched the doctor work, and Dante stepped to my side, the moment forgotten between us.

After several long minutes, the doctor finally turned back to us. “His vitals look good. I've done what I can, and so far, everything looks the same. There’s nothing more I can do."

I shook my head. "I need you to fix him."

The doctor gave me a stern look. “There's nothing more I can do.”

“Then do something else.” I pulled out the gun at my back and trained it at him. The doctor straightened, his eyes meeting mine.

“I can pretend to work on him but the truth is, he needs time to heal. Let his body do want it's supposed to do. I have the confidence that he'll recover from this, if he's allowed to rest."

His words made sense but the frantic voice inside me wanted to scream at him to fix Coulter and make him wake up, no matter what it took. The only thing keeping me calm was the knowledge deep inside that screaming wouldn't help Coulter.

That I needed to keep my shit together, for him.

I needed to be better this time, in the way that I hadn't been when Lily died.

“Fine.” Grinding my teeth and still staring into his eyes, I gave him a curt nod, lowering my weapon.

The doctor took that as acceptance, and he glanced at Grant’s dead body, his voice hesitant now. "And the other body?"

"Grant," I grit out. "His name was Grant."

“Would you like me to bring someone in to prepare Grant's body for burial?”

Again, I bit down on my tongue. I was so exhausted, I was loosing my mind. I wanted to tell him that Grant wasn’t dead. He wasn't even sleeping.

Grant never slept, he was always there for me when I needed him.

Even if we didn't talk much about our personal lives, I knew he had a girlfriend. A twelve year old daughter. More blood on my hands, just like Lily.

Just like all the rest of the blood spilt, all in the name of the fabulous King dynasty.

If Rose were here, she’d tell me to pull the stick out of my ass and take care of things.

I nodded again, unable to speak the words for fear of the agony spilling out from inside me.

The doctor nodded and left the room, letting me know he would send someone by soon to take care of it, as well as the nurse to check in on Coulter again later.

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