Page 21 of Saving Scarlett

“Scarlett, I ...”

Licking my lips, I closed my eyes, trying to think past my headache. “I have a migraine. It won’t take me long to fall asleep. Please just stay with me until I do. I know it’s a lot to ask but—“

“It’s not.” His thumb rubbed the top of my hand, as he sat in the chair next to the bed. “It’s not too much to ask, but I just don’t know if it’s the best idea.”

Even as he rejected me, I watched his hand in mine, desperate for him to stay. His hesitation hurt me more than he realized, more than I realized, but it wasn’t something I could analyze, at least not yet.

“You said you would keep me safe, Bane, and I don’t feel safe right now. I’m scared of what’s going to happen now. That’s why I’m asking you to stay. There is no other motive.”

Blowing out a breath, he nodded, easing some of my panic. “I’ll stay until you fall asleep but let me get you something for your headache.”

Chapter 19

The Savior

The vibration of my phone in my pocket woke me from a deep sleep. I sat up, groaning as my aching back popped and cracked. It took me only a moment to realize, by the delicate hand lying only inches from mine, that I’d fallen asleep beside Scarlett’s bed, crossing my own line in the sand.

Her response was the exact reason why I’d been hesitant to show her the video in the first place. After everything she’d been through, I never wanted to see her go through any more pain.

When she’d first tried to push me away in the kitchen, acting as though she wasn’t safe in my presence, I’d gotten angry with her. I walked away. After only about ten minutes, however—after hearing the sounds of her pain—her heart wrenching sobs—that anger had melted away as though it had never been there. The anger was replaced by a desperate need to make her pain disappear. It was the reason I stayed with her until she fell asleep. What I hadn’t counted on was falling asleep on the chair beside her bed.

With Scarlett still asleep, I slipped out of the bedroom and shut the door behind me. As I walked toward the door to the deck, I pulled my phone out of my pocket, picking up the pace when I noticed it was Caroline.

Lowering myself into one of the chairs, I answered the call. “Good morning.” Although I hadn’t checked the time, the brilliant sunrise told me it was early.

“Good morning to you.” Just like the sunrise, my sister’s voice was bright — happier than she’d sounded in weeks. “I have someone who wants to talk to you.”

There was a slight crackle through the phone, and then a tiny voice, hoarse from being intubated, met my ears, immediately bringing tears to my eyes. “Good morning, Uncle Ethan! Guess what… Mommy got me a monkey. I named her Susie.”

I chuckled, the smile on my face almost painful “Wow! I can’t wait to meet her. Shall I get you another friend? Perhaps a puppy?”

Giggling, Evie pretended to think for a moment. “A puppy would be lovely, but I think I would also like a llama.”

Even as I spoke to my niece on the phone, her innocent wit filling me with joy, I knew there were no guarantees with her health. It was a good sign that her doctors had woken her up, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t put her to sleep again. Still, I treasured every moment I had with her, and I only regretted not being there to hug her and see her while she was awake. No matter what was happening with Scarlett, I would have to go to the hospital when I went back to the city. I needed to see the only family I had left.

“Well, I may need to go south of the border, little Evie, but I will bring you a llama.”

There were hushed voices, and then Evie blew me an audible kiss through the phone, promising to see me later, alligator, before giving the phone back to her mother.

“Give me one second, E,” Cara said, before pulling the phone away from her ear to speak with the nurse. I watched the horizon as I waited, the sky a beautiful clear blue with the sun just barely above the treetops.

“Okay, I’m back. The nurse is keeping her company while I run down to the cafeteria to grab breakfast,” she said, the sounds of the intensive care unit fading as she walked.

“When did they wake her?”

“Early this morning. So far, her pain is tolerable. They’ve scheduled tests later this morning to check her levels. Hopefully, the meds are working.” Caroline blew out a breath. “Hopefully, we can go home soon.”

Once I finished the call with my sister, I sat on the deck for a while, knowing I needed to call Phantom, but trying to figure out a plan. I was torn. Part of me wanted to stay where we were for a while longer, because we were somewhere Scarlett was safe. The other part of me wanted to return to the city and deal with her husband before he caused any more trouble for her. Either way, when she woke up, I needed to have some semblance of a plan to lay out for her.

There was another option, one that had the potential to be the best-case scenario, but I didn’t know how best to pull it off. The idea was to put Joshua Prejean at odds with Scarlett’s father’s mobster coalition—something to tip the scales. Ivy had already looked into having Joshua killed, but if he knew what Joshua had planned for her, that he’d hired an assassin to kill her, and if Ivy cared enough for his daughter to act, then I had little doubt her father would see to it that Joshua ended up at the bottom of the Mississippi. He certainly had the means to do it.

With a plan developing, I pulled my phone back out, dialing Phantom’s phone number as I peeked in through the window to make sure Scarlett was still asleep.

As was always the case, the hacker answered quickly. “What’s up, Boss? I thought I would hear back from you last night.”

I grunted, not wanting to explain the drama that had unfolded after watching the video. “Watching the video was tough for her, but I think I have a plan.”

Sucking very loudly on a straw, all I was able to make out was a mumbled acknowledgement.

---