Page 141 of Offside Angel

“As far as press releases go, this is one of the wilder ones I’ve ever written. Not the wildest. That accomplishment belongs to the unnamed supermodel whose pet tiger ate one million dollars’ worth of someone else’s diamonds. But this is a close second.”

I have no fucking idea what he’s talking about. I barely even know where I am.

I look around the hospital room, but Mira isn’t here. She was earlier. At least, I think she was.

I have snippets of memory. Little flashes of nurses moving around my bed, Mira holding my hand, Jace’s voice.

“How did I get here?” I clear the frog from my throat and immediately regret it. My stomach aches, and I press a hand to a thick bandage over my midsection.

“You should hit the nurse’s button and request more pain meds.” Hollis points at my wound. “You should also be grateful for that wound. It’s the reason you’re in a hospital instead of a holding cell right now.”

I swear he shakes his head and calls me an idiot under his breath.

Again, I have no clue what he’s talking about.

“Where is Mira?” I ask instead.

“Talking to the police. Telling them what happened.”

I jolt up and, again, have immediate and painful regrets.

Hollis finally looks up at me long enough to shove me back down into the bed. I must be weak if he can manhandle me with one finger. “I said, Mira is telling them what happened.”

“I know,” I grit out. “I need to stop her.”

I know killing Dante was self-defense, but the facts as they stand don’t look good. Mira killed her father, went on the run for years, changed her name, and has now killed her brother. Who is going to be sympathetic towards her? She doesn’t have the benefit of the doubt anymore.

“She’s telling them exactly what you said happened, dumbass,” Hollis hisses under his breath. He shakes his head. “Fucking idiot that you are, you took the fall. It’s why you’re cuffed to this bed, and she’s out there confirming the deathbed confession you gave to the responding paramedic.”

It takes a few seconds for his words to bypass the haze of whatever drugs are pumping through my system. I look to my right hand and realize it’s handcuffed to the plastic bed railing. I didn’t even notice. “Mira told them I killed Dante?”

“She didn’t want to,” Hollis grumbles. “She fought like hell to take the blame, but I knew what you would want. In the end, so did she. Still, the only reason she agreed is because I swore to her I could get you off.”

I rattle my handcuff against the bed. “How is that going so far?”

“Considering the two of you refused to go to the police and hired private investigators instead?” he snaps, eyebrow raised. “Pretty damn good. I just sent a folder of evidence your P.I. and Mira’s bodyguard gathered on Dante’s movements the last few months. It’s a clear pattern of escalation. We don’t have the security cameras at the house as evidence since Dante was screwing with them, but you, Mira, and Daniel are all spewing the same story. Even Aiden is an eyewitness.”

I wince. I don’t want Aiden involved in this at all. I don’t even want to think about what he may have seen.

I shove it all aside and hold out my hand—IV and all—to Hollis. “Thank you, Hol.”

He takes my hand, shaking lightly. “I accept ‘thanks’ in the form of expensive whiskey and large Christmas bonuses, just FYI.”

Hollis leaves to perfect my press release. A doctor and a few nurses check on me, but the only person I want to see is Mira. I ask anyone who walks into my room where she is, but the answer is always the same.

She’s still being interviewed.

After an hour, I’m seconds away from climbing out of this bed and marching down the hall with my IV pole and my ass exposed, when the door opens.

“Mira.”

She looks like she’s been to hell and back. Her hair is tangled, her face is swollen, and her neck…

“Fuck. Your neck.” I reach for her, but when she stops at the side of my bed, she keeps her hands behind her back. I don’t want to think about what injury she must be trying to hide from me if the ones I can see are this bad.

“I’m okay,” she croaks. “How are you feeling?”

“I feel like I want to get out of here and take you home.”

---