Page 39 of Reclaiming Adelaide

Again,why?

“Make sure you lock the door. She’ll try to escape the moment she wakes up.”

A sly grin tipped Tonk’s lips.

“She’s mine,” I growled at my friend, with a visceral reaction to protect her like a beast. “So don’t touch her.”

His grin vanished. “I have no interest in her,” he said, shutting the door and locking her inside.

I nodded, shaking out my stinging hand.

It was an oversight and a stupid mistake when I reached for her, but I couldn’t let her fall with the knife in her hands. She was too nervous and shaking it back and forth erratically. Knowing her, she’d end up accidentally killing herself with it.

“Twelve hours, then?”

He nodded.

That’s enough time to fix up my hand and figure out who the hell those people were.

“I might need stitches.”

“Kit’s in the back,” he said, fingering through a metal tray beside the door to Kathy’s room.

He picked up a straight blade used for shaving and ran his thumb across the sharp end. “Sometimes, it’s the simplest thing that causes the most amount of pain.”

He glanced back at me after a passing of silence and placed the knife back down on the tray.

“How poetic.”

He scoffed, and we crossed the hall into an open room filled with medical supplies. He didn’t want his ‘patients’ to have an untimely death.

“Liz had her baby,” he said, the random bit of information given unsolicited.

“What was it?”

“A girl. Hannah.”

“She named her after his mother?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

They’d had a rough beginning, but eventually, she came around, fell in love, and got married. Now they had a baby, and I can’t say I envied them.

“What will happen to this place now?”

“They’re selling it. I’ve started construction on my property for a new facility.”

I sat down in the chair, placed my hand on the table, and started unwinding the makeshift bandage.

“And you feel comfortable with all of that around, Ivy?”

“It’ll be nowhere near her.”

“Does she know?”

“That I kill people?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

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