Page 106 of King of the Cage

“De Sanctis?” I asked instead of what I really wanted to ask, which was where Giada was. Had she taken the opportunity of her brother’s attack to leave me? Was the marriage already annulled? I rested my head back against the pillow.

Quinn nodded. “They’re everywhere, and some of them are really hot.”

“No eyeing up the enemy,” I warned my sister.

She laughed. “Why not? You married one, remember? Aren’t we all just one big happy family now?”

“I don’t know, are we?” I wondered.

“In a way… your Da demanded amends for Elio stringing you up and nearly killing you. We now have an alliance with the De Sanctis family. Our problems are solved thanks to your near-death experience,” Keiran told me cheerfully.

“I’m happy to be of service,” I muttered. Keiran slipped the chart back and put his hands on his hips, giving me a nod.

“Right, you lazy fecker, now that you’re awake, hurry up and free up a bed for some poor bugger who really needs it.”

“I’m injured,” I protested.

“You’ve had worse. I’d know, seeing as I’ve put Humpty-Dumpty together again enough times. I’ll check on you later,” he called, displaying his usual bedside manner, and left.

Quinn rushed around the room, grabbing her bags. “I’ve got to get to class. I wanted to stop in and see my dear, dear big brother.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “You mean check out the Italian eye candy?”

She grinned. “That, too.Ciao, fratello,” she said in the worst accent I’d ever heard.

“Hey, who’s teaching you Italian?” I shouted after her, alarmed at the thought of some smooth-talking De Sanctis made man whispering sweet nothings in Quinn’s twenty-one-year-old ear.

I was tired. I rested my head back against the pillow and closed my eyes. Why was the De Sanctis family here if Giada had abandoned me? What had happened in the meat locker? I could remember the cold feeling, and the way the blood seemed to drain out of me, like a carcass before butchering. But nothing beyond that.

I dozed, tugged under by exhaustion. There were no dreams, only warm darkness and a gentle song.

And in the magic of the Spring Tide, the moon brought my selkie to me.

When I woke again,it was night beyond the window. A fat, pale moon shone through the blinds, sending slices of light over my bed and the woman asleep beside it. Her dark hair was like a rippled blanket across her shoulders, her sooty eyelashes fanned over her cheek. A pinch of worry lived between her thick eyebrows that I wanted to soothe away.

Giada was here.

I lifted a hand and rested it on hers. Her fingers were so slender and tapered, the opposite of mine. The touch startled her awake, despite my attempt to be gentle.

She raised her head and yawned, the delicate muscles in her throat working and drawing my gaze.

She rubbed her mouth and sat up, stretching her arms over her head and pushing her breasts against her tight T-shirt. She had glasses on. I’d had no idea my smoking-hot wife could also look so fecking adorable.

She glanced around for what had woken her and then down, jerking with fright as she noticed my hand on hers.

Her eyes shot to me, and I gave her a crooked grin.

“You’re awake again! I missed it before,” she murmured and shifted forward to rest the back of her palm against my forehead, as if checking for a fever. “The doctor wasn’t sure if you needed antibiotics, or if any of the cuts on your back got infected.”

“What happened? Your brother was ready to kill me,” I said.

Giada’s face darkened. “He’s over it.”

“The urge to kill me? That’s good to know, but why didn’t he already do it?”

“I should get Doc,” she muttered, avoiding my eyes.

I grabbed her wrist before she could run away. “Why, Giada?”

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