Page 26 of The Art of You

“Hud-son,” I emphasized his name right back. “You kicking yourself for all thewhat-could-have-beensdoes just about as much good as me beating myself up for distracting you last night.” At his signature scowl he seemed to enjoy reserving forme, I copied his deep exhalation with one of my own, worried I wasn’t getting through to him.

“You know how hard it is for me to look at your black eye and your arm in that sling?” His voice was raw and hoarse with emotion. “Your brothers almost lost their sister.”

Again.I heard the unspoken word. It’d been jostling around in my head, too.

“Was it the FBI keeping you away from me since I left your room, or did you not want to look at me?”

His forehead creased. “A little of both?” At least he was being honest.

“I want you to be angry, not sad.” I held on to my sling like a safety blanket. “What I mean is that we need to focus on who put us here in the first place and why. Channel our frustrations into something useful and solve this case. I thought we were on the same page about this. Did those Feds get into your head? Did Agent Asshole visit you, too? Are you having doubts about what happened?”

“You mean Clarke? Yeah, he tried to mindfuck me and failed. Constantine told me he did the same to you. Word is I might need a defense lawyer. After the hell you gave that man, sounds like you’d be up for the job.” His lips twitched, fighting a surprising smile. “Thanks for having my six.”

“Always.” The word came out like a breath of air, because I’d been caught off guard at how charming he’d come across discussing potential murder charges.

“But no, no one got into my head. Least of all that prick.” He dropped his smile while staring at my bruised face, and his blue eyes quickly went from disarming determination to full-on devastation.

Eyes cast to the ground, I couldn’t help but swing my legs over the side of the bed and stand, needing him to stop seeing me as a sick patient.

“Don’t avoid looking at me just because it’s hard to do.”I mean, it hurts me to look at you, too.But I wouldn’t admit that. I swallowed that last bit of space between us, my body practically flush with his. I was fully aware my brothers were in the hall, and they had to see this confrontation happening, but I didn’t care. “Look at me and let these bruises motivate you to find the real shooter instead.”

His nostrils flared. Mine probably were, too. But my words were working. He righted his posture, becoming a statue of intimidation again. And his eyes? They were a deep, lethal blue as the need for justice simmered there. Definitely anger over sadness and worry now.

He swung his focus to the hall a beat later. I was certain Constantine’s presence there was the reason for Hudson’s three backward steps away from me. “We need to find a place to lie low for a few days.”

His father pretty much insisted the same thing earlier, and I was in agreement. “But where do we go?Howdo we get clear of everyone? There’s so much media and police here, you’d think Taylor Swift’s inside the building.” I sidestepped him to go over to the window to take another look down below.

“Bella,” he bit out at the same moment I felt the draft at my back.

And of course, the gown had come untied. I hadn’t planned for that little tease, because this wasn’t the time or the place for it, but knowing the man might be staring at my ass did manage to distract my thoughts from the darkness we’d been cloaked in all day.

I looped the strings together and whirled around while knotting the tie. “Tell me I didn’t moon anyone else?”

Jaw clenched and eyes narrowing on mine in frustration suggested he hadn’t turned away from the free show. “I must beblocking their view, or your brothers would already be in here lecturing you.”

Good point.

“But I saw, so thank you for that,” he gritted out.

“Well, at least it’s one part of me not bruised. I mean, it’s not, is it?” I stole a look over my shoulder, pretending to check out my own ass. “I can’t even get you to crack a smile after seeing my crack. I’m losing my touch.”

“Glad to see your sense of humor wasn’t lost on the side of that road last night. Mine was.”

“Since when did you have one?” Teasing this man was much more preferable to remembering why we were in the hospital in the first place.Ignorance is blissis an expression for a reason, after all.

He fake-scowled, which was adorable until he winced, rubbing his jaw from the pain his facial expression had caused. “We were talking about something before you exposed yourself, what was it?”

“Exposed, huh? Makes me sound like a streaker running through Times Square.”

And score, another smile from the man.

“We’d been talking about how to escape the hospital without having the press breathing down our necks,” I finally relinquished the answer while doing a mental victory lap at the fact Hudson wasn’t immune to my charms after all. At least not to my ass. The fact I was thinking about this right now meant I was probably overdue for an appointment with my therapist. “That’s assuming the FBI will let us go.”

“The Feds can’t keep us. Seems to me you did an even better job than I did at outlining all the reasons why I’m innocent.”

Minus accidentally admitting you were carrying last night to that Clarke guy.

His attention flicked to the window. “We’ve been ordered to remain available, though.”

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