Page 37 of Cruel Ice

Declan threw a glance back over his shoulder at Parker. “It’sMarley’sblood.” It had to be. He’d picked her up. Carried her against him. “She’s in the limo. It is bulletproof so I put her in there…I-I didn’t know she was hurt!” He had to get to her.

“Where is the damn limo?” Parker snarled. “And, Officer Masters, don’t even think of firing that weapon, got it? Standdown!”

Then Parker and Declan were racing toward the end of the alley. Racing toward the limo that waited. Declan yanked open the side door. The interior lights shined brightly so he could easily see Marley as she huddled against the leather seat. And as blood utterly soaked her right arm.

“Hi.” She grimaced at him. “There’s, um…something I need to tell you…”

So much blood.Declan could not move. He could not speak. He could not breathe.Marley had been shot.

“EMT!” Parker bellowed. “We need an EMT over here, right now!”

Marley nodded. “That’s what I needed to tell you.”

“Why in thehell didn’t you tell me that you’d been shot as soon as it freaking happened?” Declan demanded as he sat by the hospital bed.

Her hospital bed. Their positions had been reversed. She’d been the one sitting in the chair and keeping watch over him not too long ago and now…

He glowered at her.

“I don’t think I need to stay the night. Serious overkill.” She had to wince at her own choice of words. Especially considering the dead body that had been in the alley.Don’t picture him. Stop seeing him in your head.

Only that was a very difficult task. Each time she closed her eyes, the image replayed. Only sometimes, it wasn’t Keith’s image. It was Declan’s.What if I hadn’t gotten him out of the way in time? What if the bullets had taken out Declan? Right in front of me?

“Marley.” Growled.

She blinked at him. “Yes?”

“Why in the hell didn’t you tell me that you’d been shot?”

“Because I was trying to keep you safe! Because it all happened so fast and…I think it was more of a really bad graze than anything else. Not like the bullet went into me.” She held up her arm. An arm that sported twelve stitches and a large, white bandage. “I lost a little blood.”

“Your blood was everywhere.”

“You heard the doctor. Wounds like this can bleed a lot at first. I’m stitched up. I’m fine.” She tried a sunny smile. Her arm was numb, and she’d been poked and prodded for hours. Sunny was the last thing she felt, but Marley could fake it for him. “Howabout you go get me some clothes so I can ditch this hospital gown, and we get out of here, hmmm?”

He’d hauled the chair right next to the bed. He leaned close, his fingers came out and curled around her chin, and Declan very firmly told her, “No.”

She blinked. “I don’t have to stay.”

“You fucking do. You were shot. You were covered in blood. You were shaking.”

He had made a few important points. “So, first, I was in shock. That’s why I was shaking.” No need to go into all the details about how the blood on her body had reminded her of another time, and it had sent her on a psychological spin that had made her dizzy and terrified and—stop.Marley sucked in a breath. “Wounds bleed. That’s the normal course of things. I’ve been stitched up. My vitals are good. Staying here is completely?—”

“Necessary,” Declan concluded.

Not exactly. “I was going to say unnecessary. You forgot the ‘un’part.”

His breath whispered out. His thumb slid over her lower lip.

A shiver skated down her spine. The shiver had nothing to do with the icy temperature in the hospital room and everything to do with the man staring so intently at her. “It was also unnecessary to tell the hospital staff that you were my fiancé.” Did her tongue touch his thumb?Yes.

The gold in the middle of his hazel eyes heated. “You’d already told the lie here once before.” His thumb brushed over her lower lip again. “I just repeated it so that no one would be foolish enough to try and kick me out of your room. I’m staying with you, all night.”

“I don’t need a billionaire to sit and watch me sleep.”

“Too bad. You’re getting one.” His jaw locked. “And don’t you ever,everhurt again and not tell me.”

“It was a graze. It was?—”

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