Page 58 of Scorched King

I shook my head. She might think we could laugh this one off, but it wasn’t happening.

“I’m going to kill him for this.”

She stared up at me, and I didn’t know if she understood the promise in my words. But I meant it. It was my vow.

“JD.” She reached up and touched my face. “Thank you for saving me.”

“Never should have let him get that close.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“Yeah. It is. I had a feeling he wasn’t the brother we thought he was. But I couldn’t be sure. I didn’t want to fuck this up this bad.” I stroked my finger against the red marks he’d left behind on her neck. That was going to be a tough image to let go of.

I closed my eyes and pushed those thoughts away. I’d tried to tell her I was too fucked up for this and now I was about to prove it.

“Still not your fault. A man like that makes a choice to hurt people, that’s on him.”

That didn’t sound much different from the decisions I’d made over the years and the countless people I’d hurt.

“You’re different,” she whispered. “You don’t hurt for the sake of hurting. You don’t have a selfish bone in your body. If you make the decision that someone has to be taken care of it’s because they deserve it.”

“You don’t have to try and justify who I am, sweetheart. I made my peace with that a long time ago. I just don’t like that my life keeps putting you in harms way. Or that you have to witness any part of this. This is why I don’t get involved. Why you and I weren’t supposed to?—”

“Please don’t do that. Don’t use this as an excuse to push me away again. I’m an adult, I make my own decisions.”

I cocked my head, but the look she gave me quelled the retort sitting on the tip of my tongue. For now.

“Jeanne is on her way here. She’s going to check you out.”

“I’m pretty sure I’m fine. Throat’s just gonna be a little sore.”

It was my turn to give her a look. “Either she checks you out or we’re going to the hospital. Those are your only choices.”

I could see she wanted to argue, but I also could spot the tell-tale signs of fatigue. The red rimmed eyes that kept drooping, and the slow movements of her limbs. I only hoped those weren’t symptoms of something more serious.

“Maybe we should just go to the hospital. I don’t want to take any chances.”

“No!” Her eyes went wide with fear again and I pressed her hand to my cheek.

“It’s okay, baby girl. Either way, I’m not leaving your side. Just relax. If Jeanne gets here when she says she is, we’ll let her look you over first and then she’ll make the call whether we need to go, deal?

She nodded, and while I normally preferred to hear the answer when I asked a question this important, I wasn’t going to force her to talk this time. Plus, her soft fingers were caressing my cheek and beard and I didn’t want to interrupt that process with my gruff demands.

Seeing her like this was hard enough, so the last thing I wanted to do was force her back to the hospital if I didn’t have to. I think between the two of us, if we never saw that place again it would be too soon.

A minute later a knock sounded at the door, breaking our quiet moment, and bringing me back to the ugly details at hand. It wasn’t only her health I had to deal with. Although she was by far the priority.

“Come in,” I answered, grabbing Sasha’s hand from my cheek and bringing it to my lips for as tender of a kiss as I was capable of.

“I came as quickly as I could.” Jeanne rushed through the door with her medical bag in hand. “What happened?”

“Intruder. He tried to choke her.”

“What?!” Jeanne jerked her gaze to mine, and I read the clear disbelief in her eyes. “I thought this place was a fortress.”

“It is.” And if she thought I was going to elaborate beyond that, she was wrong. What went on here was none of her business other than if someone needed medical assistance and we paid her far beyond well for her services to keep it at that. Besides, the less she knew the better for her own sake.

She finally jerked her eyes from mine and turned towards Sasha. “All right, let’s make some room and let me make an assessment. Did you call 911? I can handle it until the ambulance arr?—”

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