Page 100 of Black Heart

The other reason that she didn’t bother to argue with Quinn was very simple, he was Tristan’s brother and obviously just as stubborn as her husband. Any other situation and she’d probably argue with him just to wipe that smug smile off his face, but today, she was exhausted, cranky and wanted nothing more than to crawl back in bed with her husband and sleep the rest of the night away.

“Ye won’t even know we’re here,” Quinn explained with a touch of arrogance that had her rethinking her decision not to argue.

“Fine,” Marty sighed, resigning herself to the fact that she just didn’t have the energy to do anything more than send her father a text message letting him know that they were both going to be out sick today. Once that was done, she turned her phone off and placed it on Tristan’s bureau as she walked by it. She’d wait until after they got some sleep before she worried about how she was going to drag Tristan to see a doctor for his shoulder.

It was probably going to take a lot of threatening, pleading, and manipulation on her part to get him to a doctor, but this time, he was definitely going. Last night, she’d been overwhelmed, stressed, and trying to get over the scare that Tristan gave her to put up much of a fight when he’d refused to go to the emergency room. His arm and shoulder were covered with bruises, swollen and obviously causing him a great deal of pain. He needed to go to the doctor and if she had to, she would drag his stubborn ass all the way there. First, she really needed some sleep before she dropped dead from exhaustion.

She nearly wept with relief when she pulled back the covers and crawled in bed with Tristan, who was still sound asleep. The half-hour of sleep she’d managed to get a few hours ago hadn’t been enough to wipe away a month’s worth of exhaustion. A day of rest should take care of that problem, she’d decided an hour ago when she’d forced herself to get up and go hunt down her cellphone so that she could call in sick.

Tristan wasn’t going to be happy and he’d probably bitch and glare at her when he woke up, but she didn’t care. He was just as exhausted as she was, if not more. He needed some rest and if this was the only way to make sure that he got it, then-

Why was the bed so hot? It felt like she’d crawled into a sauna. In a matter of seconds, she was sweating and shoving the covers away.

“Is everything alright, lass?” Quinn asked, stepping away from the wall, disappearing a split second later and reappearing by the bed before she could tell him that everything was fine, but one look at Tristan’s still body had her questioning that assumption.

“Tristan?”

When he didn’t open his eyes or show any sign that he’d heard her, Marty placed her hand on his good arm to give him a little shake, but the instant that she touched him, she knew that she’d made a mistake giving in last night.

“Tristan?” she said, trying not to panic as she shook him. “Tristan?”

“Lad?” Quinn grabbed Tristan by his good shoulder and rolled him over onto his back. “Ah, shit…”

“I-I need my phone,” Marty said, swallowing back the panic as her eyes locked on the large, dark purple bruises covering his left shoulder and half of his arm. That alone would have been enough to terrify her, but the swollen, angry, red, almost purple skin that surrounded the bruises was the real reason that she was suddenly terrified beyond words.

She was by no means an expert on injuries, but thanks to the summer first-aid courses that Tom ran every year, she knew enough to know that Tristan’s injury was definitely infected. They needed to get him to the hospital so that a doctor could have a look at his shoulder and fix it so that she could kill Tristan for scaring the hell out of her.

“I’m verra sorry, lass,” Quinn sighed with a small shake of his head as he stepped back.

“You’re not the one that hurt him,” Marty pointed out as she pressed the back of her hand against Tristan’s damp forehead.

“That’s not what I’m sorry for.”

“Could you get my phone, please?” He was definitely burning up. Maybe she should grab some ice packs and try to cool him down while they waited for help. She moved off the bed to go grab as much ice as she could carry when she remembered that she’d forgotten to make more earlier after she’d used up all the ice.

Shit.

Wait, no this wasn’t a problem, Marty assured herself as she headed for the door. Beth always kept a couple of bags of ice in the chest freezer just in case they lost power. Hopefully, Tom was home and could bring the ice over because she didn’t like the idea of having to leave Tristan’s side right now. Before she did anything else, she still needed to call 911, Marty realized when she saw that her phone still sitting on top of the bureau.

“Lass,” Quinn said softly as he appeared in front of her. “There’s nothing that ye can do to stop this.”

“Of course, there is,” Marty mumbled, only half listening as she reached around him to grab her phone as she debated whether she would be better off calling Tom first and-

-saw the drops of blood on Tristan’s pillow.

“There’s nothing to do now but wait for the curse to finish.”

CHAPTER39

“Everything’s going to be okay, Marty,” her father said, giving her a reassuring smile and-

He had absolutely no idea that Tristan was about to die.

“I know,” Marty lied, waiting for him to put the cruiser in park and shut down the emergency lights before she opened her door and stepped out of the car as she tried to convince herself that this wasn’t the end.

It couldn’t be. Not for them and definitely not for Tristan. He was the most stubborn man that she’d ever met, but each time she reminded herself of that fact, Quinn’s words would echo in her head, destroying what little hope she had left.

This had to be a dream.

---