Page 8 of Vows of Betrayal

I laughed and turned my head.

Gosh.

Even covered in buckets of blood, he was still a great-looking guy.

My free hand traveled to the side of his face. I touched him there and whispered, “I think I love you, too, Stefan.” And the really, really weird thing about that was—it didn’t feel like a lie. Which was insane. Because I didn’t even know this man.

And I certainly didn’t love him.

Right?

“What the fuck’s going on in here?” a loud voice shouted into the room.

I bolted up and saw an older man there. He was a doctor. Probably the surgeon on call.

“He’s waiting for surgery. They asked me to stay with him until you came,” I lied my face off. He didn’t have to know that, though.

The doctor huffed and looked at the X-rays in his hands. He held them up and whistled. “Christ. What a fuckin’ mess. A guy would have to be crazy to try to fix that.”

My heart sank, and I immediately started in on him. “You have to. He has five kids at home,” I lied again. “Some random shooter got him in a mall. Didn’t you hear about it in the news? People will go crazy if it gets out that nobody even bothered to try to help him.” Something else came to me. “Especially since he saved hundreds of people’s lives by disarming the gunman.”

Gosh.

If lightning suddenly struck me because of all the lies I’d just told the doctor, I wouldn’t be surprised.

The surgeon’s head snapped to me. “All right. Let’s see if we can save this hero’s life, shall we?”

3

Stefan

Jesus-mother-fucking-Christ.

I tried to roll over onto my side. But for some unknown reason—I couldn’t.

I opened my eyes—or I tried to. Instead, I was met with a dark, heavy void.

What the fuck was going on?

“Oh, geez Louise, hold on. Don’t pull that out yourself or we’re going to have a whack of problems. Hang on,” a voice that sounded like an angel’s said. A warm hand landed on my cheek. And this time—I actually was able to open my eyes.

The most beautiful woman I’d ever seen in my fucking life greeted me.

Fuck.

Was I in Heaven? Did I die?

From the pain in my goddamn chest right now, I’d guess that was what happened.

The angel smiled down at me. “Shh, you’re fine, Stefan. Don’t move, okay? You’ll only make this harder.” Her thumb swiped back and forth over my cheek. For some reason, it calmed me immediately. I trusted my angel. I laid my head back down on the pillow and calmed the fuck down. That was when I noticed some kind of tube was stuck down my throat. I couldn’t close my mouth. “Get this out of me,” I said as my fingers desperately grasped onto the tube.

Or at least that was what I’d tried to say. Instead, it came out as a series of grunts.

“Hey, hey, honey,” my angel said in an almost lyrical voice. “Don’t panic.” Her hand landed on mine near my mouth. “You’re going to be just fine. The nurses are busy, but I know how to do this. Just relax.” The sound of her voice—it was like a goddamn song. Every word she said floated over me and through me. I swear to Christ I could—feel—her words.

Against my better judgment, I let go of the tube and waited for my angel to deal with this fuckin’ thing.

And then—she smiled at me again.

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