Page 11 of Chasing Temptation
Concern and exhaustion covers her face, her brows pulled tightly together.
“If you hadn’t just come out of surgery, I’d put you in there myself for scaring me like that.”
“Wha—”
“Here, have some water.” Looking to my left, I find Quinn holding out a plastic cup with a straw.
She looks beautiful. She always will to me, but it’s clear to see that she’s been through a harrowing experience. She has huge, dark circles under her eyes. Her skin is a pale grey colour, and her cheeks look a little sunken. But it’s the cut lip and the angry bruise high up on her cheekbone that have a burning need for revenge raging through my body. The thought of what he could have done to her in that dark room has the little contents of my stomach threatening to make themselves known.
“Not now,” she whispers, her eyes pleading with mine to let it go. She can clearly read my thoughts, making me wish I could read everything she’s feeling in this moment, but my head’s too fuzzy to know my own thoughts let alone hers.
After drinking the entire cup, I turn back to my best friend. “Not that I’m not happy to see you, but why are you here?”
“Nice,” she says with a laugh. “I’m your next of kin. I got a phone call to say you’d been stabbed and I damn near crapped my pants. Why didn’t you tell me about any of this?” She gestures to Quinn, and I immediately feel terrible for shutting her out of this part of my life.
“I did. I told you...this morning?”
“Friday morning,” she says after looking at her watch. “That was probably a little late though, don’t you think?”
I shrug. Quinn was a huge part of my reason for keeping us secret, and I’d go to the ends of the earth to protect her. I hope I’d proved that.
Quinn sits silently beside me. Her hand might be in mine, but with her legs curled up under her in as small a ball as she can manage, she looks more closed off than I’ve ever seen her. I want to pull her into my arms and never let her go, but even turning to look at her fucking hurts.
A firm knock sounds out in the small room before a young female police officer pokes her head in.
“Good to see you awake, Mr. Kingsman.” A small smile twitches at her mouth before she turns to Quinn. “Could we have a chat please, Ms. Davenport?”
My brows draw together.Davenport?
Quinn uncurls her legs and stands. It’s then that I really see what her few days captive have done to her. The pair of leggings she’s wearing are hanging off her, and the hoodie’s hanging loosely from her shoulders. How is that possible after such a short amount of time?
I’m too confused by everything as she kisses my forehead and follows the copper from the room. My head spins with the hazy memories of what happened for me to end up here.
“What did she just call Quinn?”
“Ms. Davenport. Why?”
The name Elizabeth pops into my head for some reason, but I can’t pinpoint why.
“N-nothing.” I’m too confused to even attempt to make any sense of it.
There’s another knock on the door and I’m forced to push my thoughts aside as a doctor and a nurse make their way into the room.
“Mr. Kingsman, it’s so good to finally see those eyes,” the nurse coos softly. Her tone makes my spine stiffen. I don’t need anyone to talk to me like a fucking child.
“I’m just going to go and grab a coffee. Let you do your thing. I’ll be back soon.” Lauren squeezes my hand and mouths ‘be good’ before slipping from the room. As if I’d be anything but. I roll my eyes at her retreating form before glancing back at the patronising nurse.
She pulls the clipboard from the base of my bed and starts taking notes while the doctor questions me about my pain levels and checks the lines in the back of my hand, which I only now notice are attached to bags of blood hanging above my head.
He must see where my attention is because he starts explaining.
“You lost a lot of blood before you got here, but hopefully by the time this bag is done you won’t need any more. The stab wound could have done some real damage to your bowel, so we had to open you up and assess the situation. I’m pleased to say it really could have been a lot worse. You were relatively lucky, Mr. Kingsman.”
Lucky?I was stabbed by a psychopath who locked up my girl like his fucking prisoner. The memory hits me like a fucking sledgehammer.
The machine beside me starts beeping incessantly.
“You really need to stay calm, Mr. Ki—”
