Page 36 of Guarded Hearts
“You don’t have to pretend with me.” I ran a hand along the side of her face and then kissed her temple. The door popped open, and I sprang back, stuffing my hands in the pockets of my jeans. A spike of annoyance made me ball my hands into fists. At times like this, I wanted to be able to comfort her without wondering how it would look, whether people wouldn’t just suspect the truth but wouldknowit.
Emika eyed us and set the ice packs on the bench beside Alyssa. “You can go,” she said to me as she eased Alyssa’s shoe off her foot. “I’ll find someone to transport her to the hospital after I’ve had a chance to look her over.”
“No.” The radio attached to my hip beeped. The show had finished. “I’ll take her. I have to rearrange security, but I’ll be back in a few minutes to take her.”
I yanked the radio off my hip. My earpiece was full of chatter from the other security guards, who were ferrying Mia to the backstage area to meet the VIP fans. I stepped out into the hallway and gave instructions to the other guards about which areas they were covering and their primary focus for the next few hours. Then, I sent a text to Mia through my watch to let her know where I was going.
Slipping back into the room, I was surprised to see Alyssa putting weight on her foot. Her face was white, and her eyes were glassy. The ankle was swollen, and a purple-blue bruise was blossoming on the side. “See?” she said. “I don’t need a hospital. Some ice. Some rest. Good as new.”
“It’s policy—Mia’s policy—to have, at a minimum, X-rays for any injuries where a broken bone is a possibility. The trip to the hospital wasn’t a suggestion or a request. It’s an order,” Emika said.
She didn’t need to tell me twice. I swept Alyssa up. “Thank you,” I said to Emika as they left. Whether or not Alyssa liked it, I wasn’t having her walk to the car to prove some nonexistent point. She’d hurt herself, and she wasn’t a doctor or an X-ray machine. Her career was dependent on her health.
As I headed toward the car, one of the other bodyguards let me know that Mia would come to the hospital as soon as the fan event was over. I’d rather she didn’t, but I understood why she would.
“I have to be able to dance,” Alyssa whispered, her brown eyes tinged with panic. “If I can’t dance, I can’t pay my bills.”
“If you’re injured, you’re injured.”
“I won’t be able to help you anymore.”
“You can still help. I’ll just have to dance it alone.”
She rested her head on my shoulder and sighed. “That’ll take too long, be too slow. Maybe Mia can find more time in her schedule.”
I knew Mia’s schedule for the next few weeks. As things ramped up for the end of the tour and the wedding, she had even less time than normal. “Maybe.” There was no point in creating more stress for Alyssa when it was possible her ankle would be fine. The immediate bruising and swelling, though, made me think otherwise.
In the car, she was so quiet I wanted to ask what she was thinking, but I wasn’t sure how to comfort her. Maybe something else would take hermind off her ankle, the predicament if she couldn’t dance for a while. “How is your sister?”
Alyssa released a harsh-sounding laugh. “A traitor.”
“Doesn’t sound good.”
“It’s not, but there isn’t much I can do about it. She’s Team Kevin, who is her boyfriend, above everyone else. Whatever he says or does is the gold standard.”
“Did you get in a fight?”
“Not really. Kinda. I don’t know. Kevin made her call me to talk about taking Ricky back once the tour is done.”
“Ricky? The one who stole from you?”
“That’s the one. Ridiculous, right?”
Except the way she said it, the tone of voice she used, made me think she’d considered forgiving him—might even be considering it now, in the car while she was with me. Disbelief and frustration bubbled to the surface. It was inconceivable that she could consider forgiving him.
Underneath those emotions, pushing the others out of the way, was jealousy, so intense, so unexpected it rendered me speechless. She deserved so much better than a man who cheated on her, stole from her, and then asked her sister’s asshole boyfriend to feel her out for a reconciliation. He didn’t even have the guts to turn up and apologize in person.
At the hospital, as the doctors and nurses ran tests on her ankle, I couldn’t concentrate on anything but the bomb she’d dropped in the car. After so many weeks of being in her inner circle, I’d thought I knew her, was coming to understand her, but now I was at a loss.
Did she want a man who hurt her? Did she enjoy the pain?
While I’d been glad to have the ache of wanting her vanish, perhaps she thrived on the drama. Maybe I missed that about her. I couldn’t bewith a woman who demanded an emotional roller coaster, no matter how attractive I found her, no matter how much my chest burned at the thought of not having her.
“I’m really worried,” Alyssa said, yanking me out of my head and back into the hospital room.
I raised my eyebrows but couldn’t speak. I didn’t want to talk about her injury. Instead, I wanted to dig into what had made her sayridiculouswhen she’d clearly meantmaybe. The urge to ferry her away, find some way to turn themaybeinto aridiculouswas all I could think about. She couldn’t go back to Ricky. She couldn’t. What could I say or offer or do? Promises I couldn’t keep would make me like every other guy who’d let her down. I wouldn’t do that, but I had to do something.
The curtain to our section of the emergency room came back, and the doctor entered with Mia and Gerald on her heels. Mia had changed from her final concert outfit to jeans, heels, and a cashmere sweater. Whenever she was worried her age would be a factor in a decision, she dressed older, as though her version of mom clothes would make people take her more seriously.
