Page 4 of Sinners Keepers
Hunt
TWO MONTHS LATER…
The low early morning light filled the room. Dimmed by tinted windows, the soft glow plucked at my senses.
I pried my eyes open.
It took more effort than usual.
I scrubbed the backs of my hands over them in an attempt to rub the sleep away. Roving my tongue around the inside of my mouth, I attempted to summon enough saliva to swallow but produced nothing. I coughed roughly and winced, feeling a dull ache in the back of my throat.
Every muscle in my body screamed in protest as I tried to push myself up onto my elbows.
With unfocused eyes, I took in the murky view of the room I found myself in.
White walls. Stark, unwelcoming furniture. Fluorescent lighting I suspected would be downright blinding were any of the lights actually on.
I looked down at myself, at the stiff, unfamiliar gown draped over my body. The white sheets tucked loosely around me were cold and foreign against my skin. Plastic tubing snaked from the IV in my pale, puffy arm to a bag filled with some sort of yellow fluid.
A chill wracked my weak body, causing a sharp stab of pain in my chest.
I was in the hospital.
What the fuck?
Something stirred in the corner of my vision. "Bee? You're awake."
The deep voice echoed in my ears. Only one person called me by that name.Alec Dans.
Once, Mattia called me by my first and middle name—Hunter Beatrix—in front of a room full of his men. He’d said it with that demeaning tone of his he’d always used when speaking to me or about me. Alec—being the absolute cinnamon roll he was—had decided to spin it into something cutesy and had called me Hunny Bee ever since. I suspected he’d wanted to make me feel better about myself. It worked. The fact that he actually got away with it was a feat in and of itself, but his continued use of the nickname had softened me toward him over the years. A big, scary hitman… but to me, he was just silly, adorable Alec. He was an enigma I’d given up trying to figure out years ago. I justlikedhim… so much that it was easy to look past his bloodstained hands.
The corner of my mouth twitched, tilting into a brief smile. I pressed my lips tightly together, willing the muscles there to relax. Now was not the time forsmiling, but he seemed to always have that effect on me regardless of the circumstances… and pretty much everyone else.
Alec had worked for Mattia for longer than I’d been married to him, and while I'd always been disgusted with most of the men who held such positions, a handful of them had somehow managed to charm their way into my good graces, and he was most definitely one of them.
Ijah's face flashed in my mind, his perfect features twisted in agony just as they had been the last time I'd seen him. I felt like someone had punched a hole straight through my chest. My gut lurched violently as I remembered the awful moment that brought me here.
How could he?
A feverish heat rose to the surface of my skin.
Trembling, I rolled onto my side and dry heaved over the edge of the bed. There was nothing in my stomach to be emptied, my body attempting to expel the broken promises clinging thickly to the back of my throat.
Alec slowly rose from behind me, his large, warm hands massaging my tense back in slow circles. His touch was gentle and soothing; the gesture eased my mind a fraction in regard to his presence. It was wise for me to question everything at this point, regardless of the fact that I had once enjoyed being around him for the small amounts of time I was allowed to be.
Could I trust him?
I had no one else now, anyway.
I thought I could trust Ijah, and I had been so very wrong about that.
My breaths came in quick, forced gasps. “How. How could h–”
I sobbed as he pulled my body into his. “Deep breaths, Hunny Bee. You’re going to hyperventilate.” He stroked up and down the outside of my arm. “It’s never as bad as it seems.”
“I don’t know how you can say that. Not now. Not about this,” I sucked in a long, stuttered breath, expanding my lungs and rib cage to full capacity and flooding my fuzzed brain with fresh oxygen.
“You’re going to be okay. You’ve already been so strong through so much,” he said. “You’ll get through this. I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere. We’ll do it all together, okay?” He placed a chaste kiss on the top of my head as he spoke, and I couldn’t help but find a small amount of comfort in his words. His touch grounded me in a way that caught me completely off guard.
