Page 107 of Fall of a Kingdom
RAMSEY
I woketo the sound of beeping machines. My eyes flipped open, and I stared at the ceiling. If the machines hadn’t alerted me I was in a hospital, the scent alone would’ve done it. It smelled like nothing. A blank slate of aroma. Only the faintest trace of sterilization and cleaning chemicals.
“Christ,” I muttered.
“That’s putting it mildly.”
I turned my head. My brother sat in the chair by my bedside. The lamp was on, carving shadows into one side of his face.
“What are you doing here?” I growled.
“What do you meanwhat am I doing here,you eejit?I came as soon as I heard what happened.”
I smiled despite the situation. Or maybe it was the morphine in my system making me daft. “I meant, how are you in my room? It’s long past visiting hours, aye?”
Duncan arched a brow, and in that moment, he looked exactly like our deceased father. “Aye,” he said. “But when you have the Buchanan charm, you can convince the nurses of anything.”
“Charm?” I snorted. “Please. I’m the one who got all the Buchanan charm. You paid off the nurses, didn’t you?”
“You’re a pain in the arse.”
“How much,” I pressed, a smile spreading across my face.
“I didn’t pay them off,” Duncan snapped. He exhaled and ran a hand through his dark hair. “But I might’ve used some very choice words about what would happen if they chose to deny me entrance to your room.”
I scrubbed a hand across my chin. Stubble. I hated it. I wanted to shave immediately.
“I’m alive. Who found me after it happened?” I asked.
“Genevieve.” Duncan’s jaw clenched. “She found you bleeding out on the floor of the Whisky Room.”
The Madame of The Fifteenth Floor of the Dallas Rex was cool headed, calculating, and equipped to handle anything that was thrown at her.
“We’re all dying to know what the fuck happened.”
“A crazy wench tried to kill me. Thank God she didn’t go for my bollocks.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Duncan spat. “This isn’t a joke. Why can’t you take anything seriously?”
“You take everything seriously enough for the both of us,” I pointed out.
“You could’ve died,” he shouted, rising from his chair.
“Aye,” I agreed. “But I didn’t.”
He closed his eyes like he was praying for strength. He opened them and stared down at me. “I need more details than that. What happened?”
“Can I get some water first?”
“You’re pushing it,” he muttered, but damn if he didn’t pour me a glass from the blue plastic pitcher that rested on the nightstand next to the lamp.
Once I had my fill, I leaned back against the pillows. The morphine in my system was keeping me comfortable, but it was also making me tired, and I could tell from the way my body was responding that I had been seriously injured.
“There was a woman in the casino. I took her up to the Whisky Room and we were… well, I don’t like to kiss and tell.” I flashed my brother a teasing grin, but he didn’t smile back. “She pulled a knife out of her gown without me seeing it. Old school style. Like she was some sort of fucking assassin. She stabbed me hard and deep, and I froze for a moment. I was about to grab her, but she darted away from me. I was losing blood fast. She ran out of the room, and I tried to follow, but I passed out.”
“I’ve been telling Flynn we need better security measures in the casinos.”
“What would that entail? Frisking our guests? Metal detectors?” I raised my brows. “No better way to piss off the clientele.”
