Page 90 of Vicious Desire (Fallen Royals 4)

I almost expected a million tubes to be coming out of him like Mom, but he just has one leg elevated, casted, and an IV taped to his hand.

His gaze snaps from the TV to me.

We stare at each other for a moment.

“Is Mom here?” he asks.

I shake my head. “Dad’s outside.”

He scoffs. “Is he pissed he was dragged away from work?”

“I doubt it.” I drag a chair closer and sit, tapping his cast. “Broken?”

“My wrist. They, ah, hit it with a bat.” He closes his eyes. “I think they were aiming for my head.”

“Who did it?” I ask. “The hospital had to call the police, but—”

“But?” Noah glares at me.

I pull the photograph from my pocket and hand it to him. “Someone’s stalking us.”

He looks at it for a solid thirty seconds.

The door opens, and he crumples it. Shoves it back into my hand.

“Hide it,” he snaps. “And stop digging.”

I sit up straighter. Dad and the doctor are still talking, so we have the barest moment—

“Who did this?”

He grabs my hand. “The more you dig, the worse it’ll be. This was a random mugging, got it?”

“Noah,” Dad says. “How do you feel?”

I gently pull away from my brother. The flash drive in my pocket burns where it rests on my skin, and I put the now-crinkled photo in with it.

“I feel like I went three rounds with Muhammed Ali,” Noah says.

I roll my eyes. “You wouldn’t make it past round one.”

He grunts.

Dad smiles. “They’re keeping you overnight to make sure everything is okay, and you’ll go home tomorrow afternoon.”

Someone knocks on the door, and a familiar face strides into the room.

Detective Masters.

He questioned me when Margo went missing, and it left a rather bad taste in my mouth.

But your brother is the victim.

“Detective Jim Masters,” my father says.

I’m shocked into stillness for a moment, but then I realize of course Dad knows him. Not only was he there during my interview, but they’ve probably been on the same side of a case or two.

Before Dad took a job in the city, he worked as a prosecutor for Hillshire County. It was a flexible job at the time, enough to cover the bills that Mom’s insurance wouldn’t, the mortgage, school… but once she was in remission, he stepped up his game.

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