Page 73 of Beyond Rosy Irish Twilight

“Who’s covering it now?”

“Lock and Patrick. Chase is chained to his bed.”

My brows furrowed at that. “Why?”

“Because when you collapsed and started seizing on the ground, he tried to haul you off to the hospital by himself.”

I rolled my eyes at that. “Stupid fucker.”

“That’s what they’re all calling the two of you. For a few days, they had you both in the same room so Lock could keep an eye on the two of you at the same time.”

I looked down at where her hand was joined with mine. “And what about you?”

“What about me?”

I looked back up at her and knew we needed to clear the air now. She looked exhausted, and it was either because she was taking care of me or she wasn’t sleeping. “We need to talk.”

She tried to pull her hand from mine, but I used every last ounce of strength to keep her by my side. So much that it hurt my head to try so damn hard.

“Asher, stop! You’re going to hurt yourself.”

“I need to talk to you,” I grunted.

“Not right now, you don’t. You’re lucky to be alive. Just be grateful Lock got you to the hospital in time.”

She wrenched her hand from mine and I tried to sit up, but failed miserably. She shook her head as she backed away from me. That caring look I saw on her face just moments ago was gone, and in its place wariness.

“Jade—”

“I should tell Lock you’re awake. I promise to ask him not to knock you out again.”

She slipped out of the room before I could talk to her—before I could tell her what an asshole I was for treating her the way I had. This whole situation was FUBAR, but I was used to dealing with this shit. She was an innocent bystander in all this. I knew it deep in my gut. Whatever happened with her father, the supposed betrayal that got her father so riled up, it wasn’t the way he made it sound. I needed to make things right with her.

The door opened and Lock smirked at me, walking over with a syringe.

“Don’t bring that near me.”

“Sorry, man. I can’t trust you to stay in this fucking bed and let your body recover. I don’t have a choice.”

“I’m not leaving,” I said quickly. “I’ll make a deal with you.”

He was about to shove the syringe into the IV, but stopped and waited to hear me out.

“I have to make things right with Jade. If you make sure she stays here with me and hears me out, I promise not to move my ass from this bed unless I have your explicit permission.”

“Hmm, I don’t know that I can trust you. Let’s face it, we’re all alike. I wouldn’t stay in that bed either.”

“Where the fuck am I going to go?”

He considered this for a moment. “Look, I don’t have time to babysit your ass. Cash expects us back at OPS by the end of the week, which means you need to be up and fully functioning by then. That’s not going to happen if you keep pushing it.”

I nodded. “I get it.”

“Do you?” he asked, his eyes narrowing on me. “Because you had a fucking brain bleed, which I told you was a possibility when you got your skull bashed in, but you refused to listen to me. This is fucking serious. You were lucky you didn’t need surgery, but it could have been a lot worse. You can’t push it right now. You’re going to be tired and need extra sleep.”

I nodded in understanding.

“I have some pills for you in case you have trouble sleeping. Headaches, nausea, being tired…those are all common after a hemorrhage. You shouldn’t really be doing your fucking job, but not doing it will get you killed. Patrick is now watching both you and Jade.”

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