Page 98 of Beyond Rosy Irish Twilight

“She’s getting dressed and then she’ll be down,” I said to Kate. I looked at Hunter and Knight, then back at the stairs. “She doesn’t know what I suspect about her mother, and she’s not going to know until we’re sure we can help in some way. As far as you’re concerned, you’re just going in to see if you can check her over and make sure she’s able to be transported over here. Then we’ll see if we can convince Ambrose to let us bring her mother here.”

“I still don’t get why he would let you do that,” Hunter inserted.

“Because Ambrose likes control, and if I tell him that I’m using her mother to keep control over her, he’ll see that as a good thing. Besides, it’s clear he doesn’t care about her.”

“You’re lying to her,” Knight snapped.

“For her benefit. I won’t get her hopes up only to have them dashed if we can’t get her out.”

I heard her footsteps at the top of the stairs and sent them all a warning glare. I didn’t know much about this guy Knight, but his wife seemed like an honest enough woman, one that I could trust to do the right thing. However, Knight didn’t look like he was happy about any of this, and that could end up being a problem.

“Jade,” I said, turning my focus to my wife. She smiled at me nervously as she came down the stairs and placed her hand in mine. “This is Kate Knight. She’s the doctor I was telling you about.”

“I’m so nervous,” Jade said honestly. “I don’t want to get my hopes up. The doctors have said there’s very little that can be done for her.”

Kate smiled at her and placed her hand on Jade’s back. “How about before we go over, you and I talk about some of your concerns?”

Jade guided her into the other room, which I was grateful for. I didn’t want to hear any of the lies or half-lies that Kate would tell her. But when I looked back at the two men standing in front of me, I only saw anger on their faces.

“Something wrong?”

“We need to talk,” Knight grumbled.

“Fine, let’s go to my office.”

I led the way down the hall and closed the door behind them as they both walked in. They didn’t bother sitting, only turning to me with matching glares.

“What can I do for you?”

“I don’t like any of this, most of all that you’ve dragged my wife into the same fucking house as Ambrose Buchanan. I’ve done my own research since my wife agreed to take this job, and what I’m finding out I don’t like.”

“None of us do.”

He took a menacing step forward, crowding my space. He thought he was intimidating me, but I’d been around some of the worst people in this world. He wasn’t going to make me back down.

“My wife means the world to me. She has a good heart and her conscience won’t let her turn down anyone in need. It’s just who she is. But that doesn’t mean I’ll let you use her.”

“And why would you think I would use her?”

He took another step closer. “You called her out here because you’re too chicken shit to tell her the truth.”

“And what’s that?”

“Ambrose is a piece of shit. You wouldn’t be moving her mother unless Ambrose was a threat to her in some way. Which means that my wife is by design in danger too.”

“Ambrose wouldn’t hurt anyone. He’s got a public reputation to uphold. The only people you have to worry about him harming are the men from the underworld.”

“And his wife,” he reminded me. “She’s an innocent, yet she’s stuck in a body that doesn’t work. You want to rethink that statement?”

“Your wife isn’t in danger as long as she tells him exactly what he needs to hear, which is that there’s nothing she can do for his wife.”

“You’re very free with what you’re insisting on her doing,” Knight growled. “She’s first and foremost a doctor. She’s not the best at pretending things are fine when they’re not.”

“Then you’d better convince her we’re doing what’s best for Jade’s mother. If we can get her out of that house, she might actually have a chance to recover.”

“We’ll do our part,” the other man spoke up. “My name’s Hunter. I was a medic in the military. I’ll be going in with Kate to keep an eye on her as her assistant.”

“I can assure you—”

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