Page 18 of Beyond Rosy Irish Twilight

“I’m sorry,” she said quietly.

I sighed heavily. Yelling at her wasn’t going to solve anything. Normally, I was really good with women like this, terrified of whatever haunted them. But with the weight of her father’s words hanging over my head, I didn’t have the patience for taking my time to let her process whatever was going on.

“Jade, if there’s something I need to know, now’s the time to tell me.”

She finally opened her eyes and sat up, but she still wouldn’t look at me. “It’s nothing. I just remembered the explosion.”

That was a lie.

“And so you ran into the street?”

She remained quiet as I sat there. I didn’t have time for this. I pushed to my feet and turned for the door. “The doctor will be here soon. He’ll give you something for the pain.”

“Thank you,” she whispered.

I shook my head, scoffing in irritation. “Whatever happened to not liking the feel of drugs?”

She didn’t respond, and I walked out the door. I had this burning desire to find out what was going on, but I couldn’t sit around and wait for her to tell me. Too much was riding on my job, our marriage, and not pissing off Ambrose.

“You ready?” Chase asked as I walked into the other room.

“Let’s go.”

His eyes flicked to the bedroom. “How is she?”

I glared at him, refusing to answer. “We’re leaving. Now.”

His eyebrows flicked up in amusement. “Yes, boss.”

“I told you, I’m not your fucking boss,” I muttered as I stormed past him.

8

JADE

The last two days dragged on. Patrick practically forced me to stay in bed and recover, but made sure I had plenty to keep me entertained. In all honesty, I had never just stayed in bed all day. It was…weird. He would come in every few hours and put on a new movie for me or bring me more food. And as usual, according to the doctor’s instructions, I was given a dose of pain medication that promptly knocked me out. I basically drifted in and out of my day blissfully without the major pains of my ordeal a few days ago.

The concussion, however, wasn’t going away as easily. When I had medication, it dulled the pain, but when it wore off, even the slightest light made it feel like needles were stabbing my eyeballs. Patrick always seemed to know when that happened, because he would come in with more medication.

Now, it was the second night I’d been at Asher’s place and Patrick had yet to come in with my medication. My heart sank, thinking this was some kind of twisted joke on me. I laid in bed with a pillow over my head and tried to block out even the smallest amount of light. But nothing was helping the pounding in my head.

“Jade?”

His deep voice had me stiffening. I hadn’t seen him since yesterday when he brought me here. I felt the bed depress next to me, and then he lifted the pillow off my head just a little. At my wince, he covered me back up and stood. I heard his footsteps retreating and breathed a sigh of relief that he wasn’t going to yell at me for anything.

“I’m sorry, Patrick had to run out for some things. I had another guard posted outside until I returned, but it took longer than I expected.” He sat down beside me again and lifted the pillow. “Here’s your medication.”

I rolled over, relieved that no one had forgotten about me. It was just a mixup. I swallowed down the pills in no time, grateful for the reprieve. It would take a while for them to kick in, and in the meantime, my head was still hurting.

“Turn around,” Asher said, his voice gritting over me.

He didn’t have one of those smooth voices men usually had. His voice was full of grit and determination. It was actually soothing to me. It gave me confidence that he could and would take care of anything. I stared at him, my lips pressed tightly together, only realizing then that he was waiting for me to listen to him.

Slowly, I turned on the bed, grabbing out for anything to steady myself when a wave of dizziness crashed over me. His hand caught mine and held me tight.

“Are you alright?”

I took a deep breath, trying to right my senses. “Just a little dizzy. It’s the headache.”

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