Page 38 of Vengeful Queen (Violent Kingdom)

Joshua.

Will takes his hand from mine, quick as can be, and stands up. “She’s tired. I’m stopping her from resting.”

“You bastard,” Joshua says jovially, and to my utter shock, Will doesn’t lay him out flat. It would be tough, because Joshua’s bigger, but Will is a black belt in karate. Instead, Will just smirks at the joke.

“See you later, Avery.”

“Bye.” I make myself sound as weak as possible. I don’t want Joshua in here. I do not want him to take Will’s seat next to the bed and stroke my hand and pretend I mean anything to him other than the fattest paycheck of his life. Will tried to give me an out from Joshua.Please, please, let me take it.For good measure, I close my eyes and let out a long, distressed sigh. I wriggle my feet underneath the blanket Nathan brought me and stretch out, turning my head to the side.Believe this.If they won’t believe anything else I say, they can at least give me the benefit of the doubt on sleep.

Joshua clears his throat. I fight not to roll my eyes as I open them, fixing him with a blank stare. “What are you doing here?” I ask him. I think about the embryos on ice, my embryos, fathered by him, and I want to leap out of this bed and scratch his eyes out. He didn’t know?Bullshit. It was probably his fucking idea.

Joshua stands at the foot of my bed. He can’t touch me from there. Good. His smile is full of pity as he takes in my injuries. I must look fucking dreadful. I haven’t glimpsed at myself in a mirror yet; I’m still pissing into a catheter bag attached to the bed, for fuck’s sake. I haven’t even stood up since I got here.

“I just wanted to make sure you were okay,” he says, his baritone voice too much for my ears. He steps closer, reaching for my hand as he produces something sparkly out of his pocket. “And I wanted to get this back to you.”

I recoil violently before his fingers can brush mine, my eyes fixed on the ring in his grasp. My engagement ring. The one I was relieved of in those first hellish moments in that dungeon. My vision tunnels as my heart hammers in my chest. “Where did you get that?” I whisper, sucking in a panicked breath as everything floods back in.Waking up tied to a chair. Having my dress cut off me, then my underwear. The cut on my thigh–the first of many. The way my captor kissed me down there so intimately that for a split second, it actually felt shamefully good. And then, finally, the way he tugged my engagement ring off my finger, never to be seen again.Until now.

Joshua realizes immediately that he’s fucked up. He places the ring on the bedside table and holds his hands up as if surrendering. “The police returned it to me. I’m sorry, I didn’t even think about what seeing it would do to you.”

I clamp down the panic rising in my chest like a doctor might clamp down a bleeding artery. The beeping of the heart monitor slows down. I fix my eyes on the end of the bed and breathe until I’m dead inside again. Better.

“Take it home,” I say icily, refusing to make eye contact. “Don’t come back here.”

“Avery–”

“You didn’t come here to make sure I was okay,” I seethe. “You came here because it’s expected. You came here because you wanted to check on your investment.”

“I came here because you’re my fiancée,” Joshua says weakly. Truthfully, it’s the first time I’ve ever heard him waver. I turn my ruined face toward him and let every ounce of bitter rage inside me show in my expression. I fix my glare on him, and he takes a step back, blinking suddenly as if he’s being blinded by the sun.

“You are nothing to me,” I say coldly. “You’re a strange man who showed up in my life as a business transaction. You’re one step away from a fucking pedophile grooming his victim. You’re the reason my sister drowned herself. You are the reason I will never be free to marry a man I actually love.”

His jaw drops slightly.Shock. I’ve managed to shock the smoothest salesman I’ve ever met. I would be lying if I said that some dark part of me wasn’t turned on by how easy it is to ruffle him. I smile cruelly, and I can only imagine how ugly I must appear to him at this moment.

“You came here to reassure yourself, Joshua,” I say, my every word dripping with poison. “But I’m not going to reassure you. I’m giving you an out. A full refund on these damaged goods. Take that ring and throw it off the Golden Gate Bridge for all I care. If you leave it here, that’s what I’ll be doing as soon as I get out of this bed.”

“Avery,” he says, concern etched on his expression. “You’re not yourself. You’ve been through a terrible thing. Bringing the ring was a mistake, I get that now.” He snatches it off the nightstand and pockets it hastily, running his hand through his immaculately-groomed hair as if the answers to this conversation are somewhere in his styling products. “I’ll let you get some rest. We can talk more when you come home.”

When you come home?That’s an odd way of saying it.

“Do you think–” I bite back a laugh, “–Do you think I’m coming home withyou?”

The prick actually looks offended. “Avery, you’re going to be my wife soon. It’s my duty to look after you. I’ve made all the arrangements. Your things will be packed, and you’ll come home with me after they discharge you.”

I laugh. It hurts my broken ribs, my wounds, but fuck it, it’s worth it. “I’m not going anywhere with you. Get out before I call that cop in and have you thrown out on your ass,” I spit. “You are nothing to me, do you understand? Nothing. Don’t come back here.”

I haven’t noticed my rising voice, but by the time I finish my last sentence, I’m practically screaming. My throat aches from the tube they had down there, but I don’t care. The dull pain just joins the rest of the agony in my body. The door to my hospital room bursts open, Nathan appearing like some kind of dark avenging angel. Joshua is, for the first time I’ve ever seen, utterly dumbstruck. He opens his mouth as if to say something, but closes it again as Nathan pushes past him, creating a physical buffer with his body between me and Joshua. It offers immediate relief.

“Just go, man,” Nathan says. “Let her get some rest.”

I can’t see Joshua past Nathan’s towering presence, but I hear the soles of his leather shoes against the linoleum floor as he stalks out of the room. He closes the door so hard the door frame shudders, but I don’t care. He’s gone. I let my head drop back into the pillows, utterly boneless from exhaustion, tears flowing from my eyes and stinging my cheeks.

“Don’t let him back in here. I don’t want him here,” I beg. Nathan’s dark eyes cloud over with concern as he nods tightly. “Yeah,” he says. “Of course. They’ve got a cop posted outside your door 24/7. I’ll go tell him right now.”

I catch his arm as he turns to leave. “Don’t go,” I plead. “Please. I don’t want to be alone. It makes me feel like I could wake up back there again.” I gulp in a sharp breath, my words clumsy and stilted. “Can you stay awhile?”

Nathan nods, his frown transforming into a sad smile just for me. “Yeah. Absolutely.”

He pulls the chair up beside my bed, offering an outstretched palm tentatively. I take it, squeeze it to make sure he’s real, grateful for the warm familiarity.

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