Jack stifled a laugh.

“Try,” Darien encouraged. “And in the meantime, keep an eye out for Don.” Merely the mention of that name was enough to churn Loren’s stomach.

But she kept her focus on Darien—her anchor in this endless storm—and followed him down the hall.

16

Yveswich General Hospital

YVESWICH, STATE OF KER

“Lock the door behind you,”Darien said.

Loren stood beside him by the closed restroom door. It was a farther walk than she’d thought it would be—across from a healthcare supply room on the boundary between the Intensive Care Unit and one of numerous general wards. She again wondered how she had lasted this long without peeing in her battle-suit. She could only imagine how uncomfortable that would be.

She flattened her hand on the door, preparing to push it open. “It’s not a single person restroom, though.” A minute ago, he’d gone inside to scope it out for threats while she waited in the doorway, and had given her an exasperated look when she’d asked him what she should do if a monster slithered out of the toilet. It wasn’t a stupid question. According to reports she’d seen on the news, it had happened enough times to be a valid concern.

“Doesn’t matter,” he said. “Lock the door, please.”

“But you’ll be right outside?—”

“Lock.The door.”

She blinked. “When did you become so bossy?” But she knew the answer to that. If Darien Cassel had been anything short ofbossy from the day he’d learned how to speak, then he wasn’t Darien Cassel at all.

His eyes softened enough to make her heart do the same. She could be angry with him all she wanted for keeping secrets from her, but that didn’t change the fact that she was hopelessly in love with this man.

“Lock the door, please, sweetheart.” The endearment—said in that low, sexy voice of his—sent a curl of heat through her tummy.

“And what if you need to get in and save me? This is my last question, I promise.”

One corner of his mouth twitched with a whisper of a smile, but to her disappointment his dimple didn’t make an appearance. “Then I’ll break the door down,” he vowed.

Of course he would.

The hinges squeaked as she pushed the door open. She let it bang shut behind her, then waited a moment—just to irk him—before turning the deadbolt.

When she came back out a few minutes later, he was standing in the exact same spot—right in front of the door, his muscled arms crossed over his broad chest, looking for all the world like a bouncer ready to throw any threat through the wall. Gods, was he a menace.

“Better?” he asked her.

She nodded. “Better.”

He uncrossed his arms, the action drawing her attention to the item he clutched in his hand.

“Is that a key card?”

He motioned toward the healthcare supply room, the locked door marked with a sign strictly prohibiting public access.

Loren winced, realizing what the key card was for. “Here I thought the restroom thing was bad,” she began in a hushed voice as they crossed the hall, “and now we’re about to break intoa medical supply room with a key card you somehow managed to steal during the three minutes—three minutes, Darien!—it took me to go pee?”

“Tell me something, sweetheart.” His voice was a low purr that made her aching toes curl in her boots. “What about me strikes you as someone who abides by the law?”

“Not a darn thing,” she admitted, blinking up at him the way she knew he liked. Indeed, his eyes tightened, pupils flaring—just a bit. But it took a lot to unravel Darien Cassel, sojust a bitshe considered a major success. “But I’m a goody two shoes, and I’m not afraid to admit it.” Safe, ordinary, and orderly—that was how she’d always preferred her life.

Until she’d met Darien Cassel and discovered what chaos tasted like, and gods did she love this man’s chaos.

“Good.” He swiped the card. The security system beeped, the red light turning green. “You should own everything that you are.” He pushed the door open, holding it for her as she walked in. Darien followed closely behind her, his presence so electric she felt her skin prickle as if the air were charged with a thunderstorm.

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