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“Yes, but if you want to sit up, this bed is one of those electric ones. Here, let me do it.” Jenner hit a button so she could slowly sit.

Okay, she had to admit that was easier than trying to sit.

“That better, baby?” Jenner asked.

“Yes, thanks.”

“I don’t know if I should tell you all of this. You need to rest. I’m surprised the nurse hasn’t been in to kick us out.”

“No!” she cried. “I don’t want either of you to leave.”

“You don’t want us to leave, then we won’t,” Tobias told her.

“But they’ll make you.”

Tobias just smiled. “Like to see them try.”

Uh-oh.

That sounded ominous. The last thing they needed was for Tobias to get arrested.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure we can figure it out,” Jenner told her.

“Tell me, Jenner. Please,” she begged.

“My father used to boast about how you were going to be his next wife.”

She tensed, then groaned as pain shot through her. They really needed to give her better drugs.

Mind you, they probably didn’t expect her to get news like she’d just gotten.

She certainly hadn’t expected Jenner to say that.

“Shit. Fuck. I knew I should have waited,” Jenner said. Standing, he hovered over her. “Shall I get the nurse? Tobias?”

“I’ll get her,” Tobias said, moving toward the door.

“No, wait!” she cried. “I’m all right. I just . . . need a moment.”

“You need more painkillers,” Jenner told her firmly.

“I don’t . . . I’m fine. Just give me a moment.” She stayed still and tried to relax, just breathing in and out slowly. “Tell me what you mean.”

“He planned to take you as his next wife. Or that’s what he told me. I think it was to get a reaction, I’m not sure it was actually true. But he seemed to figure out how much you meant to me. And he used you to control me.”

“Oh God.” Now she felt really ill. And it had nothing to do with her injuries. “Jenner . . .”

He cupped her face between his hands. “This is not your fault. You hear me? You cannot take this on. I refuse to allow it. But, yeah, he used to tell me . . . he’d tell me all the things that he planned to do when he got hold of you. And, baby, fuck, they were messed up. They were sick. And sometimes, I’d get mad and try to attack him. That never ended well for me. Other times, I’d throw up. Again, it never ended well for me. He was a fucking evil bastard who psychologically and physically tortured me. And he used you to do it.”

“I’m surprised you don’t hate me.”

“Could never hate you, Immy. Ever. But it made me protective of you. So protective. And I put you up on this pedestal in my mind. Don’t get me wrong, you deserve to be there. But in my mind, you were so far above me that I could never dare to touch you. To deserve you. And I have that evil bastard’s blood in my veins. I don’t know that I fully trust myself. What if . . . what if there is more of him inside me than even I know? What if I hurt you?”

“Jenner, you could never hurt me.” She grasped hold of his hand with her good hand. “Ever.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do know that. You’re a good man. All you have ever done is protect and take care of me, often at the expense of yourself.”