Page 109 of A Knight’s Revenge: The Complete Series

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

NOAH

I scowled at Kara from the cushy hospital bed I’d been confined to since last night. She was unmoved by my ire, her arms crossed over her chest as she stood at the foot of my bed, daring me to try to sneak out of here before I was discharged.

“They said twenty-four hours, Noah,” she reminded me. “Twenty-four hours of observation, then you can go home. And Jojo would send me straight to Frankie’s workroom if I let you walk out of here before you’re ready.”

I sighed dramatically, falling back onto my pillow. “Fine,” I said. While Jojo would do no such thing to Kara, she would have my balls if she thought I was doing anything to compromise my healing. “I’ll behave.”

“Thank you,” she replied with a grin. “And settle in. I have Frankie’s report for you.”

That pepped me up a bit. Anderson would not be enjoying his stay in Knight Tower, and I suspected Frankie—who was developing a soft spot for his lovely boss, Jolie Knight—made sure Anderson paid for what he’d put Jojo through in his desperate attempt to earn back a shred of credibility from Andrea Ferrero.

As I’d suspected, my gunshot wound, while it’d hurt like a bitch, hadn’t been life threatening, so the doctors working in the emergency clinic in the new and improved Hargraves Tower had been able to patch me up without too much fuss.

Jolie, Bennett, and Zach had camped out in my room until I sent them all home to sleep comfortably in an actual bed, and I made them all swear to go to class this morning too.

“So, was Frankie able to confirm this was Andrea’s doing?” I asked Kara.

She nodded. “Yes. The sense we’re getting is that while Andrea and James Spencer are technically still aligned and claiming to be united as the sole representatives for the Four Families, they’re butting heads, and this was Andrea’s attempt to claim she succeeded eliminating Jolie where Spencer failed. ”

The pain that lanced my chest at her words was so familiar. I’d already been forced to watch my small, fragile best friend die right in front of me once, and the thought of losing Jolie again—for good—was a nightmare I couldn’t fathom.

My mood darkened. “Who the fuck tipped them off to the paintball match?”

“Our guest did not actually have that information,” she replied. “And Frankie assures us that he was very thorough in checking the veracity of that claim.”

And Frankie was nothing if not thorough.

I crossed my legs and shifted to sit up higher against my pillows, thankful I’d been allowed to change into my worn Holywell Crew long-sleeved T-shirt and track shorts instead of continuing to look ridiculous in a hospital gown.

I pulled my phone from the table next to the bed and went straight to my secure chat with Silver to see if she had any news.

“Really, it wasn’t a secret that Jolie was going to participate in that ridiculous dick-measuring contest between men’s crew and men’s lacrosse,” I said as I hammered out a text to Silver.

“Hatcher Robicheaux practically shouted it across the dining hall. Any one of the students from families who remain loyal to Spencer or Ferrero could’ve squealed. ”

Kara’s no-nonsense face softened as she looked me over, her understanding gaze taking in my bandaged leg before moving to the troubled look I wore.

“I know you boys are worried for her—we all are—but she’s so strong, and she’s surrounded herself with capable, loyal people.

And—” She paused to shoot me a wink. “—let her worry over you a little bit too. I’ve known the grown-up Jolie Knight for a few years now, and frankly, it’s good to see her acting like a normal teenager in love and not an emotionless robot. ”

My mind flashed to the vast array of emotions I’d been able to elicit from my girl since she’d literally parachuted back into my life.

She was hardly emotionless around me, not even when she‘d been masquerading as Joanna.

I was saved from having to adjust myself in my shorts in front of Kara by a knock on the door.

She turned away from me, back in bodyguard mode, and strode over to answer it.

“What are you doing here?”

I sat up straighter. I wasn’t expecting a visitor who wasn’t Jolie or the guys, and the venom that had dripped from Kara’s words was alarming—Kara was tough and took no shit, but she was generally pretty chill.

“Kara, oh my gosh,” a familiar voice gasped, and my stomach sank. “Are you back with Hargraves after all these years? Are you working for my son?”

“What do you want, Celine?”

“Goodness, what is with that attitude? Is that how you’re supposed to address your superiors, Kara?”

Well, that was enough.

“ Mom ,” I barked. “Do not speak to Kara like that.”

There was a beat of silence before my mom said, “Oh, Noah, what on earth?—”

“Do you want me to let her in?” Kara asked me, looking back over her shoulder.

I sighed. “She can come say whatever she thinks she needs to say to me.”

Kara shot me a concerned look before stepping out of the way so that my mother could enter the room. “I’ll be just outside,” she told me before slipping out and shutting the door behind her.

My wayward mother, Celine Hargraves, now stood in the middle of my hospital room in the state-of-the-art emergency clinic that I owned—the clinic that was in the heart of Hargraves Tower, which I also owned with Jolie.

She wore a peach-colored sundress, strappy high heels, and the giant diamond pendant necklace that had been her Christmas present from my dad when I was six.

Her honey-brown hair fell in perfectly styled waves over her bare shoulders, and her tanned body was still the lithe one of a woman who subsisted on yoga, Pilates, and whatever cleanse was the most popular amongst her coastal California friends at the moment.

She took in the dressing wrapped around my exposed thigh with wide eyes, bringing her manicured hand to her chest with a scandalized little gasp.

“Noah, I just cannot believe all of this. I keep hearing about all of this nonsense going on in the City, and I finally called your father, only to find out that our own son has disowned the Family name and given all of our hard work to the Knights ?”

“Why do you care, Mom?” I asked with a tired sigh.

She ignored me. “And then I come home to our tower only to find the penthouse vacant and basically falling into disrepair. Buckley informed me he was let go, and now I discover my son is in the hospital for reasons no one will tell me about. Noah, this is just insanity.”

I stared at her. I hadn’t seen my mom since my high school graduation, and she’d only flown in for the ceremony before flying right back out again.

She’d moved away permanently when I was ten years old, leaving with the nine-figure check from my dad and not looking back.

I hadn’t revoked her clearance to this tower because frankly, I hadn’t thought about her at all, much less anticipated she might decide to show up here now, of all times.

“Mom,” I said, infusing as much patience into my tone as I could muster, “why are you here? You have no remaining interest in Hargraves, so the state of the Family empire means nothing to you. You don’t actually give a shit about Dad, so my tossing him out of the City on his ass also means nothing to you.

My graduation from Holywell is not for another two years.

You have no reason to be in this City or in my tower right now. ”

She huffed, drumming her long pink fingernails on her diamond pendant as she stuck her nose in the air.

“I am still a Hargraves , Noah. I am still married to your father, and I am still your mother.

Our name has always carried the highest clout all over the country, and this mess you've been making here is ruining it.”

There it was. My mother still valued the Hargraves name, and news of the Families’ fall from grace was setting her back with the other rich housewives she ran around with, even all the way on the West Coast.

“Does it bother you even a little bit, Mom,” I asked, reclining against my pillows again, “that Dad conspired with James and Andrea to murder the Knights in cold blood just so they could steal a priceless technology from them?”

She waved a dismissive hand. “I do not meddle in your father’s business, Noah.

I presume he did what he thought he must to protect Hargraves.

And now I’m hearing that not only have you allowed that trampy Knight girl to take everything from us, you’re sleeping with her?

I will not allow it, Noah. I am still your mother. ”

I wondered if I’d done something to deserve being shot in the leg and then subjected to this.

I felt a cold, quiet rage creep through my body—a foreign emotion when it came to my mother because I’d stopped caring about her existence long ago.

“Mom, I am Hargraves now, and what I do with it is absolutely none of your business. And if you insult the girl I love in front of me ever again, I will find a way to take everything from you just like I did from Dad. Am I clear?”

“Noah! How could you speak to me like that?—”

“What’s going on in here?”

Jolie slipped past a furious Kara, appearing in the doorway like a glorious mirage.

She’d taken advantage of the warm spring day and changed into denim shorts that showed off her long, gorgeous legs, which she’d paired with a flimsy long-sleeved T-shirt from Dom’s gym.

She carried a plastic to-go container from the dining hall in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, and she assessed my mom with a silent intensity that spelled trouble.

I tore my glare from my mom, dismissing her, and I only had a warm smile full of love for my girl. “Hey, sweetheart. Missed you.”

She meandered further into the room, still watching my mom like a predator that had sighted her prey, and she set what looked like my lunch on the table next to my bed before handing me the warm cup of coffee she’d brought me because she was a goddess among mortals.

“Hi,” she murmured, now looking at me with the same worry on her face she’d worn since I’d fallen out of that tree last night.

She leaned down to kiss me softly, and I cupped the back of her head to deepen the kiss, drinking in her tiny moan like I needed it to live.

After a second, she pulled away, assessing me again.

“How are you? Are you in any pain? Kara said you were trying to leave early. Noah, you have to do what the doctors say or you’ll hurt yourself again, and I just can’t?—”

I kissed her again, ignoring the dramatic huff from my mom. “I’m okay, sweet girl. I was okay last night, and I’m still okay now.”

My mom cleared her throat. “Noah.”

“You promise you’ll stay here until the doctor clears you? I can skip crew practice this afternoon and hang out with you?—”

“ Noah. ”

“I wouldn’t complain if you stayed with me for a little while,” I replied. “I’ll share that sandwich you brought me, and then we can take a nap.”

“Noah! I am not finished speaking to you. You will stop carrying on with that traitorous little skank and help your father reunite Hargraves with the Families!” She stomped a high-heeled foot like a toddler.

Jolie went rigid, standing up from the side of my bed and turning to face my mom. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Hargraves,” she said, her voice ice cold. She paused to look down at me, stage-whispering, “Are we still calling her that?”

I snorted. “They are still carrying on with their farce of a marriage.”

She nodded, turning back to my mom. “Mrs. Hargraves, do you know who put a bullet in your son’s leg last night?”

“Whatever happened, I am certain it was due to his involvement with you .”

“It was a Family Enforcer. He could have died . But you don’t give a shit, do you? You’re ambushing him here in his hospital bed to whine about—what? Your fake husband no longer being the fake ruler of the City? Did someone make a snide comment during Pilates class and hurt your feelings?”

I shifted uncomfortably in my bed. My mom needed to get the fuck out of here so I could put my hands on my girl.

“Noah, I cannot believe you’re letting her speak to your mother like that!”

I shrugged. “I don’t see a mother in this room. Do you, Jojo?”

“Noah!”

Jolie’s beast was out now, and she stalked slowly forward, and whatever my mom saw in her face caused her to take an alarmed step backward.

“Leave,” Jolie said in a low voice. “You’re nothing to Noah, just as you’ve shown he’s been nothing to you since he was ten years old.

I remember what it did to him when he realized you really weren’t coming back.

He might’ve forgiven and forgotten a long time ago, but I haven’t.

If I see you in my City again, I’ll break your face so badly that your plastic surgeon will have a hell of a fucking time fixing his hard work. ”

She gaped at Jolie, her cheeks flushed red as she sputtered, “Noah, she threatened me! I cannot believe you’re carrying on with this crass… pretender !”

“Get the fuck out, Mom,” I said gruffly. “I’d like to spend time with my real family now.”

Kara appeared at the right moment to grasp Mom around her scrawny bicep and march her toward the door. “Let’s go, Celine. Your access to Hargraves Tower has been revoked.”

Mom’s whines and protests faded into the background as Jojo’s ethereal eyes met mine, shining with fury on my behalf and so full of love for me that I felt like I could fucking fly, bum leg and pain meds be damned.

“Come here, sweetheart,” I demanded. “In this bed with me. Now.”

She slinked back to my bedside, a coy smile now gracing her lips. I kicked the covers down, waiting until she’d crawled in with me before pulling them back up and over the both of us.

As she melted into my arms, she whispered, “Yes, sir.”

And my mom was forgotten.