Page 32 of Danger Close (Mourningkill #3)

Let Me In

Cobra

“I need a private room at the Middlebrook Regional Hospital,” I said to my brother on the other line.

“Did you hurt yourself?” Jericho asked, slightly amused.

“No!” I clenched my fist. “Teri was attacked.”

Silence. One heartbeat… two… then ten.

“I’ll have it handled.” I knew he was getting ready to hang up on me.

He was going to get to work on my request right away so I blurted out, “If Sonia Norkus calls, please patch her through to me.”

“Sonia Norkus?” Jericho’s surprise was audible.

“Yes. She says she has information on who’s responsible for this. Charlotte has a description of who attacked them today. I think they were working for someone else though.”

I wouldn’t survive another attack on Teri. It was taking all I had not to burn the entire city down just for allowing people who breathed wrong towards my wife to live. I needed to focus my vengeance on the right people.

My wife . I’d remorselessly told them that I was her husband, and I regretted none of it. She also hadn’t held it against me.

When the doctor came and addressed me as her husband, she hadn’t corrected them. It would have felt more dishonest to correct them. At least for me.

But still, she was scared. I raised my voice and scared her. She still didn’t trust me. That was okay. I’d have the rest of my life to wipe those fears away.

I’d have to learn to control my volume.

My brother got to work fast. In a few minutes, Teri slept in one of the luxury rooms of the ICU.

It looked more like a hotel than a hospital, though still could use some improvements.

I called for things to be delivered: better pillows, better sheets.

A warmer blanket. She wouldn’t sleep well if she was cold.

Though, she was probably too tired to notice, but when she was better, I wanted her to be comfortable.

The swelling in her eye was severe, bruising, black.

Her cheek, her jaw, her lips—they’d made a punching bag of her.

I didn’t have it in me to look beneath her hospital gown.

I wanted to. I wanted to intimately understand every bit of pain she was in, but knew it would just send me into a rage.

She didn’t need to see that. Not right now.

I was going to kill someone. I was going to kill many people, in fact, for this.

“Please,” I said, looking at Teri. “Burden me.”

My heart was somewhere in my throat as I reached out to tuck a lock of her dark hair behind her ear, lightly grazing her skin. She flinched in her sleep, and I pulled away, scared to hurt her even more.

“For God’s sake, Teri, burden me. Give me your fucking problems so I can fix them. Tell me…” I sucked in a breath through my teeth as I calmed myself. “Let me in, Princess. I swear, I will fix everything. ”