Page 58

Maddox

Barb ties a knot in the last stitch. “There, you’re all set. I wouldn’t suggest getting kidnapped or stabbed again for at least a week or two. But everything should heal up just fine.”

“Thank you. And thank you for the very fine pain pill. It’s wonderful.”

Drugged Mindy is very different from the Mindy I found on the travel agency floor less than an hour ago. That one had me more than a little worried.

“You’re welcome. You’re going to hurt in the morning, but a few aspirins should be enough for that. I’ll come check your stitches then.” Barb’s talking to Mindy but looking at me.

“Got it.”

I pull the blanket up over Mindy and kiss her forehead before following Barb out to the main room. “How close was she to dying?”

“Really close. They just missed an artery.”

Dead. They’re so dead. “Thanks for coming out.”

“Anytime. I’m glad you found her.” Barb walks towards the door and stops with her hand on the handle. “What’s it like?”

She means, what is it like to be in love? None of us have had a lot of that in our lives. “Amazing, stressful, joyous, terrifying basically all the emotions you could ever imagine rolled up into a ball and shaken around a few times until you’re confused, but couldn’t care in the least.”

Barb nods and walks out the door.

I walk back to find Mindy asleep.

Her steady breaths calm my soul. There can never be a repeat of today again. My heart just can’t handle it. I can see why Vex wants to wrap Dahlia up and carry her around with him everywhere.

A future without Mindy in it isn’t one I’d want to live in.

Sleep. Heal. Tomorrow, we start the future together.

***

The pain pills combined with all the stress from the last few days must have really taken it out of Mindy. She’s been asleep for almost twelve hours. If it weren’t for her steady breathing, I would have been on the phone with Barb hours ago.

She’ll probably be hungry when she wakes up.

Sweet or savory?

Sweet. French toast. I message Fea, asking her to bring up a loaf of banana bread.

The rest of the ingredients should be in my kitchen. With one hand, I crack six eggs into a bowl, pour a cup of milk over them, a teaspoon of vanilla, and a dash of good bourbon for flavor.

“You ordered bread,” Fea whispers as she steps inside.

“Thanks.” I take the loaf and cut it into nice, thick slices.

“French toast. Good choice. How is she doing?” Fea takes a seat across from where I’m working on the island.

Mindy has more stitches in her body than anyone should ever have in a lifetime. She’s battered, bruised, and probably going to be dealing with this emotionally for months, if not years. “Alive.”

As if she read my mind, Fea says, “Everything else can be dealt with. How are you holding up?”

I want to kill something. Anything. “Mindy’s my priority.”

“That’s not an answer. She went through a lot, but so did you. You thought you lost the woman you loved yesterday.”

“I thought I was going to lose my mind. Last night, all I did was watch her breathe, because I was afraid the next one wasn’t going to come, even though none of her wounds are life-threatening.” The whisk moves rhythmically through the egg wash as I twist my wrist.

“What are you going to do?”

After I kill the men who hurt her then left her to die alone, I’m going to need to find an outlet for this rage. It’ll probably be a punching bag in the gym. “Work.”

“You do a lot of that, and so does she. Maybe you need to figure out something else to do together. Work is calling. I’ll check in on you later.” Fea leaves.

I fry the toast and caramelize some fresh bananas to put on top. A cheerful daisy finishes off the brunch tray table.

Mindy is still asleep. It feels wrong to wake her, but she missed dinner. And they kidnapped her before she got lunch.

This has to be done. I sit down next to her. “Beautiful, it’s time to wake up.”

She blinks and reaches up to brush the hair out of her eyes.

I tuck a lock behind her ear.

“Are you real, or did the rats eat me?”

Those words…I need to be strong for her. “I’m real.”

“Kiss me.”

You don’t have to ask me twice.

I lean down and brush her lips with mine.

“Butterfly kisses. Mmmm.” She closes her eyes.

“You need to open your eyes in order to eat breakfast.”

Her eyes pop open. “Food?”

“Have I told you that you’re cute when you’re hungry?”

“You haven’t seen me hangry yet.”

Her soft smile pierces my heart. It would be wrong to kiss her instead of feeding her. “We'd better feed you, then. How does banana bread french toast sound?”

“Amazing. I need to thank Ace one of these days for his wonderful food.” She scoots up with a grimace.

“Not for this one. I made it.”

“You made it.” Her eyes widen as I set the tray table over her legs.

“French toast isn’t hard.” I grab my tray and join her on the bed, facing her so that I can see her face the entire time.

“This looks pretty fancy to me.” She lifts the flower to her nose.

Beautiful.

We eat in silence.

Only halfway through her plate, Mindy sets down her fork and stares at me. “You found me.”

“Yeah.” Does she need reassurance? Should I get a therapist to talk to her?

“That means you know who took me.”

Where is she going with this? I nod.

“Are you mad at my brother?”

Livid would be the proper term. Though it’s fairly hypocritical since I spent hours worrying that someone from my past took you. But I’m going to linger in my anger a little while longer. “You almost died.”

She leans back against the pillows and closes her eyes for a moment. “I have quite a few stepbrothers. For most of them, I try to forget they exist. There are no family reunions or occasional get-togethers. The only person from my childhood that I look forward to seeing is Waylon. Blood relation or not, he’s my brother. He even named his baby girl after me. I don’t want you to hate him.”

“Then I won’t.” No matter how hard it is.

“Was Waylon the reason you were so afraid when I hired you? And why were you working two jobs?”

“Three,” she says off-hand. “Waylon wasn’t totally the reason. It was more about giving him the money. How do I explain this? For my whole life, money has been precarious. When Mom was with someone, there was plenty of money. When she was in the process of finding someone, money was tight. But it was more than that. When my bank account is empty, like it is now, I feel like my safety net is gone. And if something happens and I trip, I’ll fall to the ground. Being homeless makes it even worse.”

“Homeless?” What does she mean by that?

“I can’t go back to living with Adonis. And when I’m well enough, you’re going to want me to move out of your place. It’s scary not knowing where I’m going to live or how I’m going to pay for it.”

“Your bank account has money in it.”

“What?” She shakes her head. “How is that possible?”

“You’re entitled to sick leave both here and there.”

“Wait, you’re telling me that you’ve been paying me this entire time?”

“Of course. And this penthouse is yours for as long as you’d like. We can even have it deeded over to you, if that would make you feel more comfortable. But I would prefer that you marry me and we live here together.” Way to go, genius, proposing when she’s hurt. So romantic.

“What? No. You can’t just say things like that. We just started dating. I can’t handle that. I don’t even know if I was supposed to talk to you about Waylon. Should I have called you? Those are things we need to figure out right now. Not marriage.”

That didn’t go well. But at least Mindy’s thinking about our future. That’s a step. “You should always call me.” I will always be there for you.

“That’s what I thought, but—” She picks up her fork and spears a piece of french toast.

I thought I had endless amounts of patience, which I developed over the years, but waiting for Mindy to finish her thought might drive me out of my mind.

“—I’m scared of all this. What we are. What we aren’t. I can’t even handle the rest of that. I’m just trying to figure out the here and now.”

“So, let’s figure it out together.” I reach out and take her hand in mine.

“Okay, but after we finish eating.”