Page 70 of Darkest Game

“Save your voice. Did they tell you how long it will take for your voice to heal?”

She grabs a pad and pen off the side table of the bed and writes her answer down. About a week,she says.

“That’s not bad. It could have been worse. And I’m fucking glad it wasn’t.”

Why are you fighting for me?she writes.

“Because you’re my wife now. And I care for you. There’s no use pretending I don’t. I was never the sort of man to get into a serious relationship with anybody. But with you… I don’t know. It just feels different.”

I agree.

I smile at her words. “So, I’m gonna stay right here. Make sure Elaine doesn’t find you here. I wouldn’t put it past her to send someone to kill you. I’ll protect you. I promise.”

I speak too soon because a security guard enters the room. “Liam O’Connor?”

“Yes?” I ask slowly. In my gut, I can tell that this isn’t good.

“Will you come with me? The police are here to question you about your wife’s injury.”

“I promised Irina I would stay by her side.”

“We need to talk with you. So…”

Irina pats my hand, motioning me to follow the security guard. Fine then.

I head out into the hallway to see two police officers standing there. Mikhail and Nico are further down the hall. I don’t see my mom. I have to hope that she’s just staying out of this and not hurt.

“Yes?” I ask the officers.

“You’re Liam O’Connor? The victim’s husband?” the female officer asked.

“Yes. I can tell you what happened to her.”

“We’d like to hear it.”

I don’t give too many details about Elaine or Jack because all of that could fall back on me. So instead, I tell them that a crazy woman broke into my mom’s house and tried attacking me and Irina. That’s how Irina’s throat was cut.

“You can ask my mom. She’s here. She can vouch.”

“We’ll do that. But we were also told that you’re keeping your wife hostage. That you potentially were the one to do that to her.”

“Who told you that?”

She points to Mikhail and Nico. “They said they were her brothers-in-law.”

“They are.” No point in lying about that. “But you can speak to Irina yourself. She’ll tell you I didn’t do this to her. She can’t really talk right now but she can write it down.”

“We’d like to talk with her.”

I lead the police inside the room. “Irina, the police want to know what happened. How you got hurt.”

Her eyes widened as she looks between me and the police.Can I talk to my husband first?she writes.

The male officer narrows his eyes. “Why would you need to do that?”

Because she wants to get our stories straight.

“She’s been hurt,” I say. “Give her a break.”