Page 58 of Wedlock

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I hear a faint heartbeat and step closer as she opens her eyes, and moans.

“Fal?”

I’ve seen thousands of dying people in my time, and it’s clear from the opaque look in her eyes and the amount of blood on the stones beneath her that she’s only moments away from death. Even though she’s under hupotasso, no human body can sustain this level of damage. If I take her down from the hook it’ll only hasten her demise.

Kneeling before her, I take one of her hands in mine, squeezing gently. It’s true I hold no deep feelings for her, but I’d made apromise. I told her I’d take her away from here, and I hadn’t made good on that promise in time. While I no longer planned to marry her, I would have ensured the child she was carrying was raised as a royal. If I hadn’t believed Angie and named Tiger as my heir, Sophie’s baby would have had my title. One way or the other, I would have kept them safe.

But there’s no time for false endearments or promises now. There’s not even time to advise her to go gently into the still night. Even without the hook, the bruises on her body are evidence enough that her last few hours, perhaps days, had been anything but gentle. No, there’s no time for anything at all, other than to find out what I must.

“Who did this?”

“Spider,” she whispers,he voice barely audible.

Relief floods through me that Jag wasn’t responsible. Not that I would have believed him capable of doing this to a pregnant woman, but after his affair with my wife, part of me thinks him capable of anything. Still, this relief is swiftly replaced by another sensation. There’s only one reason Spider would risk royal displeasure by killing a wife who was still breastfeeding his heir — he must have discovered the baby she was carrying was mine. The logical conclusion is that he took out his rage on her and killed Viper to reinforce his message. But if there was one thing I’d learned over the past two years, it’s that logical conclusions were often fucking bullshit.

“The baby?” I sigh, not wanting to have it confirmed that I was the reason for her mistreatment, but recognising Imustknow.

“Yours.”

‘Fuck! I knew it.’

“And my brother?” I grit my teeth as I wait for her answer. “Spider killed Viper?”

“A woman.”

My eyebrows shoot up in surprise. I wasn’t prepared for that. A new player? Someone else had killed my brother. Not Jag, not Spider.

‘Who the fuck is after me now? The FreeMen?’

I’d like to ask who took out all the guards. I’d like to ask a fuck-load of questions, but she coughs and blood bubbles from her lips.

Taking out my handkerchief I wipe her mouth gently, my mind skipping to the next problem at hand. Sophie tries to cough out another word, but I shake my head and wipe her mouth again.

“Don’t try to talk.”

“The baby,” she whispers.

Grimacing, I take my hand from hers and place it upon her stomach, the gouch hook has clearly entered her between her legs from behind and bent up through her stomach like a giant fishhook, its sharp edge protruding through her cleavage. No baby could have survived that, and I hear no second heartbeat. I bow my head as a wave of sorrow sweeps over me. This baby was mine, yet Spider had taken it from me as efficiently as I’d once believed Jag had taken the one my wife carried. Spider’s poison had spread through me just as he’d hoped, and once again I have to face the fact that my actions had destroyed a woman I’d given my word I would protect.

I bow my head in shame as I brace myself to tell this woman, as she dies, that I have also failed to protect our child.

“Sophie, I’m sorry…”

I look up as she wheezes loudly.

“Taken,” she gasps, her eyes desperately locking onto mine.

“Taken?”

I stare at her, but the light goes out in her eyes, and her head falls to her chest before she can say anything else. She’d used the last of her strength to say that one word.

‘Taken? Does she mean the baby? MY baby?’

Gritting my teeth I lurch to my feet and pull her body from the hook. Lying her on the bloodied rock, I push my hand into the hole in her chest cavity and down, down to where a dead baby would lie curled inside her. But as my hands explore, my suspicions are confirmed.

‘She must have given birth earlier. He saw that the baby was not his and killed her. What has he done with my child?’