Chapter 0012
Chapter 0012
He was cutting a damned bullet out of his shoulder. With the calm of an ER surgeon. Like he’d done it countless times before.
“After the attack at the hospital,” he said, and I was so caught up in watching him work, it took me a moment to realize he was answering the question I’d asked, “I sent men to follow you home. To make sure you made it safely.” 1
“Oh.” I couldn’t take my eyes off the knife.
He didn’t look up at me, simply spoke while he cut. “It was a mistake. My enemies read too much into the situation. They assumed you were important to me, made you a target.”
It took a moment for the words to catch up. They assumed you were important to me.
“They assumed wrongly,” I said, my words harsh, grating. His answering silence spoke louder than any denial–I meant nothing to him.
Nothing.
The ting of the bullet dropped onto the bedside table seemed as loud as the initial gunshot.
I stared at the bloody metal, my heart beating too fast. Nothing, nothing, nothing.
“I never intended for you to be dragged into this.” Aldo’s deep, smooth voice pulled my attention back to him. He was stitching the wound now, his face drawn in tight lines as he drove the needle beneath his skin.
No, he was attempting to stitch. He was making a sloppy mess of it, though. I grimaced. “You’re going to leave a scar.”
He snorted a soft, scoffing laugh. “I don’t care about a tiny scar.”
My eyes drifted from his fingers on the needle, the sloppy threadwork, to the array of scars down that same arm. Criss–crossing his well–toned chest. Climbing the hills and valleys of his chiseled abdomen.
Each and every one was the rough and ragged evidence of unprofessional medical treatment. As if he’d stitched each one himself.
“You’d be a terrible surgeon,” I huffed. Because just like I couldn’t stand aside and let a man die in my own hospital, I couldn’t stand here and watch this man literally maim himself–even if it was for the hundredth time.
Without thinking, I plopped onto the bed beside him and snatched the needle out of his fingers.
“It’s a good thing I’m not attempting to stitch up anybody else then, hm?” His words murmured against my cheek. Lifted goosebumps along my skin. But I kept my eyes on the needle, the bleeding wound.
“You should have disappeared completely,” I snapped, and the words came out professionally cold, cutting. “I wish you had. You destroyed me eight years ago, and now here you are. Turning my life upside down again.”
“I know,” he said. No apology followed. “But if I had the chance to do it all again, I’d make the same decisions.”
Itugged the thread tight enough I knew it hurt. I didn’t bother to ask which decisions he meant.
He didn’t flinch.
“I’ll wrap it up,” I said, already digging into the medical kit for a bandage. Pretending like my own flesh didn’t
sting with hurt. “You can change it tomorrow.”
“All right.”
1/2
Chapter 0012
+25 BONUS
Neither of us spoke as I wound the bandage. The silence pressed against me like a weight. No, not the silence, I realized. It was the weight of all the unspoken things that lingered between us.
I taped off the bandage. “I would like to be alone now.”
“Of course.” Aldo stood. But he didn’t head for the door. Instead, he paused, his gaze fixed on the door. “Why didn’t you ever marry Eli’s father?”
My heart beat so loudly I was sure he must hear it. But when I spoke, cold sarcasm laced my words. “I guess I was still such an impulsive child. But I’ve learned to take my time. To wait for the right man.”
