Chapter Five

Shelby

My mind spun with questions I couldn’t ask even if I had been brave enough to do so as I watched the news reports and read the articles about the ‘fire’ at the Hamilton estate. The boys, as I’d started referring to my two shadows, had brought in and mounted a television screen and used a tablet to bring up the clips and articles for me.

The first day, the one where they’d informed me that I was a widow, had largely been spent in a state of disbelief, panic attacks, and a haze from the painkillers. When I couldn’t stop randomly leaking tears, the boys and Gavin had consulted with Blake. They’d kept their conversation to hushed whispers, but I’d heard him suggest that I might be upset that my husband was dead.

When the idiot man said it to my face, he got a thumbs down and a glare in response. It was Gavin who thought I might need to process that it was real and not some new cruel game that I was unwittingly playing.

My suspicions about him were through the roof, but I expected someone had to be pulling the strings. I wouldn’t have been left with strangers otherwise, and my money, if I had any, was on Carter. Obviously, Gavin had been filled in or he would have been on the same page as Blake, thinking I could possibly miss the monster I'd married.

Unless it was some new mindfuck and Blake was in on it? The thought made my blood run cold, so I dismissed it before I could contemplate it further. When it came down to it, I was plain uncomfortable with how much Gavin, and presumably the others, knew about me when I knew nothing of them. Not that there was anything I could do about my situation but bide my time and heal.

Gavin briefly left before returning with a tablet in hand. After he flipped the case open, and pulled up the first news report, I took in everything I could. Which wasn’t much. My brain was on overload and so was the rest of my body what with trying to repair itself. I made it through the newscaster’s report detailing the fire. It had taken out the addition that I knew to be the security wing, and I was the sole survivor of the “tragic accident.” I was disappointed when they didn’t mention my location, only that I was at a private hospital in serious condition.

I’d snorted at the last bit, causing myself a bit of pain in the process—I didn't even know the date, let alone where I was at, but it sure a shit wasn't a ‘private hospital’.

At that point, Gavin and the boys shared a look between them and the clip was cut short. Gathering there was something they didn’t want me to know, my anxiety started to spike. That anxiety went into a full-blown panic attack when Winston Sr. appeared on the screen to make his official statement.

The guys shut it all down with apologies I barely heard. When I was cognizant again, they promised to make sure he wasn’t in any of the other clips, but I was done for the day as well, the upset had worn me out, and the pain was riding me hard again. The next day, they’d brought the monitor, and true to their word, my father-in-law wasn’t in anything they showed me. They also brought up written articles for me to read as I could.

It was slow going with the eye and mental strain, and getting plumb worn out besides. After several days of catching up, I realized I’d essentially disappeared. No one would care or come looking, except maybe Mama, though I doubted it. Whatever had really happened that day had been covered up with a whole lot of deaths and any evidence burned up in the fire. I couldn’t even be sure I wasn’t supposed to be dead too. Perhaps Carter had broken protocol by saving me. A vague memory of Dirk being called away to speak with his father surfaced, but along with it came Jerry finding me being buggered by Milo, and my mind immediately shied away from it in mortification.

If it were possible, I withdrew more, leaving the boys, Gavin, and Blake at a loss. After nearly a week of me largely ignoring all of them, they dragged Sherry back in. She declared that I was likely depressed, though it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. Even I had enough brain cells left to deduce that much. Despite Sherry’s diagnosis, Blake still worried. He thought it possible that they’d missed something physically wrong since I pushed the button on the pain pump every chance I got, and as a result, he ordered new scans. The catch? He wanted me fully sedated for it.

“Shelby, I need you to hold off on the pain meds so we can get this done,” he firmly stated as he took my button away and disconnected the IV port. I was pissed, and he knew it, but he was getting his way whether I liked it or not.

“Come on, pretty girl. It won’t take long, and we’ll be right with you,” River cajoled before winking at me. From the cargo pants and the shirt with ‘EMT’ on the breast pocket, he wasn’t strictly going as support. He had been assigned as one of my chauffeurs.

His smile fell when I stared through him. I didn’t have it in me to pretend to cheer up when it felt like I was once again being drugged for a man’s amusement. Sedation wasn’t necessary for x-rays, and we all knew it. Pain meds, sure, but if I wasn’t awake, I couldn’t see where I was going or how long it took to get to and fro, let alone attempt to interact with anyone.

When I still wouldn't acknowledge him, River crouched down so he was within inches of my face. The sweet mint on his breath served to worsen my mood as embarrassment was added to the mix. Those stupid mint-flavored sponges they gave me in a cup of water were a far cry from being able to brush my teeth. His jaw clenched when I angled my head away, but I was more concerned that I didn’t inadvertently give him a whiff of my questionable breath.

Vivid memories of Carter curling his lip or making comments expressing his disgust assailed me. My composure, already all but nonexistent, crumbled as my chest hitched with a sharp pain, leaving an ache that wouldn’t dull any time soon without the meds I’d been denied.

“Shit, Shelby, don’t cry.” River reached out to cover my hand with his, but I didn’t want his pity. There was no logical reason he, nor his brother-cousin-whatever, was so attentive. They had lives, and obviously none of them had even a little regard for mine.

I jerked away, not caring that it hurt, or what the consequences might be. The lingering sense of shame was riding me thanks to the memory of Carter’s disgust. With tears welling, and then running, unchecked down my cheeks, my vision was compromised, and I was shocked to find Gavin just suddenly there in my face.

It was the only reason I could think of that set me off so badly. He said something, but it was lost to the panic that took over. With my sight blurred by tears, he was a dead ringer for Carter.

My mind wasn’t up to the strain of it all. As if a flip had been switched, I shut down, letting the darkness overtake me until nothing else existed.

***

Gavin

Shock shook me to the core when the terrified shadow of a woman slumped as if she were a puppet whose strings had been cut. My eyes went from the pallor of her face under the darker bruises to River’s accusing gaze across from me.

“What the fuck, Gavin?” he barked out, staring me down with his almost preternatural golden eyes.

“I didn’t do anything,” I defended, putting my hands up in an effort to prove it before dropping them again to grab my phone. River immediately reached out to check her pulse before continuing to take the rest of her vitals. “I was only stepping up to unlock the wheels. I’ll call Blake. He should already be on his way to the hospital. He needs to check her out before she has anything else done.”

My chest gave a twinge of guilt and unease. I didn’t understand why she kept having such a bad reaction to me. From what I knew, Carter had fallen hard for the girl—not that he knew what to do with that since from all appearances, he’d managed to royally fuck it up. Case in point, he let her marry the dead dick.

“I think she just passed out again . If she keeps doing this once she’s healed up… Gavin, she’ll need real help, more than we can offer her.” River’s voice was softer than usual without any hint of the smart ass he and Rain liked to project.

Instead of answering him, I avoided looking up by kneeling on the floor, pretending the wheel locks were being stubborn. But when I stood up again, his arms were crossed and a scowl was firmly in place.

Scrubbing a hand through my short, wavy black hair, I blew out a breath. There was no avoiding it, but I’d hoped the cousins’ infatuation with the girl would run its course before I had to bring it up.

“Look, you know that old bastard isn’t going to let her go, right?” Blunt and to the point seemed the best course of action.

Raising one dark brow, he bristled in challenge. “And you think I give a fuck, why?”

“Because you’re not going to have a choice—” I started to snap back, but the subject of our mounting disagreement stirred with a thrash of her head and a faint moan. “We don’t have time for this. Give her the sedative, so we can get on our way. Blake can only secure the area for so long before questions he can’t answer get asked.”

River opened his mouth then shut it again real quick when I flicked my hands out in exasperation. He administered the sedative through the port without a word, though the cold disapproval fairly radiating from him let on just how pissed he was. The cousins could run a person right the hell out of patience in minutes, but I thought he’d done it in record time this go round.

I could have predicted that he’d be an ass, or that he’d enlist Rain to make my life miserable after telling him his new obsession had an expiration date, but I hadn’t counted on him flipping me off and scooping Shelby up in his arms. He stalked out with the white sheet trailing in their wake, the end just shy of dragging the floor.

No doubt Rain was waiting with the ambulance, having prepped it for Shelby’s transport. My men were overly invested in a girl that was going to up and disappear on them as soon as it suited Carter or the old man. I couldn’t quite bring myself to tell them she was already promised to Rafe, not when I was struggling with the situation myself.

A grimace stretched the corners of my lips down at the thought. There was nothing for it but to keep quiet and attempt to keep the girl at arm’s length, something I was beginning to fail at miserably. I didn’t want to like her, but it was hard not to feel sympathy for her with what Carter had, and hadn’t, revealed. Add in the fact that she was just my type—small, pretty despite her injuries, in need of my help, and within close proximity—and I was already more than a tad interested in the woman.

Cursing under my breath in frustration, I followed River to make sure they got off without any issues. Hopefully, the next time Shelby laid those dark amber eyes of hers on me, it would be without so much fear and distrust in them, though I likely wouldn’t be so lucky. She was more apt to be pissed as all get-out after waking up, but we had a responsibility to put her back together and keep her safe until… Well, that just didn’t bear thinking about too soon.