I sniggered.
“She’s a pain in my ass,” he muttered. “She was meant to up and die but she just keeps on living, doesn’t she? I haven’t got the heart to kill her, but I needed my inheritance, so I put her down there and faked her death. I figured she had a few years left in her at best, but hell sometimes I think she’s gonna live forever.”
“Mmhmm.” I clapped his face as I thought on that. “Well alrighty then. Looks like I’ve got a lot of work to do, doesn’t it?”
“I can show you the places I’ve checked, and I’ve made a list in the back of the journal of where I’m going to look next. The Rosewoods used to own some land on the edge of town where an apartment block is now, I’ve been trying to work out a way to get access to the basement but-”
I pulled the trigger of my gun and blasted a huge hole in his chest, showering me in blood as he crashed to the ground before I stooped down and plucked the journal from his twitching fingers.
“Thank you kindly, Kaiser. I’ll be sure to take it from here. But I’m afraid there’s only room for one king on the throne of Sunset Cove.”
Mia was screaming again and I kicked the office door shut to drown out her wailing, turning the key in the lock and pocketing it. I’d have one of the men put her somewhere I couldn’t hear her crying because Lord have mercy, that noise was giving me a headache.
I caught sight of myself in a mirror across the hall, covered in blood with the cut across my cheek still shining as it healed up from Rogue’s knife slash.
I ran my finger along it with a sneer, picturing exactly what I was gonna do to her in penance for that when she came to me. And while I was waiting, I’d move my army into my new castle and start looking for my diamonds.
I guessed things were looking up.
D arkness encircled me and a weight seemed to press down on my chest, keeping me in place. The soft brush of fingers ran over my temple and I thought of my mother, wondering if she was here somewhere, drawing me to her.
My mind was a groggy haze and the closer I came to surfacing from the thick, unshakeable sleep, the colder I got. I started to shiver and suddenly a voice reached me along with the scent of coconut and a thousand regrets. She’s here.
“Nurse!” Rogue shouted and the heaviness of my left eyelid eased enough for me to open it, but I couldn’t quite remember why the other one didn’t work right then. “He’s shivering. What’s happening?”
“It’s alright, dear, it’s quite normal.”
The light was too bright for a moment as the nurse moved into view and I blinked, trying to hunt for the girl I’d just heard, fearing I’d only imagined her.
“Can you see me alright, Mr Cohen?” the nurse asked and I nodded vaguely, trying to crane my neck to see past her, but she wouldn’t budge.
My teeth were chattering and the woman started laying blankets over me before doing some checks. Pain swam through my left leg and a curse escaped my lips. The nurse fiddled with an I.V. beside me and the morphine slid into my veins, starting to take the pain away, but it made my mind fuzzier too.
“Where is she?” I demanded. “I heard her.”
I’ve lost my mind. She’s not here. Why would she be here? She despises me.
My mind hooked on Maverick, the fragments of my memories drawing together to paint a picture of him saving me. That didn’t sound right, but somehow I knew it was. And it was the only thing I could grasp right then that was definitely real.
The nurse finally stepped back and my gaze fell on Rogue, standing there in one of my grey tank tops, her eyes puffy, her hair pulled into a messy ponytail. My heart thrashed with the need to get closer, but I was still fairly sure my mind was playing tricks on me. This was a pretty illusion, one of the thousands I’d had down in the basement at the Rosewood Manor.
“I’ll let you two have some privacy.” The woman patted Rogue’s arm as she headed away and I took in every detail of my little one’s face just in case she disappeared.
“Chase,” she broke the silence, her voice half a sob, half