left her behind to protect her.
“But Ricky threatened her at the restaurant when we took her off the estate. He said they had pictures of us together. They’d been watching the estate since we took her.”
“They might have known about your relationship in Cambridge, but they had no reason to think you still cared for her after you left her behind. She probably wasn’t on their radar until I brought her to you.”
“You can’t know that for sure,” I said, still unable to process the depth of his betrayal.
He surged to his feet, getting in my face. “This is my fault, Joseph. Why aren’t you listening to me? It’s my fucking fault. And now she might die. She—”
Whatever he was going to say next was cut off when my fist connected with his jaw. I didn’t hold back, and he reeled at the force of the blow. He staggered and shook his head hard to clear it.
He didn’t tense with aggression. He didn’t take a defensive stance.
He simply stared at me, as though he wanted me to hit him again, to punish him for his unforgivable sin.
“Hey!” A security guard appeared in the waiting room. “Break it up. You’re both going to have to leave.”
Marco rubbed his jaw and turned away from me. “I’m going,” he told the man. “Joseph can stay.”
I watched as he stalked off down the long hallway. My stomach dropped, and my chest hollowed out.
Marco had betrayed me. He’d put the woman I loved in danger, for his own selfish reasons.
No, he’d done it for me.
And that only made his choice that much more inexcusable. He’d made me complicit in this. It was equally my fault that Ashlyn was fighting for her life right now. Because I’d chosen to keep her with me instead of sending her to the police for protection. Marco’s reasoning that we were protecting her was just a flimsy excuse for me to keep her. I’d wanted her to be mine, so I’d taken her.
“Mr. Russo?” A nurse in green scrubs called my name.
She’s not dead, I told myself in the long second it took for the man to speak. She’s not dead.
“Miss Meyers is stable. She’s going to be okay. You can come see her if you want.”
My knees almost went out from under me as relief slammed through my body. My legs shook as I followed the nurse to her hospital room, but somehow, I managed to walk without stumbling.
When I got to her room, I rushed to her side, taking her small hand in mine. It was warm, reassuring me that she was alive. But the pretty pink flush was absent from her cheeks, and her full lips were chapped and pale.
She stirred when I stroked my thumb over her palm.
“Joseph?” she mumbled. She didn’t open her eyes, and I wasn’t sure if she was fully awake. She certainly wasn’t completely aware of her surroundings. I’d always known she was fragile, but it pained me to see her so frail.
“I’m right here, angel,” I promised. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Where’s Marco?” she slurred.
Rage made my muscles ripple and flex, but I was careful not to squeeze her delicate hand.
“Go to sleep, angel,” I said instead of answering her. “You need to rest.”
A little furrow persisted between her brows, but a few seconds later, it eased. Her breathing turned deep and even.
My eyes burned.
Our fault.
My fault.
I never should have kept her for myself. For us.
It was too late to send her back to the safety of her life at Harvard. That was shattered now that my father’s enemies were aware that she was with me. They knew she was important to me because I’d brought her to New York.
Because Marco had brought her to New York.
I’d been angry with him in the past, but I’d never felt this toxic rage. It held a sharp edge of hatred that shredded my insides.
I might have no choice but to take Ashlyn back to the safety of his family’s estate, but what Marco and I had shared was broken. He wasn’t my brother anymore, and Ashlyn would never belong to him. She was mine, and mine alone.
It had been three days since I’d brought Ashlyn back to the estate, but she was still weak, and she tired easily. Really, she should still be in the hospital, but I didn’t want to risk her. She was safest on Marco’s estate, behind the impenetrable gates.
We’d arranged for an on-call doctor come check on her twice a