ran a Fortune 500 company. Since taking over Delta, it's only gotten worse, and I understand now my previous approach was maybe not the best way to deal with this situation. I didn't think of you as a person with emotions and shit, more as a threat I needed to contain and deal with."
Swallowing down the lump in my throat, I simply stared at her.
"Dylan assures me that you did not steal from us." She lifted her head to nail me with those blue-as-blue eyes. "And I believe and trust that is the truth. Not giving you a chance to even defend yourself with my abrasive approach was wrong of me."
I sensed that she didn't apologize often. Most of the time, in her world, people no doubt bowed down and worshipped every word out of her mouth. This apology meant a lot more because of that.
"I'm sorry too," I murmured, my voice raspy as I tried to clear my throat again. "I should have stayed, acted like an adult and dealt with the situation until we had it resolved."
Riley slumped forward. "Yeah, we both kind of royally screwed up, but you know what? We lived to tell the tale, and if there's one thing I've learned in my few years running with these guys, it's that if you're alive, there is always hope. Always a chance to right the wrongs."
Speaking of. "Where are the guys?"
One in particular, if I was being truly honest.
Riley straightened, her face drifting between annoyance and exasperation as she drew her brows together and let out a huff. "Dylan took off to kill Blake, and of course Beck had to follow his brother and keep him safe."
"What?" I startled, then moaned as my ribs screamed at me.
Riley immediately fussed at me, pushing me back to the bed. "Come on, girl. You can't be hurting yourself like that."
"Why did Dylan go after Blake?" I asked with urgency, ignoring her hands pushing at me. "What was he thinking?"
I looked around for a phone, but there was nothing in reach and I still didn't have a cell. "Don't bother,” Riley said, clearly figuring out what I was after. “He smashed his phone."
At this point, I reached out and latched onto her arm, not even caring if I was grabbing a billionaire who could have me thrown in prison for assault. "Tell me every fucking thing," I demanded.
She only laughed, seeming unoffended. "Dylan was mainly speaking in four letter words." Her amusement died off as her expression turned serious. "But the basic idea I got was that he seemed to think Blake... raped you?"
I blinked at her. "Are you serious?" What... why? I mean, in what fucking universe would he think that?
Riley nodded. "Oh yeah, he was raging about you being pregnant and bleeding and how he had to kill Blake for a multitude of reasons."
"Blake is my brother," I said, tasting bile in my mouth. "Why would he think he'd be the father of my baby?"
Riley's complexion shifted to something quite green. "Yeah, in our world that's not as weird as you might think."
"Your world is fucked up."
Riley snorted. "You have no idea."
There was a moment of silence as we both absorbed the insanity of what she’d just said, until finally I had to speak. "It's Dylan's baby."
Now it was her turn to be rendered near speechless. She stared at me, and then her eyes shifted to my stomach before returning once again to my face. "Are you sure?"
My laughter at this point was dark and near hysterical. "I was a seventeen-year-old virgin when we met. I've never had sex with another man, including my damn brother. So, yeah, I'm pretty sure."
Riley opened and closed her mouth, before she slumped into the chair. "And you almost lost it?"
I nodded. "Yeah, they're still watching me pretty closely. I have total bed rest and minimum movement. At the moment, there’s a heartbeat, but I did suffer a shit ton of damage. It's basically in God's hands right now."
God, yeah, like I truly believed in that.
Riley was suddenly scrambling for her phone, yanking it up and smashing buttons so fast that there was no way she knew who she was dialing. "Come on, Beck." She cursed as the phone started to ring. "Fucking answer."
"What are you doing?" I asked, but she barely acknowledged me, too busy glaring at the screen as she sent off a superfast text. And then another and another. Her phone pinged a minute later, and then another four