and run it into a tree. Apparently, I’d also fallen off a cliff.
Why did I take other people’s transgressions out on myself?
A glance at the nightstand showed my phone on a charger. I was surprised Dad brought it. Maybe he knew I wasn’t in any hurry to see how much more damage had been done to my reputation and career.
Molly could be my buffer against the world. I needed to get well and go back to work, but I was tired all of a sudden. I let my eyes shut, just for a minute.
My father pressed a soft kiss to my forehead and tiptoed from the room. I was almost asleep, but I wished he’d stayed. I felt safer with him there.
The next time I woke, Molly sat in the chair beside my bed.
“I’m baaaaack,” I croaked.
“Well, hello there, sunshine.” She held water for me to drink. “God, your breath stinks.”
I turned away. “Don’t just stand there. Find me a mint.”
She dug around in her purse and came up with a piece of gum.
“Here, this is all I’ve got.” She unwrapped it and pushed it between my lips. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“I’m told…pretty much everything.”
“You scared the hell out of everyone. You know that, right? Why didn’t you wake me up? When you saw that video, why in heaven’s name didn’t you come to me?”
“I don’t know. It was all starting again. I felt humiliated. I wanted—”
“They’re writing you out of the show until you’re better.” She couldn’t care about that, could she?
“Makes sense,” I said carefully.
“I thought you were okay.” She put her tablet aside and leaned forward. “We talked about that photographer. You seemed fine at dinner. Obviously, you weren’t fine, and I feel like an idiot for missing it.”
“I was fine. I remember…then the video.”
“Do you think Drake uploaded it? He made me pretty uneasy. I told your dad I thought the timing was suspicious.”
“Dad hired an investigator.” She gave me more water. “They’ll find out who uploaded the video and why.”
“I would not want to be in their shoes when Alastair Keye gets hold of them.”
I concurred. “You know about the fifty-one fifty?”
“Alastair told me.” She folded her hands tightly. “They have some questions.”
“Why?”
“You careened into that tree at full speed. You were found on a ledge below a steep cliff. What other conclusions can they draw? You know, Stone and Morrigan found you. He was a wreck afterwards. Morrigan was so anxious she almost made me cry.”
“Why?”
“Are you an idiot now?” She flicked my already painful forehead. “Because they looked over the side of a cliff and saw your lifeless-looking body lying on a ledge, that’s why. You know where they found you? If you’d missed that outcropping, you’d have fallen thirty feet and probably been swept away by the tide.”
“I don’t remember.”
“That doesn’t make it okay, Bast.”
“I fucked up, all right? Is that what you want to hear?” Whenever I closed my eyes, I saw black branches against a backdrop of mist. Barely any light—not enough to see where I was going. After that…there was nothing. A blank, black void.
Thinking about it made my head ache. “Is it still Monday?”
“Yeah.” She glanced at her phone. “It’s five. You’ve been asleep for about six hours. Are you hungry?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“You need to eat. I’ll see if the nurses can find you something light. There’s someone else here to see you. I’ll go tell him you’re awake. Back in a bit.”
Who else would come? Stone? My heart gave a happy lurch at the idea of him dwarfing my visitor chair.
It couldn’t be him, could it?
They wouldn’t let him in if he had Morrigan and the hybrids with him, and he’d never have left them alone. The same nurse from before came in with juice and some yogurt. She asked me my pain level and told me she’d be back.
I let my eyes close after she left, then a throat cleared, and I opened them to see Stone in the doorway with a gift bag in one hand and a grocery sack in the other.
Chapter Thirteen
Stone
Sebastian looked fragile lying in a hospital bed, stripped of the camouflage his sleek good looks and weaponized charm provided. Here was the wounded wolf cub I’d seen the day I’d met him laid bare.
Though his cheeks were scraped and his jaw swollen, he was still so beautiful it almost hurt to look at him. Pale hair lay limply across his forehead, and lashes any girl would