Page 95 of Reign of the Queen
"Yeah, yeah, I'll go, wouldn't wanna join me, would ya?" He smirks.
I let out a chuckle. "We both know if I go with you, you won't rest. So yeah, no." Theo and I move him slowly in the direction of the guestroom he's occupying, and Mary meets us at the door with a disapproving look.
"Carter, what did I say?" she questions with a stern look.
"Mary, my sweet Mary, don't be mad at your boy. You know you love me. I'll get back in bed now, promise girl." He grins at nurse Mary with flirtation, and I see her cheeks heat and the sternness on her face disappear.Is there anyone this fucker can't charm? Nurse Mary, Tom, who I've caught chatting and laughing with him, and even my hard-ass grandmother, have all fallen under the Carter spell.
We bring him into the guest room and get him back in bed, where nurse Mary starts retaking his vitals and fussing over him. I watch as she hooks the IV back into his arm to give him needed fluids. He's still a bit dehydrated and weak. His eyes partially close; he's wiped of energy. His body not having recovered as quickly as he thinks it has. Just as I'm about to turn to leave the room, he calls out to me. I turn to look back at him over my shoulder.
"Thank you for claiming me, Mia. No one but the guys have ever tried to protect me from him before. If I wasn't yours before, I am now." With that statement, he closes his eyes, grimaces in pain, and lets Mary continue to do her job.
I glance over at Theo to see his reaction to Carter's declaration, he turns his gaze away from Carter's prone form to me. I see sadness and worry written across his expression. He doesn't even try to mask the emotions. His dark blue eyes filled with pain at how weak Carter still is and at his words. I grab his hand and pull him out of the room with me, leaning him against the wall in the hallway.
"Yes," I state.
He stares back at me, his eyes tracking my features. "Yes, tonight?" he asks, disbelief in his voice.
I nod and lean in, giving him a light brushing across his lips with mine. Then, I walk away and head back to the office, where I know my grandmother is still waiting for me.
He watches me go, his eyes tracking my body down the hallway. I can feel the heat of his gaze on my skin. It warms me and gives me the strength to face my grandmother and whatever else she's planning.
I watch her walk away from me as a sense of dread creeps through my body. Tonight might be the last time I get to spend time with her and be intimate with her like I want to.
The show that her grandmother put on this afternoon was magnificent, and while it was gratifying to watch my psychopathic father be brought down and humiliated along with Mack Pemberton. It will have consequences that no one here can even imagine. You don’t poke a deranged vicious lion and expect him to cower.
My father’s not one to lose graciously. He has never done well with inconvenience, never mind outright defeat, especially at the hands of a woman. No, he prefers them beaten, broken, and at his feet.
My thoughts trail back to Mia when she placed herself between Mack and Carter. She looked like some Amazonian warrior queen, ready to bloody everyone in the room. I watched my father’s reactions to her defiance; he was instantly intrigued. I saw desire flash across his despicable face before he could school his features, anger running through my veins at the memory. He wants to break her like all his other playthings. I will never let him near her, especially now that she’s piqued his interest.
If anyone had bothered to look my way during that interaction, they would have noticed the hard-on I had and the desire for her that I couldn’t hide. I don’t know when she became more than a game piece. An infatuation to crush, but now, I will decimate anyone who comes at her, even my damn father. I don’t care what it costs me in the end, unless it’s her. I’m hoping that I can make her see that we are not her enemies and that together we are stronger.
Walking back into Carter’s room, I sit in the chair at the side of the bed and watch over him. Of all the guys, I have always been closest to Carter. A result of us having had similar upbringings with sadistic and abusive fathers. We bonded over our shared misery and have never looked back. Although I'm technically only a few months older than him, having already turned nineteen in July, I have always had this need to protect him like a big brother. It’s not that he can’t defend himself. It’s that he doesn’t.
He’s not weak. He’s one of the strongest people I know, especially having Mack Pemberton as a father and his useless cunt of a mother. He puts himself in harm’s way to protect those weaker than him, like his younger brother Foster. Who doesn’t even realize what Carter had to endure to ensure he was sent to safety at a boarding school far from Mack Pemberton and his rages.
That night I thought Carter would surely die when the guys and I found him bloodied and broken in his car on the side of the road. He had so many lacerations and broken bones. It took months to heal from all the injuries he suffered at Mack’s hands for daring to defy him and getting Foster out of there.
“Bro, you got the most miserable face right now.” Carter sighs and tries to sit up but doesn’t have the energy. He slumps back into his pillow—a look of exhaustion across his features.
Carter has always looked like the all-American boy next door compared to the rest of us. That is if the boy next door was covered in tats and had a mile-long mean streak but a heart of gold.
I look from Carter to nurse Mary, standing at the other end of the room, writing in a chart. She glances up, smiles, and then excuses herself out of the room. I’ll give Stella credit, she has the best staff. They even know when to leave a room and when to pull guns on psychopaths.
I let my gaze trail over Carter, he’s still pale despite all the bright colors of his tattoos against his skin. Though, he doesn’t look as shaky as he did just moments ago. His breathing has evened back out with whatever Mary gave him. I can’t believe I almost lost this fucker to blow.
“Why Carter? Why so much blow? It was reckless. We almost lost you for good, asshole.” I sigh and rest my elbows on my knees, leaning forward toward him.
“I...I know, fuck. I didn’t mean to do that much blow. I don’t think I even realized I had done so much...I fuck. I don’t know, Theo. I was all messed up, thinking I once again messed shit up with Mia, and that she hated me. Sick to fucking death of dealing with the crap at home, Mack’s losing it more and more. He’s not even careful where he lands his punches anymore. I’m fucking black and blue more often than not. I...I just needed to forget, to be numb for a little bit.” He lets out a shaky breath.
“She doesn’t hate you. If she did, she wouldn’t have saved your ass and thrown herself in front of the wolves at her door.” I clench my hands in anger at Carter’s situation. “As for that fucker Mack, I swear to you, Carter. I’m gonna kill him one of these days for all the shit he’s done to you.” I take a deep, angry breath.
“The drugs Carter, they have to stop. You have to stay clean. I need you to protect Finn and Mateo, and more importantly, I need you sober and ready to protect Mia. That shit that just happened in the office isn’t going to go unpunished. My dad’s gonna come for her, regardless of Stella’s threats.”
“I know.” He sighs, sitting up against the pillows.
“Then you know he’ll do it in the most underhanded way, and your dad will be right along with him. You have to be alert and keep her safe. If my dad gets his hands on her...” My whole-body shudders at the thought of what my psycho of a father would do to her. The vision is enough to have me seeing nothing but red and wanting to end his miserable life.
“I promise you, Theo. I’m going to watch her and protect her with my life—the one you and her gave me back. You need to watch you, though, bro. Vincent is going to go extra psychotic when you head back. You defied him openly, and that fucker can’t handle anyone going against him.”
