Total pages in book: 156
Estimated words: 160192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
North gestured to him to step into the room. Normally, Jared would refuse. With anyone else, he would have. But he trusted North.
Turned out, he shouldn’t have.
Because as he stepped into the room, he came to a sudden stop.
The scent of vomit hit him first as well as air freshener that only seemed to make the stench worse.
Then he saw her on the bed.
The first emotion to hit him was relief.
The second was horror. Then anger.
He turned to North. “What the fuck have you done?”
North stared down at Jared and Angie.
They looked right together.
This is what he’d wanted. To give Jared this. To give him what he really wanted.
So now he should back away. Leave.
After all, he didn’t know how to take care of her properly. He’d more than proven that.
“Hey, baby,” Jared said gently, brushing the hair off her forehead. “Fuck. She’s burning up. Have you given her anything for the fever?”
“Ahh, no. I have a First-Aid kit upstairs. I’ll go grab it.”
“Do that. And North?” North turned back as Jared hit him with a glare. “I’m going to concentrate on her. But after she’s better, you and I will chat.”
Sure.
If he was still around then.
Rushing up the stairs, he grabbed the First Aid kit and took it back to Jared. He handed him some pain relievers and fever reducers.
“Right, baby. You’re going to take these.” Jared sat her up and attempted to give her the pills. But she kept pushing his hand away and trying to move out of his arms.
“Shit. Have you got any that can be given rectally?” Jared asked.
“What?”
“She’s not going to swallow anything. We might have to hook her up to an IV. Perhaps we should ring the doctor.”
“No,” North said quickly. The fewer people that knew she was here, the better. “I can get that stuff.”
“You realized I just told her sister that I didn’t have her.”
“Ahh, you did?”
“Yes. And Zander promised to rain hell down on me if I did have her kidnapped.”
North shrugged. “He can try.”
He wouldn’t succeed though.
“Fuck. What a fucking mess. Get the stuff. Now.”
17
Jared placed the back of his hand on Angie’s forehead.
Damn it.
She felt really hot. He searched through the First-Aid kit for a thermometer and took her temperature.
101.
Okay, not as bad as he’d first thought but still not good.
“Come on, baby girl. You need to drink some water.”
“Buggar off, poop-farter.”
Hmm. Clearly delirious. No one had ever said anything like that to him before.
“It’s Jared, actually.”
“Don’t lie.” She pointed a finger at him. “I knows you aren’t Jared. He doesn’t like me no more.”
“Anymore,” he corrected.
“Yeah, none of the mores. He don’t like me none of the mores.”
It was strange, but he could kind of understand what she was saying.
“Actually, the opposite is true,” he told her.
He figured she wouldn’t remember anything he said right now.
“Come on, baby girl,” he tried to coax her.
“No. I’m gonna die.”
A surge of concern filled him. Then he stifled it. She was just being dramatic.
Because that was not happening. Not on his watch.
“Yes, you are.”
“Nuh-uh.”
“Uh-huh.” Shit. What was he doing? He wasn’t arguing about this. He was the boss.
“You’re going to drink this water,” he said sternly. “Because that’s what Daddy wants you to do.”
Shit. What was he doing? He shouldn’t call himself Daddy. He wasn’t her Daddy. And yet . . . it felt so right.
“I don’t have a Daddy.” The words were said so sadly that they hurt his stomach.
“Well, you do at the moment.”
“Who?”
“Me. I’m going to be your Daddy.”
North heard the words through the cameras. He was on his way to get supplies and for some reason he’d decided to turn the cameras on so he could watch and listen.
The words struck him oddly.
They weren’t painful exactly. This is what he wanted for Jared so he had no right to be upset.
But it still felt . . . strange.
Was he losing Jared?
You were going to lose him anyway.
As soon as he discovered who wanted Jared dead he was going to need to take them out.
And then he’d have to disappear.
18
Angie was having the strangest dream.
In it, she wasn’t feeling that great. But it was fine because she had a really handsome, kind Daddy to take care of her.
Well, he was a bit bossy.
He kept telling her to drink. And he wouldn’t listen to her very reasonable requests not to.
“No! Won’t!” she snapped.
Her stomach didn’t feel good. Her head possibly felt worse and she didn’t want to drink or eat or think.
“All right, baby. If you don’t drink then Daddy is going to have to put an IV in.”
“Noo,” she grumbled.
“Then drink some of this.”
A bottle was held to her mouth and she took a few sips. Nope. Her stomach didn’t like that.
“Vomit!” she cried.
She was moved, something placed under her chin and she threw up the small bit of water she’d taken in. Then she lay back with a moan. Something cool touched her inner arm and there was a murmuring of voices and then a sharp prick.