Chapter 23
KYLE
The strong scent of antiseptic brought me back to my senses with a rude jolt. With my eyes still pinched shut, my brain tried to process what in the world was happening.
A zillion really weird things hit my mind all at once, but then I remembered being knocked out. We were on the beach, someone shot at us.
I must have been knocked out.
My heart skipped a beat. Nattie. What had happened to Nattie?
I snapped my eyes open, my chest constricting as I struggled to breathe. I had to find Nattie and make sure she was okay.
I found myself in a dimly lit room, flat on my back.
“Kyle?”
I blinked a few times, trying to clear my blurry vision until I finally shut my eyes again. The whole room seemed to be spinning. That hit to the head must have been epic. I likely had a concussion.
But I definitely wasn’t in the hospital, that was for sure. No hospital had this dim of a lighting scheme.
“Nattie?” I said, my voice weak and strained.
“I’m here,” she answered.
Her voice sounded strange. It must have been from the hit to my head. But at least she was with me and safe. Maybe I was at home. I bet Alex and Ava took me there.
I let my eyes open slowly this time, hoping the room didn’t swirl around me. A figure hovered over me, and after a few blinks, I recognized Nattie.
I smiled up at her, reaching up to cup her face in my hand. “Hey, there you are.”
She wrapped her fingers around mine, squeezing my hand.
“Ugh,” I moaned, “I had the weirdest dream. You’re not going to believe this.”
I scrubbed my face with one hand as I shook my head, making myself a little dizzy again.
“You had this British accent because you were a princess…no wait, like a queen in waiting. You were about to be queen, and you had this really mean twin sister. We called the ice queen she was just awful. And you told me your dad was cryogenically frozen.”
I heaved out a sigh as I laughed at the ridiculous story. “Funny, huh?”
The smile on Nattie’s features faded as I focused on her, and her nose crinkled a little.
My eyes widened as more memories tumbled back through my mind. “Ohhhh, that wasn’t a dream, was it?”
“I’m sorry,” she answered. “I’m afraid it wasn’t.”
I sat up way too fast, the room dancing around me in a violent enough way that I felt sick. I reached for her, and she steadied me.
With my eyes open again, I spotted a leather-clad match to Nattie across the room and winced. I leaned closer to Nattie, lowering my voice to a whisper. “Has she been here the whole time?”
“Yes,” Nattie answered.
“Hello, doctor,” Nadia answered, crossing her eyes. “’Tis I, the ice queen.”
I winced, squeezing my eyes closed. Not good. Not good at all. I’d just insulted the woman I loved and her sister.
“Lie back, Kyle, take a few minutes to recover from the drug.”
Drug? I eased back onto the cot, my head finding the soft pillow. I remembered everything now. I really was in some secret laboratory about to see if I could unfreeze Nattie’s father and bring him back to life. And I’d gotten here after Nadia had drugged me despite my most vehement protests.
It wasn’t Nattie’s fault her sister was a…well, I wasn’t going to spell it out. Not while my head was pounding.
“Are you feeling ill?” Nattie asked.
I snapped my eyes open again and shook my head. “It’ll pass. It’s just the drugs wearing off. At least, I think so. What did you give me anyway?”
“Nothing that will harm you,” Nadia called.
Nattie’s features pinched with concern as she gently rubbed a thumb against my forehead. “I am so very sorry, my darling.”
“No, I understand. I get it,” I reassured her.
She offered me a sad smile. “Is there anything I can get you?”
“Water,” I answered, hoping it would help flush the grogginess from my system. “Are we in the lab?”
“We are,” she answered as she waved a hand in the air with a snap of her fingers.
Someone delivered a bottle of water to her a moment later, and she cracked it open and offered it to me. “Small sips. You don’t want to–“
“I know, hon, I’m a doctor.”
“Right,” she answered as she handed the bottle to me. I sat up and took a few sips, ensuring that I didn’t vomit all over her. They stayed down with relative ease, so I guzzled a little more before I capped the bottle.
“Can I see your father?”
“Perhaps you should rest more,” she suggested.
“I’m all right,” I said, eager both to prove my mettle as a scientist to her and to see the cryo chamber. The technology alone was blowing my mind. I couldn’t wait to dive into what had been done by my predecessor.
A momentary pang of fear shot through me. The man here before me–the one who had one all of this–was now dead. Was that bad luck or something more?
“Hey, Nattie…I had a question,” I said, my voice tentative.
“Of course, what is it?”
“The other doctor, the one who did this. How did he die?” I almost didn’t want to hear the answer to this, but better to know what I was getting into, right?
Wrong, apparently.
Nattie shot Nadia a wide-eyed glance, her features twisting with upset. “He was murdered.”
My stomach twisted into a tight knot and suddenly, I wasn’t so sure that water was going to stay down. Murdered? Was that a terrible coincidence? Somehow, I didn’t think so.
“I’m so sorry to have dragged you into this. I should have told you before we came down.” Her features turned apologetic, tears shining in her eyes as she perched on the edge of the cot next to me, her hands wringing.
“No,” I said as I slid my arm around her. “No, it’s okay. I just was curious, that’s all. Doesn’t change my decision at all to help you.”
She glanced up at me, her watery eyes focusing on my face. “Really?”
“Of course,” I said with a grin.
I didn’t want to be murdered, but at the same time, this was the woman of my dreams, and I didn’t want to let her down. This could be the thing that won her over, the thing that pushed us into super couple status. I wasn’t about to miss out on this kind of opportunity.
She leaned into me, cuddling closer against my chest, her head on my shoulder. My heart soared as I held her closer, kissing the top of her head.
Across the room, her sister cleared her throat. “Sorry to break up the love affair, but we have an issue.”
My heart skipped a beat as I imagined commandos surrounding the building and busting down the door. I tightened my grip on Nattie, determined to protect her.
She pulled away from me, rising with her features questioning. As much as I wanted to protect her, it seemed she had no need of my protection.
I pressed my lips together, disappointed a little. When I’d met her, I’d assumed she was a battered woman, someone who would cling to me because she needed me.
But this woman had no need of anyone. She was strong, resilient. She didn’t need me, and that put me at a heavy disadvantage in seeking her affections.
I couldn’t offer her anything she didn’t already have. I’d watched Julia and my father grow closer partially because he could whisk her away to Paris, London, anywhere in the world. He showered her with gifts. Wasn’t that the billionaire playbook?
But what happened when the girl of your dreams was royalty?
I shoved the doubts aside. I could still impress her with my handling of her father’s case.
I rose next to her as Nadia clicked off her display and shoved her phone into her pocket. “Our dear brother has found out that we are here. He is in the building searching for us. Time for us to play our roles.”
“Right,” Nattie said, untying her cape from around her neck and tossing it on the cot. She twisted to face me, cupping my cheek in her hand. “I’m sorry, I need to run. But Stefan can show you to the cryo chamber and then to Dr. Bartholomew’s office. You’ll find all of his notes there.”
“Oh, okay. Yeah, I’ll take a look over everything,” I said with a nod, trying to find a way to ask about when I’d see her again.
I glanced around the darkened room, wondering if I’d be stuck in the secret lab for the rest of my days.
“Uhh, will you be back soon?”
“I hope so,” she said with a nod before she kissed me on the cheek. “Good luck. I’ll see you later.”
I bobbed my head, wanting to pull her closer and kiss her. I needed that connection, I craved it. But with Nadia hovering over us, I was afraid to look sideways let alone pull her sister into a smooch.
“Thanks. I…look forward to your return,” I said in what sounded like the most awkward way possible. Why was I such an idiot when it counted most?
She hesitated for a moment before she flung her arms around my neck and kissed me.
I stumbled back a step as we parted, still a little stunned that she’d done that in front of her battle ax of a sister.
Before I could react, she spun on a heel and headed toward the door. As she passed, her sister smirked at me, clicking her tongue.
“I really hope you make good on your promise, doctor. Otherwise, we’ll have to have a long conversation that I don’t think you’re going to like.”
I tugged my lips into a grimace as the woman disappeared into the hall behind her sister. She really was scary.
If this relationship worked out, I wasn’t certain I could deal with that woman on a full-time basis.
I twisted to find Stefan standing directly behind me. Freezing, I slid my eyes closed, swallowing hard. “Uhh, mind showing me–“
“Right this way,” Stefan said as he motioned to a door across the room.
I cleared my throat as I followed him, intrigued to see the cryogenic tube that housed Nattie’s father. “So, uh, I thought you always went with Nattie?”
“She has a guard with her,” he answered. “Right now, you are the priority. Or rather, keeping an eye on you. You are not in the circle of trust yet, Dr. Carter. Despite, her highness’s obvious infatuation.”
I held back a grumble, annoyed at the way he referred to me as a passing fancy. A moment of doubt hit me. What if that’s all I was? Was Stefan used to this sort of thing? Did men come and go in Nattie’s life?