Chapter 35
Chapter Thirty-Five
TESSA
I can’t stay awake.
Every time I’m able, I peel an eye open, only to close it when I realize how blurry my vision is.
There are voices in and out and a beeping noise.
I shake my head and try my hardest to keep a steady view of what’s going on in front of me.
Where am I?
It’s so bright in here.
I reach on the top of my head for my sunglasses and pout when I don’t find them.
My blinks are slow, and thankfully it helps steady my vision instead of make it worse. There’s a TV in the corner, and the race is on.
I sit up quickly. I fling the blankets off my legs and scrunch my nose at the hospital gown I’m wearing.
Vague snippets of what happened fill my fuzzy head, but I push them away to get back to the race.
“The race,” I mutter. “I have to get back.”
“Tess.”
I let go of the bed and buckle at the knees.
Rome reacts quickly and wraps an arm around my lower back, pressing me to the front of his body.
“Lie down, Princess.”
Gently, he guides me back to my bed and sits me on the edge of it. He bends at the knee, his race suit bundled around his waist, to scoop my legs up and over before covering them with the blanket.
He sits in the chair beside my bed, his attention on me instead of the race. “How are you feeling?”
“Confused.” I fight through the throbbing in my temples. “Why aren’t you in the race?”
He blinks slowly. “Because you’re in the hospital.”
I rest my head against the pillow. “That’s why I’m not there. I asked why you weren’t.”
Rome’s blue eyes dart, and I think I see a pinkish hue spread across his face. “You really think I could’ve kept racing after knowing something was wrong with you?”
“You should’ve.” I close my eyes, too tired to keep them open.
“I couldn’t.”
The heart monitor starts to beep a little faster than before, which is more than annoying. Whose side is it on? Mine or Rome’s?
“I’ve never known Rome Pierce to stop racing for anything,” I whisper.
Rome leans forward, elbows on his knees. “Well, then I guess you’re not just anything.”
My pulse jumps, Rome’s attention moving to the heart monitor.
He leans even closer to the bed. “You like knowing I care about you, Princess?”
I cross my arms and tuck my chin. “No.”
His deep chuckle makes my toes curl. “Yes, you do.”
The door opens, cutting our conversation short.
Out of the corner of my eye, I watch Rome turn the TV off, the race no longer important.
A tall, tanned-skin man in a white coat comes around the bed. “How are you feeling, Ms. Halston?”
His accent is thick, but I manage to understand him. “I’m tired,” I say.
And confused for more reasons than one.
He nods. “Understandable.”
Rome interjects himself with his eyebrows knitted. “Did the test results come back? Do you have answers as to what happened?”
The doctor glances at me and then back to him.
What? What isn’t he saying?
“Tessa, did you happen to take anything today?” He flips a paper on the clipboard. “Like any medication?”
I shake my head.
“What about drugs?”
I bundle the bedsheets in my fingers. “What? Of course not.”
“Are you sure?” he asks, clearly not convinced.
“She said no,” Rome repeats. “Don’t make her say it again.”
The doctor glances at Rome briefly then back to me.
“Then someone drugged you.”
My heart sinks, and the room narrows. “What?”
“Excuse me?” Rome’s voice is distant.
I channel through the events before the race and can’t come up with a logical reason for what the doctor is saying.
“Did anyone give you something? Food? Or a drink that wasn’t sealed?”
“No–” I lock onto Rome.
His face pales, and he turns back to the doctor. “Are you saying someone spiked her drink?”
“If she is telling the truth that she didn’t ingest the medication on her own, then yes.”
“I don’t take medication, and I certainly don’t do drugs,” I stress.
Rome stands and ends up in between the doctor and me. “What medication?” he asks, voice throaty.
“Inderal.” The doctor sighs. “It’s used for anxiety or sometimes a heart condition. It can lower blood pressure and heart rate, likely why she fainted. It can also make an individual feel slow, or heavy, maybe having slurred words and confusion.”
Rome’s fists clench.
A cold sweat breaks out on my forehead, and I slowly lower myself back to my pillow. Exhaustion settles in again, my limbs heavy.
“We’re going to keep her here for a little longer to make sure her blood pressure stays steady, but then she should be okay to be discharged.”
Rome scoffs. “Should?”
The doctor attempts to hide his amusement, turning around with a half-smirk. “I misspoke. She will be fine to be discharged.”
Then he walks out, leaving me and Rome alone in a tiny hospital room with too many unanswered questions.
His back remains rigid, the long-sleeve white undershirt stretched across his taut muscles.
I exhale slowly.
Seconds pass, and he doesn’t make a sound. I peek an eye open, and he stands in the same spot, spine stiff.
“Rome?” I rasp.
His piercing blue eyes find me over his shoulder, and flutters fly to my lower stomach. The whites of his eyes are stark against the blue, his eyes wide and breathing shallow. “Tell me you know I wouldn’t do that.”
I place my hands on the bed and sit up tall. “Of course you wouldn’t. Why would I think that?”
He turns around and walks the short distance to me.
He peers at me, a line of worry on his forehead.
“I was the one who ordered the drink, Tessa.” He runs a hand through his unruly, dark hair.
“Your first thought wasn’t that I drugged you to create some kind of chaos within the team to overtake it in the end? ”
I flinch backward and repeat what he says in my head.
A month ago, I probably would’ve jumped to that conclusion right away and threatened his life. Today, the thought didn’t even occur to me.
I don’t know what that says about me, or us, but it means something.
“N…no,” I stammer. “The thought didn’t cross my mind once.”
Rome stares at me for so long my heart rate rises again. He glances to the monitor and then back to me before making his way around the bed to sit in the chair. With his legs out wide, he leans back with his arms crossed against his chest, seemingly lost in his head.
My eyelids grow heavy, and I think I fall asleep for a short time before springing awake. Concern is still etched onto Rome’s face.
“Don’t tell my brothers someone drugged me,” I mutter.
His shoulders fall. “Tess.”
“No.” I shake my head slowly. “They’ll tell my parents, and my dad will worry. The stress is too hard on his heart. It was probably a mistake anyway. The medication is for anxiety, someone probably had it mixed in their drink, and it was given to me by accident.”
Rome swallows slowly. “And if it wasn’t?”
I shrug. “I guess they’ll have to try harder next time.”
He glares at me, and I sink back onto the bed with a half-smile and drowsiness.
“What do you want me to tell them?” he asks a short while later.
I curl up on my side and face him, my eyelids too heavy to keep open for long. “I trust you to figure it out,” I say.
His eyebrow flicks upward. “So you trust me now, Princess?”
It’s too hard to hide a smile, so I don’t. “Well, you did stop in the middle of a race to make sure I was okay…so yeah, I guess I do.”
Seconds stretch into minutes, and I think I fall asleep, until something soft strokes against my cheek. I’m pretty sure it’s Rome’s thumb.