22. Wesley
22
WESLEY
At first, I assume the red I see is from my anger.
And then I notice the blood on my hands.
“All right, he’s down !” Jack yells, pulling me off the attacker after my fourth punch. I stumble back, swiping my mouth with my wrist. My knuckles throb, but I forget about any discomfort when I see Nina collapsed on the floor with a hand on her necklace as she struggles to catch her breath.
“Get back,” I snap when a security guard reaches out to help her.
Nina looks at me, her face red and eyes glassy, and I pour my focus into getting her out of here before I finish the man who tried to kill her. I take her trembling hand in my bloody one as I reach my other arm around her waist. My stomach caves at the sound of her ragged breathing.
“Take her to a safe location,” Jack demands as I’m already leading her away.
Everyone bustles around in a panic. Up ahead, Maia rushes to meet us. Mason is but a foot away from her, and I assume she refused to leave without Nina.
“Nina!” Maia exclaims, a look of horror and fear on her face. “Oh my god. What happened? Your neck…” She extends a hand, stopping midway.
Nina shuts her eyes, overwhelmed. She curls her hands against her chest. Even if I wanted to step back, I couldn’t. She leans into me.
“Someone attacked her,” I say. “He’s in custody, but we need to get her to the hospital.”
Her voice comes out in a single, rasped sound. “No.”
“You need to be examined.”
“No hospital,” she insists. Amidst the chaos around us, she stares at me, defiant.
“There’s an on-call doctor for tonight,” Mason suggests. “What if we bring him here?”
Nina lowers her gaze from me and nods. Mason and I stand on either side of the sisters as we lead them to the designated safe room in the palace’s Jolie wing. Palace employees bustle around, and I soon find Jack trailing behind us.
“Have the on-call doctor meet us,” I tell him.
“What? She needs to go to the hospital.”
I lift my shoulders. “She refuses.”
My boss sighs before taking out his phone. When we reach the room, Nina sits on the leather couch with Maia. Her hands haven’t stopped trembling. I step to the mini bar and pour a bottle of water into a glass. Mason appears at my side with a bowl of ice, and I drop a couple into the water.
“It’s for your hand,” he says, and I walk away without a reply. I can’t begin to think of myself until Nina calms down.
I hold out the glass to her. As she accepts it, her gaze lingers on my shredded knuckles. The doctor arrives only a short time after. She flinches away every time he tries to examine her, and remains adamant that he only looks at her neck. I notice that Maia and I are the only ones she allows to touch her.
“You will be okay,” the doctor says, his Maldanian accent so thick he’s difficult to understand. “You have the, uh”—he gestures around his neck—“the bruise, but it heal soon. You should get scan of head to be safe.”
Nina attempts a smile, whispering, “Okay. Gracea,” as he packs his things and leaves.
Jack steps toward her with a solemn face. His voice has an unusual gentleness to it. “I can show you to a room you can stay tonight.” At her confused look, he adds, “Here, on palace grounds.”
She shakes her head. “No. I want—I want to go back to the hotel.”
My chest constricts. We don’t know who attacked her and how he got access. Chances are, he has a group of people who, at the very least, know he was planning this. He could have a back-up plan.
“Your Highness, it is safest if you stay here,” Jack says.
“No.” Like before, she speaks definitively. My boss gives me a look. Part of me almost demands that she stays here, but I can imagine what she’s going through. She’s feeling destabilized. I clench my jaw and nod to Jack.
“Okay, then. Our security is still securing the perimeter of the grounds. Once it is secure, you may go.” He gestures for Mason and me to gather in a corner of the room. We speak in Maldanian. “Do you think Maia will agree to stay here?”
“Absolutely not,” Mason says in a grave tone. “The only reason I did not take her to a secure location right away is because she screamed at the top of her lungs when I grabbed her arm.”
It’s a scene I can picture.
Jack sputters. “Oh—okay, then. Have Gregory and Silas sweep the hotel before you arrive. I’ll send back-up in a few hours so you can have a break and call me the moment they’re settled so we can debrief.”
As the minutes tick on, I realize how slow time has moved since the incident. A few crazed, violent seconds changed the whole trajectory of the night when I’ve moved on quicker from even bloodier fights before. It reminds me that civilians aren’t used to this, but I’m strangely shaken tonight.
I flex my bruised, swollen hand that’s still stained with blood. Every safe room has a medical kit, so I hastily clean and scrub my wounds.
“Can someone turn off the radio?” Nina asks in the silence. She holds her hands on either side of her head.
Maia touches her shoulder. “I… There’s no radio.”
She must hear a ringing or buzzing sound—common after strangulation. I suppress the urge to insist she goes to the hospital for a scan. The more I would encourage, the more she would resist.
The ride to the hotel is quiet. Halfway there, I get two messages. Gregory and Silas find no red flags at the hotel, and Jack sends me a single name.
Anton Robert.
Her attacker. It’s a name I don’t recognize. I stop myself from mulling over it and focus on getting Nina to bed. In the hallway, Maia says to her, “I’m going to shower and change. Will you be good for a little bit?”
Nina nods and sinks into her sister’s hug. I notice Maia’s tears. She wasn’t the one attacked, but her love runs so deep that she takes some of the pain, too. It makes me think of Cora—how I haven’t been around to look after her all these years.
Nina jumps when she sees two people from the beauty team in her room. The lead woman, Greta, speaks to me, likely because of the apparent agitation on my face.
“We are here to retrieve the dress and jewelry from Miss Laffley.”
“Not now,” I say. “You’ll?—”
I feel a hand on my arm. “It’s okay.”
Greta has no criminal affiliation and neither does her assistant, Chloe. Still, I watch as Nina steps out of her heels and hands them over to the women who look at her with unease and pity. The redness in her face has calmed, but her neck has splotches and discoloration. I turn from them when she steps out of the dress and wraps in a silk robe. Other than the few shed tears right after the attack, I realize that she hasn’t cried.
Until now.
“No—!” I warn when Greta stupidly reaches to remove the necklace from Nina, who lashes out and shoves the woman with full force to the ground.
Nina gasps, a horrified expression on her face as she covers her mouth. “I’m sorry. I-I-I didn’t mean?—”
“It is all right. I am fine,” Greta says as Chloe helps her up.
Second by second, Nina breaks down. Tears spill over as she brushes her fingers over her neck. “No, I… I didn’t—I’m?—”
All the emotions she suppressed over the last two hours free themselves with a vengeance. I stop her from collapsing with an arm around her waist. I glare at the two women. “Go. Now.”
“The necklace. It’s worth?—”
“Get the fuck out,” I sneer. They flinch at my tone and scramble to gather what they can. Nina falls against me, her sobs uncontrollable as I lower us to the ground. Her anguish carves into me, and I feel sudden resentment toward Jack for not letting me kill Anton Robert.
“It’s all my fault,” she rasps, her head against my shoulder as she fights to catch her breath. “I-I-I just stood there and let him choke me. I froze. I did nothing.”
“Nina,” I say, my voice grating with unexpected emotion. “Nina, look at me.” I shift until she faces me and meets my eyes. With one arm still around her, I hold her cheek with my free hand. She doesn’t flinch away from my touch; she watches me with vulnerability I haven’t seen before. “It doesn’t matter. You can freeze again and again because no one will ever get another chance to lay a finger on you, okay?”
She doesn’t say anything as she nods, her eyes falling shut. My heart doubles in weight when she curls against my chest. I slide my fingers through her hair, forcing away my violent plans for Robert. My voice doesn’t raise above a whisper.
“I promise.”