Vicious Sanctuary (The Sovereigns #3)

1. Renne

Renne

You’d think that after the massacre on the yacht, life would throw me a bone. God could’ve been like: There, there, you poor sasshole, do the nursing work (which is a noble, caregiving job), and I’ll cut you some slack. But no, His plans for me remain a mystery.

But to recap, during my first week on the job as a travel nurse at Selnoa General, I ended up on the business end of a sniper rifle held by none other than a Selnoan crime boss, who, judging by the skills he displayed, has done exactly the type of work the man I’m hiding from is doing.

Professional assassin. A crime king. A man who kills and then sleeps just fine at night.

It turns out Selnoa’s king, Declan Crossbow, eliminated over seventy people to rescue his girlfriend, Dina, and his twin brother, Connor, from both the police and the other criminal organizations threatening to take over the city, which his father ruled before his untimely death.

I was the nurse assigned to Dina and Connor.

When push came to shove, and when all hell broke loose, I broke along with it and gave up Connor’s room number, something that’s protected by patient privacy laws.

In my defense, I was under duress. Still, I think about it often.

I might’ve saved Connor Crossbow’s life, but maybe he should’ve gone down that day.

It’s not up to me to decide, that’s for sure.

Neither my education nor my years of practice prepared me for a full-scale hospital invasion.

After the ordeal, I called my witness protection contact and tried leaving immediately, but my contact couldn’t move me.

He said I had to remain put for the time I was supposed to stay in the city.

He said the paperwork would take too long, and the case involving the man I was meant to testify against was being built, with no arrest in sight.

So I stayed in Selnoa. But it went from bad to worse.

Rental unit prices for non-Selnoans are terrible because Selnoans want to rip off expats as much as possible. I’m a travel nurse, but that falls on deaf ears. The landlords hear the accent and double the rent. There’s no oversight.

And so, I was stuck and very pregnant in a city I didn’t know with just a few hundred dollars to my name, a dangerous man looking for me, cops questioning me about the Crossbow incident, reporters with many cameras I actively avoided near the hospital entrance for weeks, and I had a week left at my temporary housing before they could kick me out.

It gets much worse.

During the same week as the Crossbow incident, I ended up hospitalized for bleeding. I thought I would lose my baby. I thought I was going to die.

I was alone and terrified.

That was when Dina walked into my hospital room.

She brought me flowers and thanked me for being her nurse.

She came back the next day. And the day after.

When they released me, I had nowhere to go, so Dina let me stay in her apartment after I delivered my daughter.

Three months ago, I moved into my own place.

But I depend on Dina for babysitting. Especially when I pick up extra shifts on the weekends, because then she’s not working at her hair salon downstairs.

It’s Sunday morning. I carry my baby and climb the steps of Dina’s building, which has no elevators. She lives on the top floor. Back home, the tallest residence was a town house with only one flight of stairs to climb.

At least my daughter is ready for her nap, so she’s not fussing when I arrive at Dina’s.

I rap on the door.

It swings wide open while my fist is still up in the air.

Instead of Dina, a man stands there. Blue eyes, blond hair. A Greek god in faded jeans and a black T-shirt. I recognize him instantly. Declan Crossbow. No, wait. Is it the other one? Connor Crossbow?

I don’t know which, but I do know he’s bad news.

Right after the hospital incident, Dina broke up with Declan.

She mentioned something about him giving her a year before he came back, but last night, I heard he got engaged to another woman.

I can’t keep up with the news. I can barely keep track of my baby’s feedings and naps, along with my work schedule.

My gaze drops to the weapons he holds at his sides. Guns with golden grips are hard to miss.

The Crossbow man tilts his head. I can tell the moment he recognizes me as the nurse from that insane afternoon at Selnoa General, because a sinful smile lifts his lips.

Dimples. God, he is beautiful. Dina knows how to get hot men, and since she’s eleven years his senior, more power to her.

“Hey, Mamma,” he says.

Uh-oh. I don’t think this is Dina’s man. I think it’s the other one. My former patient. The one whose room number I gave up.

I open my mouth to correct him and ask him not to call me Mamma, but nothing comes out.

I expected Dina would be in the apartment doing laundry or prepping for the week.

We would hang out for a couple of hours and catch up on what’s going on with her daughter and dad.

Hanna would go down for a nap, and I would go to work.

That’s the day I envisioned. That’s it. Boring.

Instead, this Crossbow man is not letting me into the apartment, and I have no idea what’s going on. If I can’t find a babysitter by eleven, I can’t work my twelve-hour shift. It’s already nine o’clock.

“Hey,” I manage to say. “I’m looking for Dina.”

“I know. This is her apartment.”

When he doesn’t move out of the way or elaborate, I continue. “Is she here?”

He shakes his head.

Big conversationalist, this one. “Do you know where she is?”

The man lifts his hands as if they’re empty and shrugs. I flinch at the guns. He’s nonchalant about them and doesn’t put them away either. I’m on the verge of peeing my pants over here. But I can’t piss in front of this man. I need to pussy up. He hasn’t shot me yet, so I’m good, right?

I fetch my phone from the diaper bag, but before I can dial, my daughter lifts her head from my shoulder, which causes the phone to slip out of my hand.

The man sticks out his boot, catches my phone on it, and manages to keep it from cracking on the floor.

Those are some killer skills. Literally.

“Catch.” He kicks the phone up as if it were a soccer ball, and I don’t fumble.

That earns me another one of his devastating smiles.

I dial Dina. She doesn’t pick up. I dial again, sweating now. Not only because it appears Dina is not at the apartment, but also because I’m unsure if something happened to her. The Crossbow twins are very dangerous men. They’re in the same category as the man I’m hiding from.

While I redial Dina, the Crossbow man watches me like a bug. Honestly, I wonder how I end up crossing paths with men most people never meet. I’m an ordinary citizen. My mom is a nurse, and her mom was a nurse. Dad is a store manager. I’m an only child.

I miss them dearly.

I wish I were more organized like them, but I’m not.

This is why Dina and I get along. I understand the chaos she thrives in.

My aunt Umaria died an untimely death from pancreatic cancer, from a lifetime of drinking.

But she lived and partied and traveled and saw more of the world than all the people in my entire small town combined.

She was a wonderful aunt. One time, she came to a Christmas dinner with a truck full of presents for me. I’ll never forget that Christmas.

I miss her too.

Will I miss Dina? Because she’s not answering. “Okay, well, then, I’ll be going,” I tell the Crossbow man.

“Where are you going?” he asks.

“Good question.” I bite my lip. “I’ll figure it out on the way to the bus stop.”

“What did you need Dina for?”

“Babysitting.”

“I’m available.”

My gaze drifts to his weapons and lingers there as I try to make my point.

The man tucks the guns into his shoulder holsters and closes the door of the apartment behind him. “I’m just teasing you. I wouldn’t leave a child with me either.” He descends the steps.

I follow him. I mean, what else can I do? We’re going in the same direction. Hanna’s awake but quietly resting on my shoulder. She’s about nine months old and getting heavier, so my biceps strain.

The man waits for us on the ground floor. He pops a caramel candy into his mouth and offers me one.

“No, thank you.”

“I thought little girls love candy.”

“She’s too small for it.”

“I wasn’t talking about the baby.”

FULL STOP. IS HE FLIRTING? It’s a good thing I’m sweating and probably red in the face from the workout on the steps. Otherwise, the heat crawling up my cheeks would be more obvious.

“I’m messing with you,” he says.

I release a breath. “Thank God.”

“Why God, when I’m the one who chose not to bite you while you put a muzzle over my face? Remember when they restrained me, and you muzzled me like a dog?”

The chief of police left Connor under the collapsed rubble of Dina’s shop for a long time before he ordered the crew to bring him to the hospital.

Once there, they restrained him so I could sedate him and put a muzzle over his mouth in case he tried to bite someone.

They told me he was like his father. A dangerous sociopath. I believed them. Why wouldn’t I?

Sociopaths are notoriously good at charming people. But I’m not a professional in the psychiatric field, so what do I know? Besides, now I’m sure this is Connor Crossbow. “I’m sorry about that. I did whatever my boss asked me.”

“I heard. You also told Dina my room number, which is how my brother found me so quickly. I owe you for that. Now I’m paying you back. Wait here. My car’s in the garage.”

Connor leaves me confused. Whatever does he mean to do with us? But I wait for him nonetheless.

A black SUV pulls up at the curb, and I go out just as the tinted windows roll down. Connor’s behind the wheel, wearing dark sunglasses. “Get in.”