JAMES
“Tell me what the fuck happened,” I snarled at Adrian as soon as Dr. Williams took Emmaline in for a CT scan. “How the fuck did this even happen?!” I roared.
When Adrian called me and told me my bedroom door was open, that Alfonso was dead on top of Emmaline, and she was unconscious, I almost flipped my shit. The only thing that kept me from losing my fucking mind was worry for Emmaline.
She would need me to be strong and steady for her.
“Easy, James,” Adrian said calmly. “I had guards placed at her door – just as you ordered,” he assured me. “Both of them were dead when I went to go check on her. Alfonso was on top of her when I walked into the room, but he was already dead. She stabbed him in the throat.”
“Jesus fucking Christ.” I shoved my hands through my hair and paced the length of the hallway and back, my frame vibrating with rage. “So, not only was she almost fucking raped and killed, but now she has murder on her goddamn hands!” I shouted. Adrian took a step back from me as I stormed up to him. “My woman has lost her fucking innocence! I trusted you to keep an eye on her!”
Adrian was silent. I paced the hallway again before I spun back around to face him. “Who the fuck did you have posted at our bedroom door?” I asked him.
“Rex and Ty,” he told me.
He had to be fucking kidding me.
I wrapped my hand around his throat and shoved him against the wall, lifting his feet from the floor. He choked, his eyes widening. “Newbies?!” I roared. “You put the new guys on her protection detail?! I fucking told you some dumb shit would happen; my dad doesn’t fucking want her here, and you put two of our weakest links – two that were still in training – on her protection detail?! Have you lost your goddamn mind?!”
A throat cleared to the side of us. I turned my murderous gaze to the doctor and released my hold on Adrian’s neck. He crumpled to the floor. “What?” I snarled.
“Sir, she keeps mumbling your name.”
Without a word, I shoved past him and into her room. She was barely conscious, but her slitted eyes instantly found me as I walked into the room.
“James,” she breathed, her eyes fluttering closed.
I grabbed her hand in both of mine and lifted it to my lips, pressing tender kisses to her knuckles. I could have fucking lost her. If she hadn’t found some kind of damn strength inside of her, she would have fucking died.
“This will never happen again,” I swore as her breathing evened out, sleep finally claiming her as her pain meds took effect. “And he’ll fucking pay for ordering a hit on you.”
I looked at her other hand, my stomach twisting. “It looks as if she snatched the knife by the blade, sir,” the nurse told me quietly. “And judging by the small nick on her neck, I would imagine she grabbed it when he was holding the knife against her throat.” She gave me a small, nervous smile. I only stared back at her, so much rage and fear crawling through me that it was making me volatile. “She’s a strong one – a fighter, sir. She’ll make it through this.”
I turned my eyes back to Emmaline. Leaning down, I pressed my lips to her forehead. “I’m so sorry you lost your innocence,” I whispered. “I’m so fucking sorry you’ve become one of us.”
Adrian quietly stepped into the room. I glanced at him over my shoulder before looking back down at Emmaline. “You are in charge of bringing my father to me,” I ordered.
“James—"
“Don’t,” I warned him. “I don’t give the slightest fuck what that son of a bitch has done for you. He crossed me wrong.” I turned my angry eyes to his, narrowing them in a warning. “And if you fucking decide to cross me, Adrian – if you decide to try to protect him – I’ll give you a punishment worse than death,” I promised. “Find him and bring him to me.”
He nodded and left the room. I dropped into the chair beside her bed.
I’d made the mistake of trusting someone else with Emmaline’s safety, but I wouldn’t be making that mistake again. And until she was awake and coherent, I would not be leaving her side.
And when she was better and I had to go deal with this shit, my head of security would be the one to watch her – not a single other fucking soul. Jaxon was just as dangerous as I was – if not more – and I knew he would protect my queen.
And anyone who sided with my father on this shit would fucking die a slow, painful death. That was a goddamn promise.