Weapons vault?
“Oh.” I nodded as Dermot smoothed a hand over my hair. I had to admit, her friendly disposition and how talkative she seemed to be immediately made me feel far more comfortable around her.
“Rosin has been around most of my childhood,” Dermot explained. “She will make sure you are all taken care of, I promise.”
“Which reminds me, let’s see those ribs.” She motioned to my abdomen, and Dermot let out a low growl as I eased up my top.
She fixed him with a look. “If you’re going to be a problem—”
His face darkened, and I swear he almost had a pout. “I’m fine. I’m fine.”
I offered him a sweet smile as he stood by my side. After a few short minutes of her testing my pain tolerance and range of motion, she seemed happy.
“I think you are healing fantastic, the bruising is far lighter than I assumed.” She smiled. “I would say wrap them if you need, but you definitely need lots of rest and ice. Mostly medicine, though, which I will have delivered here. Just make sure to not overdo it.”
“Okay.” I nodded in understanding.
Then she went to check my neck, undoing the bandage that I hadn’t touched in the shower, my nose twitching as I smelled the scent of blood.
“This I am a bit more worried about. I’ve put you on antibiotics,” she explained, “so between the pain medicine and that you should be good to go. You are going to be just fine, but if you have any issues, I live here on the estate.”
“You do?” I asked curiously.
Her eyes sparked with humor. “Yes, my husband took over my father’s job. Nolan is also the same one that trained Dermot here.”
“Oh.” My brows went up, imagining Dermot as a younger child.
“So I have a lot of embarrassing stories about him as a kid.” She winked. Dermot groaned as she left and I turned back to him.
“She seems nice,” I pointed out.
His eyes were soft as a sadness filtered over his expression. “She is. She became somewhat of a surrogate mom, to be honest… I came to her after one of the bad nights with my father, and Nolan taught me to defend myself, and it sort of transferred into me being so damn interested in weapons.”
I squeezed his hand. “She seems wonderful.”
He nodded, and then, as if something was just occurring to him, he grasped my hands gently. “Before we go downstairs, I need to talk to you about everything that happened between my dad and when you—”
“Killed Ian?” I asked easily.
His eyes filled with a flash of malicious light. “Yes.”
“I wanted to feel guilty… I should…” I shook my head as he went to tell me differently. “But I didn’t at the moment, and I don’t even now. I don’t at all. He wanted to hurt you guys…and he was never going to stop. I don’t regret it, Dermot.”
“Good.” He brushed his lips against my forehead. “He deserved far worse than the death he got, but I am proud of you, Dahlia. So damn proud of you, baby girl.”
That felt so good to hear, I couldn’t even properly explain it.
A knock on the door had me looking over to find someone with a tray of food waiting there. When the man brought it in and set it down, I immediately sat down on the bed next to the tray. I began eating the sandwich and sipping water as Dermot said something to him about having water and snacks brought up here later. Honestly, I wouldn’t complain about that, especially after a day like today.
I had eaten literally nearly half of my entire tray when Dermot finally sat down. I looked up at him as he nodded towards the tray, clearly wanting me to continue to eat. After a moment, he groaned and leaned back on the bed, his eyes closing. I took a moment to appreciate how handsome he was before expressing my concern.
“You look exhausted.”
“I am,” he admitted. “It’s been a very long few days. I couldn’t sleep until you were awake, not until I could make sure you were actually okay… even if Rosin said that you were.”
“I think you will just have to sleep in here,” I teased. “You know, to make sure that I’m okay.”
“Oh, for sure.” Dermot grinned.