Over Her Dead Body by Nichole Severn

Author:Nichole Severn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2023-01-25T19:32:28+00:00

Chapter Nine

The lighting in heaven sucked.

Too bright.

Isla turned away from the onslaught, sinking deeper into some kind of scratchy, pillowy cloud. The turndown service could use some help. She’d have to talk to someone about that.

A consistent beep accentuated the steady painful beat of her heart behind her ears. That was annoying, too. What kind of heaven was this? She peeled her eyelids open. A monitor with green lines and spiky readings crested and troughed a few feet away. She followed a length of clear tubing into the back of her scraped-up hand.

Not heaven.

A hospital.

A groan rumbled through her chest. The same weight she’d experienced while hanging from that tree pressed her deeper into the mattress. If she could call it that. She forced herself to take stock of the room. Simple enough. As long as nothing was broken. She caught sight of the ridiculously handsome and muscled man slouched back in what looked like the most uncomfortable chair on the planet.

He was here. He’d come for her.

She didn’t know where that knowledge came from. In fact, she didn’t know a whole lot since passing out hanging from a tree and ending up here, but she knew him. He’d gotten her out of there. Just like he’d promised Clint. “I don’t suppose you’re here to bring me a viennoiserie.”

Adan startled awake. He unfolded his arm from the other secured in a sling and scanned the room like the good soldier he was supposed to be. Compellingly bright eyes landed on her, and the defensiveness slipped from his expression. The small cuts around his face shifted as he spoke. “Hey. You’re awake.”

“It appears that way. You look like crap.” It wasn’t true. If anything he looked...battle-tested. And way more pulled together than she felt at the moment. A tightness charged through her chest as the memories flooded past whatever painkiller they’d given her to lower her defenses. “What happened?”

“You lost a lot of blood. You’ve had a couple transfusions. Doctors said you’ll make a complete recovery as long as you take it easy. The bullet will leave a scar, but I don’t have to tell you that.” Adan tried to sit straighter in his chair. Bruises shadowed one side of his face in a dark spatter of randomness, and she wanted nothing more than to smooth them away. He’d risked his life for her. Taken a bullet for her. Hunted her down to bring her back. She owed him her life.

“No,” she said. “I mean with the case.”

“Layton Burgess is dead. Seems whatever he was going to tell us about the group Clint got involved with was enough to kill for,” he said.

“They wanted something from me.” Isla tried to ignore the warmth in her feet. They’d been wrapped. Because the shooter had cut them open and left her in the middle of the desert. If Adan hadn’t been there... “Where’s Mazi?”

“The school called Karie Ford when you didn’t show to pick her up.” His eyes softened the second the subject of her daughter came up.

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