PLAYED

They were drugging me again! No!

But as hard as I tried to claw back toward the light, it faded again, and there I was in the cold, the darkness, the pain…

The next time I woke was different. It wasn’t the hard beating of my heart that brought me back into the world; it was the soft touch of someone’s fingertips on my palm, and the overwhelming scent of flowers.

“You’re going to be okay…”

The whisper was nice. The voice was soft, and each syllable seemed to caress me, wrapping me up in a warmth I’d almost forgotten existed. I took a chance and fluttered an eye, glad to be shrouded in darkness. I could feel my hand being squeezed.

“That’s right. Come back to me, Sandra.”

My eyes flashed open, unfocused, straining to understand. I was in a hospital room, that much was certain, but it was nicer than the ones I’d seen as a child—much nicer than the facility my grandma had lived in during the last hard years of her life. High tech equipment and soothing colors surrounded me. Even the bed I was lying in seemed unusually comfortable. More importantly, the room was filled with flowers of every size and color imaginable, even more opulent than the display Nathan had put on back at the Peachtree.

Nathan… that voice…

As I turned my head, I saw him beside him.

“Nathan,” I whispered, staring up at him.

“I’m here,” he replied, his face contorting with emotion. Regret, fear, happiness, love—I watched all of those feelings shift across his face as he watched over me. My heart began to race as I tried to piece together exactly what had happened to me back at Captain Pierce’s house.

“The Captain… he shot me. We have to stop him.”

Nathan just laughed softly, running his fingertips along my arm. Even in my weakened state, he gave me goosebumps.

“Relax, Sandra. He came out of that house looking like a hero, but it turns out there are still a few good cops on the force. When you went storming into the building, you left a car with a busted trunk and all the evidence you needed to put that asshole away for life just sitting there on the passenger seat. You’re lucky the right person found it.”

Lieutenant Daniels, I thought to myself. I’d been right about him. He was a good cop. I’d owe him big time for this one.

“Where is he?” I asked, suddenly worried.

“The Captain? You don’t have to worry about him anymore. He’s in a holding cell waiting to be charged right along with a dozen paddies. He rolled on the whole organization. You should see the news. This whole thing has been one hell of a story. You’d hate it.”

I laughed and instantly regretted it. Pain shot through my neck, and I hissed as it momentarily blinded me.

Nathan grimaced. “Sorry. Don’t laugh. You did take a bullet, remember? Few inches in either direction and it would have taken out your spine or your jugular. Doctors said you’re lucky to be alive,” he added, holding my hand tightly. “I told them you were too goddamn stubborn to die.”

That shed some light on what had happened to me. but I still had questions for him to answer. “Where are we now? This doesn’t look like County General.”

He grinned a little. “I hope you don’t mind, but the hospital they had you in was a little beneath my standards. Soon as you were stable, I had them move you here. Good Samaritan East, best care you can get this side of the Mason Dixon line.” His expression softened. “My baby deserves the best,” he told me.

I blew out a slow breath. Good Samaritan East wasn’t in my provider network. This whole thing must have cost a fortune, but then I realized I was worrying over nothing. Fortunes were something Nathan could afford to lose. Hell, it might even humble the guy a bit… But something about his words caught me off guard.

Baby? He never called me baby…

I glanced up at his eyes, and suddenly I understood. My hand softly moved to my tummy, holding it tight. No words could express the way I was feeling.

“Relax… You’re fine, and so is our little miracle,” Nathan said, placing a hand over my own. “Everything is going to be ok.”

Nathan’s face blurred before me, and I squinted, trying to make him out. “Nathan,” I whispered, feeling drowsy again. I desperately fought to focus. I didn’t want to lose him again.

“Yes?” he replied quietly, stroking my cheek.

I leaned into his touch, craving just a few more seconds of lucidity. “Stay with me… Stay with us…”

He nodded, leaning forward to press his lips against my forehead just above the bridge of my nose. “Always, Sandra,” he promised me. “I’ll always stay.”

I let his words wrap me in a tender embrace as I closed my eyes and drifted blissfully away.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Paris is cold in the winter. You never really think about that when you’re looking at pretty pictures of the Eiffel Tower and the quaint, narrow streets paved with cobblestones. It all looks so warm and inviting, and yet here I was, being forced toward shelter by the crisp and biting wind stinging my dark skin.

The dress wasn’t helping.

I shuffled up the steps of the huge church in the sheer, but billowing white folds of cloth. It draped beautifully over my frame, but did nothing to hide my obvious pregnancy. The strapless bodice was especially troublesome, as it exposed my expanding cleavage to the frigid air. At this point, I would have traded the whole outfit for a pair of yoga pants and one of Nathan’s big stretchy white t-shirts.

It was my fault, of course. I was the idiot who had to go outside for a breath of fresh air just a few minutes before the wedding. I’d taken on the Irish mafia, almost single-handedly dismantled a sex-trafficking ring, and exposed the corruption running rampant through my city’s police department, and yet nothing seemed so terrifying as walking up the steps and through the doors toward my destiny.

Everyone was waiting inside to start, cradled in the warmth of the cathedral. I was happy to see them, and obviously elated to be there, but this had all happened so fast… Was I ready? Could we truly be a family?

I thought back to everything that had led up to this moment. Unsurprisingly, Nathan didn’t want me returning to the force after I’d recovered, especially once I’d testified against the Captain. Right or wrong, cops looked after their own, and there was enough corruption to ensure I’d never see another promotion—or worse, that backup might not arrive next time I needed it. He told me I could oversee his security team, but that was just an excuse to keep me close while he found a suitable ring.

And what a ring it was.

I glanced down, the oversized diamond sparkling wildly in the colored light that streamed down from the stained glass windows. It was a platinum band with a sixteen-carat monstrosity situated right in the center of it. I wasn’t the kind of girl who spent her life dreaming of her wedding day, but on the occasions in which I had contemplated it, I never once imagined I’d have a ring or a dress as beautiful as this. Sure, it had to be custom-tailored to fit over my eight month pregnant belly, but that was a problem money could solve.

I looked away from the ring and toward the people staring expectantly at me from the pews. This was it. My moment. I almost laughed at the beauty of it all.

Everyone turned to watch as I stepped onto the red carpet leading to the altar. The organ began to play its marching tune, filling the space with warm, reverberating tones that disturbed the butterflies once lying dormant in my stomach.

Here comes the bride…

I tried not to look at th

e crowd, instead focusing on the man waiting for me just a few feet away. Nathan looked incredible. He was standing at the end of the aisle, that goddamn smirk spread wide across his handsome face, shifting in anticipation as he watched me steadily approach. I’d gotten used to looking at his thousand-dollar suits and his shoes that cost more than my car, but this was on a whole other level. There wasn’t a stitch on his clothing that had been made by a machine. It wasn’t just hand-tailored; it was molded, every fiber of the cloth handcrafted for this very moment. Ours were a pair of outfits suitable for a prince and a princess, worn by a billionaire and an ex-detective who wasn’t quite ready to wear several million dollars’ worth of diamond jewelry and a dress too pretty to sit down in.

I took my first step toward him, clutching my bouquet to my chest. I didn’t have a father to give me away. He’d left while I was still in elementary school, which either was because of, or had led to my mother’s addiction—I’d been too young to tell. Only a few distant relatives had come in his stead, and as much as I appreciated their support, I wasn’t about to let my uncle’s third cousin walk me down the aisle. Like everything else in life, if I was going to do this, then I was going to do it alone.