“Please let me come.”
“You don’t need to be sitting around for hours waiting for me.”
“But I want to.”
“It’d be embarrassing to have you watch me get a shot in the ass or something. Listen, I’d love to keep my dignity. I’ll keep you up to date, okay?”
I bit my lip. He didn’t want me to come. I had to respect that. “Okay, I’ll go home. But please keep me informed. I need to know if you’re okay.”
“Okay.”
The second I thought the word, it was echoed instantly by his driver.
“What? Mr. Cross, James, please be reasonable,” Frank said, keeping a firm grip on James’s shoulder, no matter how hard he tried to pull away. “Miss Jones is fine. It’s you who needs to be looked at.”
“Frank, that’s not what I—”
“He’s right!” I cried in a voice much higher and shriller than my own. “James, you’re in no condition to—”
Frank followed his gaze, studied my face, then bowed his head and let out a sigh.
“Take her home,” James said again, much more gently this time. “My brother can take me to the hospital in his car.”
Robert nodded. “Yes. So let’s go!”
James turned to me with a tired sigh. “I’m sorry,” he said softly, his skin paling even more as he braced himself against the pain. “I’m sorry you had to see all that.”
“What are you talking about?” I whispered again, shaking like a leaf in the wind. “You have nothing to be sorry for. I walked in there and yelled my head off like a maniac. I started it. It was all my fault.”
Much to my extreme astonishment, James’s lips twitched up in a fleeting smile in the wake of that admission. “A bit of a martyr complex, have you?”
I blinked, unable to believe he could possibly make a joke at that moment. “I’m sorry. What—”
“Surely you know you are not even remotely to blame for any of this,” he continued gently, his dark hair spilling into his face, courtesy of the evening breeze. “My...sibling rivalry dates back a lot further than you, Della. You just got caught in the middle tonight.”
My eyes welled with tears as I shook my head, staring down at his leg. “But it never should have happened. I should have kept my mouth shut, not gone in there and—”
My rising panic was cut short with a tender kiss, as sudden as it was unexpected, one that left me still frozen in surprise when James pulled away from me.
Without another word, the security guards stepped forward, and James was helped gently into Robert’s car. Robert followed.
Frank clapped it briskly on the roof, then watched as it shot off into the night toward the hospital, then turned back to me. “Come, miss. Let’s get you home.”
Chapter 16
I WOKE UP HOURS LATER and called James. No answer. So I then called the hospital. They wouldn’t give me any information, so I was forced to call Robert. He told me James was fine and not to worry my pretty little head. That’s all the information I could get. I wanted to go up to the hospital myself but I had to respect James’s wishes. An hour later, James sent me a quick text stating that he was fine, and not to worry. I then went back to sleep.
Morning finally came.
I rolled over in bed to find myself in the arms of a mid-century suit of armor. When I sucked in a breath to scream, I was momentarily distracted by the smell of French toast. It took only a moment for me to make the connection and shout, “Madison?”
“Down here!” she called, her cheerful voice floating up the stairs.
“Why is your knight in shining armor in my bed?”
“Perfect companionship.”
“Like one of those giant blow up sex dolls. No thank you!”