Page 159 of Monstrous Urges

DRAZEN

“I hope you take it black.”

I look up, slowly pulling my eyes away from Taylor’s sleeping form in the hospital bed to look up at Annika. She makes a face.

“I couldn’t find any sugar, and the milk in the nurses station looked…” She winkles her nose. “Well, curdled would have been an improvement.”

“Black is fine,” I grunt. “Thank you.”

She nods as she passes me the Styrofoam cup and sinks into the chair on the other side of Taylor’s hospital bed. Her eyes drop to her twin, a slightly worried expression on her face.

“You saved her life, you know,” I growl quietly. “Both of ours.”

Annika looks up, her mouth twisting. “Oh, I don’t know about that. You were Captain Hero jumping over fire with your damn organs practically falling out of a hole in your side.”

I smile wryly, glancing down at the bulge under my hospital scrubs top where the bandage is wrapped around my middle.

“You were there, though,” I shrug, glancing back up at her. “You pulled me back into consciousness.”

She nods, looking back at her sister.

“I’m not going to ask now,” I say cautiously. “But I do want to know at some point how it is you were there.” My brow furrows. “Not to mention?—”

“Nine thousand other questions?”

“Give or take a thousand, yeah,” I grunt.

She smiles wryly, her gaze dropping back to Taylor.

“She’s really going to be okay?”

I nod. “She is.”

“And we’re…” Annika glances nervously at the door to the hospital room.

“Safe here, yes,” I growl. “My men are positioned all over this building. And besides, the guys at the local police department are…friends.”

Annika smirks. “I bet they are.”

“What the fuck is going on,” I grunt.

She frowns. “I thought you weren’t going to ask your nine thousand questions yet.”

“Not eight thousand, nine hundred and nintey-nine of them,” I mutter. “But that one I need an answer to. And now would be best.”

Annika looks down, her lip catching in her teeth in—holy shit, a very Taylor way—as her fingers twist.

“Could you be a little more specific, then?”

“For starters…” My eyes meet hers. “Who the fuck did I marry fifteen years ago.”

She smiles weakly. “Happy anniversary, dear.”

My face darkens.

“For what it’s worth,” she says, “I had it annulled after I disappeared.”

“Good,” I grunt. A hint of smile touches my lips. “I did, too, actually.”