Page 157 of Merciless

I study her as if I’ll read the rest of that sentence in her eyes.

But as much as I want to ask, I don’t. She’s been through enough today already, and despite our nap earlier, she’s fading fast.

“Will you do something for me?” she asks once I’ve put what’s left of the vegetables and bread onto a tray and followed her to her room with it.

“If I can, yeah,” I agree, expecting her to request a blanket or chocolate or something.

She stops beside her cot and waits while I lower the tray down.

The moment I turn to her, I reach out and cup her cheek. She immediately leans into my touch and it makes me want to scoop her up in my arms and carry her to my bed.

Soon, I promise myself.

I’m going to get her out of here soon.

“Will you go and check on Mav for me? That fight… it looked… brutal,” she chokes out, her eyes filling with tears. “I always cleaned him up after and—”

“He hasn’t fought for years. You’ve only been married for three.”

She nods.

“Can you? I just need to know he’s okay. He’s missing his nurse and—”

“Dove,” I warn when her voice cracks with emotion. But then she steps closer, wraps her arms around my waist, and rests her cheek against my chest.

Gathering her up in my arms, I hold her tight and drop my nose to her hair, breathing her in.

“Please,” she whispers.

My heart fractures before a question I don’t want to ask falls from my lips.

“You really love him, don’t you?”

“Yeah. I do. I owe him everything. More than you could ever understand.”

“One day, Dove. I want to at least try.”

“We’ll see,” she mutters. “So, will you do it?”

I sigh. I knew my answer even before she told me what she wanted.

“Yes.” I’m pretty sure I’d do anything you asked of me right now, little dove.

38

MAVERICK

The room spins around me when I open my eyes and my stomach rolls.

Oh God.

Glancing to the side, I try to focus on the empty whiskey bottle sitting on the coffee table as the need to vomit becomes more insistent.

I suck in a deep breath and close my eyes again, willing myself to go back to sleep.

But now that I’m awake, all I can think about—aside from just how hard my head pounds—are all the reasons I shouldn’t be awake.

Sheila stayed with me for a few hours yesterday. She assured me that Daisy was being well taken care of and she set to work.