Page 67 of Sweet Revenge
Knowing it wasn’t likely we could find somewhere to be alone, I released him and took a step away. For better or worse, he closed the gap and leaned an arm against the wall near my head.
“What brings you by?” I hoped the mundane would cool me off a bit, but it wasn’t working. His scent, the look in his eyes, the memory of his lips on mine… I was in big trouble.
“Well, I happened to be in the neighborhood,” he lied, “and thought you might like some flowers. It’s been about a month since we first said those words, you know.” He winked at me, and I felt a fluttering deep in my abdomen. “Thought maybe we could celebrate tonight.”
It was hard for me to believe he remembered it had been a month since we first professed our love for one another and it hadn’t occurred to me first. He was better at this boyfriend thing than I ever would’ve thought.
“I would love to celebrate tonight,” I told him. In fact, I would’ve loved to get out of there right then.
My brother came down the hallway and I thought it might be a good chance to duck out. The clinic was busy, but I’d managed to get a lot accomplished in the four hours I’d been there, and I was just a volunteer anyway.
Before I got the chance to say anything to Drake, he looked up and saw Daemon. At first, his face turned sour, his lips pressing together and his jaw setting to stone. But then, he took a deep breath, and I saw a façade fall into place, the same one he used when he’d see my father coming and knew he had to pretend to be nice.
It made me a little sad that the two men I loved the most in the world couldn’t be friends, but Drake was still upset that I’d involved him when it came to saving Daemon’s life, and I couldn’t really blame him for that. It had been dangerous, reckless, and stupid.
But it had also been worth it because Daemon wouldn’t be alive if I hadn’t done it. Both of them knew that, and since Drake loved me as much as I loved him, he was doing his best to let the irritation at seeing Daemon Petrov in his clinic go.
“Hi there.” Daemon stepped over to offer my brother his hand. “How’s it going, Dr. La Rosa.”
Drake looked at his hand for a moment and finally shook it. “Can’t complain. How are you?”
“Good, good. Thanks to you,” Daemon said with a genuine smile.
Drake shrugged. “Not a big deal. You come to steal my sister for the rest of the afternoon?”
He eyed me like he didn’t really want to see me go but knew it was inevitable, sort of like a dad might when he sees his daughter leave for her first date with a guy he doesn’t trust—or any guy for that matter.
“I had some business in the area and wanted to bring her these flowers.” Daemon gestured at the roses I was holding. I waggled them in Drake’s direction, and he nodded. “Also, I wanted to give you this.” Reaching into his pocket, Daemon drew out a small slip of paper and handed it to Drake. It looked like a check.
Drake’s forehead creased as he took it. Unfolding it, he stared at the paper for a long moment before his mouth fell open. He promptly snapped it closed and shook his head. Extending the check back in Daemon’s direction, he said, “No. Thank you, but no. It’s too much.”
Daemon gently pushed my brother’s hand away. “It’s not too much. How can it be too much? I can’t put a price on my life.”
“Trust me. It’s way too much,” Drake insisted, shoving the check toward Daemon again.
He held up his hands, refusing to touch it. “It’s not too much. You can do a lot of good with that money. Hire some more staff. Expand. Get better equipment. Please tell me you have better anesthesia here now?”
A shudder went down my spine as I thought back to how Drake had dug into Daemon’s shoulder looking for bullets, Daemon having nothing to numb the pain.
“We do,” Drake said, “and you’re right, it would help a lot. But I can’t take it.”
“You can’t take it at all, or you can’t take itfrom me?” Daemon clarified. “Because I can assure you, there are no strings attached. It’s clean. You don’t have to worry about any ramifications. You won’t owe me for this. It’ll just make us square. Take it, Drake.”
Inhaling deeply through his nose, Drake lifted his head for a moment to stare at the ceiling. In the waiting area, a little boy said, “Mama, when’s it my turn? My tummy hurts.”
I took a few steps closer to my brother. “Hire more staff, Drake. People in faster. Better care.”
Slowly, he lowered his head and nodded. “All right. Thank you, Daemon.”
“No need to thank me,” he insisted. “Consider it me paying my hospital bill. Without insurance.” That got a laugh out of both of them. That bill would have been astronomical. I had no idea how much money Daemon had just handed over, but I assumed it was a lot more than that in reality.
“Well, now that that’s settled,” I said, stepping back over to wrap an arm around Daemon’s waist, “I am going to duck out early. We have a bit of celebrating to do. It’s our one-month anniversary.”
“Oh?” Drake looked confused, but he wasn’t going to argue with me. “Okay then. Have fun. But you’ll be back tomorrow, right, sis?”
“With bells on,” I told him. I waved goodbye to Mindy, and with Daemon’s hand in mine, we cut through the waiting area out into the chilly winter air.
“Do you have any place specific you’d like to go?” Daemon asked me as we walked toward the new spaceship car he’d gotten to replace the old one.