“Bishop?” she continues quietly.
My sleep can wait. Why does she know Bishop’s name? I act like I’m unfazed anyway, keeping my eyes closed but kicking my hearing up a notch.
“These people have to leave.”
“I know. But they’re not going to.”
People? What is she talking about?
“Well, it doesn’t matter. They can’t be sleeping on mattresses on the floor. Not only is it not sterile, but they’re getting in the way.”
“Jessica, leave.”
“Bishop,” she whispers, and I can almost feel the sadness in her tone.
“Leave!” he snaps at her.
Okay, I sense history there. I put that in the box of “will ask him one day.” Once I hear the door close, I let my tiredness take over and drift into a deep sleep.
The next morning, I wake up almost instantly, and though I feel no better pain-wise, I feel a lot more alert than I did last night. I guess the Tillie thing is going to get ignored until I bring it up—and I will bring it up. I want to know why Bishop let her in. He must trust her to a certain extent. Usually, I would think maybe she has something to blackmail him with in some way, but this is Bishop. No one has anything on him, and if they did, he would just kill them. Problem solved.
“Sis,” Nate murmurs, getting off the mattress on the floor. Now I know what the little nurse was talking about last night. Nate and Tatum had obviously been sleeping out on the floor. Or more, wrapped around each other.
“Hi,” I mutter, sitting up in my bed slightly. Bishop walks through the door, coffees and a bag of donuts in hand, just as Nate stands.
“Sorry, baby, you can’t eat.”
“What do you mean I can’t eat?” I snap, my stomach growling on cue at the donuts he’s holding.
“If they need to do emergency surgery, you have to be prepared, so you can’t eat solids.”
“Oh?” My eyebrow quirks. “Well guess who else isn’t eating.”
“What?” he growls.
“Drop them, Bishop.”
“Fuck no! I’m hungry.”
“Then you should have eaten them before you came back.”
“I’m not dumping them.”
I look at him.
“Fine, fuck. I’ll leave them over here.”
I look back to Nate. “Hi.” He smiles, but his eyes are crinkled around the edges just like Bishop’s. “Have you slept?” I look to Bishop. “Have any of you slept?”
They both shake their heads. Then Nate takes a seat on the bed. “We…. I need to tell you something.”
“Okay?”
He grips my hand, his thumb caressing my palm slightly. “Daemon is currently locked up for questioning.”
“What?” I go to shoot off the bed, but then wince when my head takes the beating.
As I lean back, Nate scolds me. “Do that shit again and I’ll fucking kill you myself.”
I roll my eyes, because only Nate can get away with threatening to kill me right after I almost got killed.
“But he didn’t do anything!”
Nate searches my eyes. “You don’t know that.”
“Fuck you, I know that.”
I see Bishop take a seat on one of the hospital chairs out the corner of my eye. Even from here, I can see how much he wants the donuts.
“Madison, you don’t know Daemon. Yes, I know you guys are twins and I know you have that bond… but he’s a very, very dangerous guy.”
“Not to me.” I look back at Nate. “I’m serious, Nate. He didn’t do shit that day. He told me…. I remember, he told me to get back into the car and that something didn’t feel right.”
Nate doesn’t flinch. Like he already knew I was going to say that. “Exactly, Madison. He knew something was going to happen.”
“What does that mean?” I scoff, my anger reaching the boiling point. “You’re not making sense.”
“Fuck.” Nate clutches his hair.
“Madi!” Tatum screams, launching off the mattress on the floor and diving onto my bed.
“Jesus fucking Christ, Tate!” Bishop jumps off his chair. “Get the fuck off her!” She climbs up my bed.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! It’s just—” She bursts into tears, digging her head into my chest and curling up into a ball on top of me.
I pat her softly. “I know.”
She swipes her tears angrily and slaps my arm. “Don’t ever fucking do that again!”
“All right.” Bishop wraps his arm around her waist and picks her up with one arm, removing her from my bed and putting her back down at the end. “Enough of that shit. I’m feeling unstable.”
Tatum evil-eyes Bishop, brushing off her clothes snobbishly. “Don’t you caveman me, Hayes!” Her eyes dart over his shoulder and her face lights up. “Oh!” She claps her hands and dives for the bag of donuts, pulling one out and biting into it. “Yum, donuts.”
I can’t help it; I laugh. Bishop gives me a dirty stare. “What? So she can eat a donut, but I can’t?”
“Exactly.”
He rolls his eyes and comes back up to my bed, sitting on the other side of me. I open my mouth, about to tell Nate to go on about Daemon, when the doors swing open and my dad and Elena walk in.
“Madison!” Elena wipes tears from her cheeks. “Oh, good Lord.” She rushes near my bed and pulls me into a hug. I can hear Bishop growling beside me, the over-the-top male that he is.
“Hi,” I whisper into her hair softly, looking up to my dad. His eyes are bloodshot red, wrinkles more prominent, and his suit looks a few days worn. “Hey, Dad.”
Nate pulls his mother’s arms off me. “All right, let her dad have a turn now. Ya stage five.”
My dad leans down and kisses me on the head, leaving his kiss there for a beat longer. “I’m sorry, baby girl.”
Closing my eyes, I exhale. All the stress and pain, somehow he takes it all away. “It’s not your fault, Dad.”
He steps backward, his eyes searching mine. “You say that, Madison. But—”
I shake my head, and by God, it hurts to do so.
