Quintessentially Q (Monsters in the Dark #2)(76)

I stumbled away from the bed, holding my head in my hands. “Fix her, goddammit. Just fix her.”

I couldn’t be there while the doctor stripped Tess and inspected her injuries. Just the thought of another man touching her set my blood to boil. I did the sensible thing. The only thing I could do.

Pointing a finger at Franco, I ordered, “Watch him.”

Franco nodded, stepping further into my room. Without a backward glance, I stalked to the bathroom and slammed the door. The second I couldn’t see Tess, anxiety twisted my spine. I itched to go back out there and make sure she was exactly where I left her—laid out like a f*cking corpse on my bed.

My tower room, where Tess and I had indulged in blood play and whips, seemed like a joke now. It no longer gave me pleasure or satisfaction; all I saw was Tess so tiny and exhausted, bleeding and drugged.

I may never have my strong esclave again. I may never string her up and hit her because we both got off on belonging to each other.

I may have found her, but that didn’t mean a damn thing.

“Fuck!” I roared, punching the tiled wall. Instantly, my knuckles screamed and I shook my hand to release the pain. The doctor was right. I shouldn’t be around Tess when I was covered head to toe in another man’s blood. Her immune system already fought so much.

Shedding my clothes to burn later, I stepped into the shower and proceeded to scrub every inch as if I could erase the last seventeen days from existence. Make it all disappear and pretend that Tess had been beside me all along, always safe, never hurt by anyone but me.

Once I was clean, I repeated the process until my skin burned from scrubbing and the bathroom wept with steam. The stitches in my arm from the gunshot irritated, but surprisingly didn’t hurt. The scar would be a constant reminder of what I did to get Tess back. I would wear it with pride.

By the time I entered the bedroom again, dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt, the doctor had cleaned Tess with the help of Suzette and wrapped her chest with bandages.

He saw me looking. “She has two cracked ribs from coughing. She’s severely dehydrated and needs to be put on antibiotics to stop the pneumonia.”

Pneumonia.

Those raping f*cking bastards.

I couldn’t stand still. I gritted my teeth, dragging hands through my hair as I paced.

“She should be in a hospital, but because you won’t allow that, I’ll have a few nurses stay here and administer around the clock care.”

Damn right I wouldn’t allow her to go to the hospital. She needed to heal here. Where I had a top of the line security system and a crew of men ready to kill and then ask questions. She would never be out of my sight again.

“How long before she’ll be well again?”

The doctor eyed me with annoyance as if I was a rabies-infected dog sniffing around his dinner. “Time heals everything. You need to be patient.”

I stopped, glaring. “Don’t give me bullshit answers. How long?”

He looked back to Tess, applying antiseptic balms to the shallow cuts and bruises all over her body. “It will take however long it needs to take. You’re to be gentle with her until then. No rushing her. She’ll be fragile as the drugs leave her system. She needs someone strong and collected, not—” He stopped and looked up, waving at me with the tube of antiseptic. “—not a feral animal who looks like he wants to rip her throat out.”

Suzette shifted, anger radiating off her tiny frame. “My master found her and brought her back. Don’t say he’s—”

I held up my hand. Suzette was sweet but I didn’t need her interference. “I’d never f*cking hurt her, doctor. Just do what you have to do.”

Suzette looked at me with tears shimmering in her eyes and I glanced away. I couldn’t look at her right now. Not while I hung on to my sanity so delicately. If anyone showed me any pity or compassion, I would most likely do one of two things: beat them stupid or burst into f*cking tears.

And I didn’t do tears.

Ever.

No one spoke a word while the doctor set up an IV and started Tess on the course of antibiotics. “Without having the results of the blood work for a few days, I won’t know what drugs they made her take, but I’ve added a few things to counteract the effects of withdrawal. She’ll still feel pretty low, but it should be bearable.”

Bearable? I didn’t want Tess to bear through it. I wanted her to be repaired and given her wholesomeness back. I wanted her to rest in peace, not bear through agony.

“Give her something stronger.”

The doctor shook his head. “I’ll assess once she comes around again. Don’t tell me how to do my job and I won’t ask how you came to paint yourself in someone else’s blood.” His eyes hardened; we had a pissing contest of wills.

Suzette cleared her throat, breaking the silence.

I moved toward the window, glaring outside. I needed to do something—anything to stop myself going crazy.

The doctor took his time with the full exam, then turned his attention to repairing Tess’s finger. He cringed once he unwrapped it.

“Who the hell were these people?” he whispered.

My chest swelled with pride. He used were. Past tense. Even the shiny doctor and his morals knew the bastards weren’t alive.

That’s right. I struck the match. I doused them in gasoline. I stole their lives and made them f*cking burn in an old fish factory in Rio.