Devlin

“Be nice, Devlin. She’s just thinking about you,” my mother said, giving me a hug. I knew that, but it didn’t mean I was going to let her go.

“Stay safe, Mom.” I gave her a kiss on the cheek before I stalked over to my woman. As soon as I heard the elevators ping, I bent down, then picked up my woman, and placed her on the table.

“Listen to me, Selene. You’re not leaving me. Do you get that? We’re in this together. If I have to bury that fucker I will.”

“Dev, it’s just…”

“Don’t. I don’t want to hear it. I’m so tempted to tie you to our bed if you keep this shit up. Do you love me?”

“Of course I do and that’s why it’s best if I leave.”

“I swear if you say you’re leaving again, I’m going to bend you over and spank your ass. You think that is going to make things better? I’ll find you and bring you back. That piece of shit will be dealt with; trust me on that.” She started to cry in her hands. I couldn’t stand that at all.

I picked up my phone and dialed Reg. “Hey, do you have a handle on where he is?”

“Yes, he was just picked up by the police. The fuck was standing outside your building. We had him arrested and we’re going through the footage to see if he did more than just stand here.” I could hear the frustration. Today had been one serious fucking screw up after another. They let that asshole go, and didn’t bother to tell us he’d been released yesterday.

“Good. Keep me informed, but I don’t want to be bothered unless necessary.” I ended the call and tossed the phone on the table.

“He’s been arrested again,” I told her, smiling into her beautiful blues. They were a little glossy. I wondered if it was from the tears or the cold outside.

“Really?” she asked.

“Yes, he was outside the building, and they picked him up.” The police sent someone as soon as he was released. Apparently, this fucker thought he was invincible. What he didn’t understand was that he fucked with the wrong person. I’d do anything to protect Selene.

“He was outside?” she gasped out, clasping her hand to her mouth.

“Yes, and now he’s in jail. They won’t let him out again. He violated the terms of his bail.” She leaned forward, resting her head on my chest. I closed my arms around her, feeling her body shake as she cried.

I tried to calm her down. “Babe, he’s not going to come anywhere near you and if he does, he’ll be dead. My men are armed guards for a reason. Reggie seems like a nice, sweet guy, but he’s as deadly as they come.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t want to leave you, ever,” she sobbed.

I pulled her upper body off my chest so I could look in to her eyes. “Good, because you’re not. We’re getting married and having at least five little versions of us to drive us crazy. And most of all I’m going to fuck you every which way from Sunday until we’re too old to move. Understood?”

“Dev,” she whined, her expression flat and almost vacant all of a sudden.

“You need more clarification?”

“No,” she mumbled, her eyes rolling back into her head. Fuck.

“Baby? Selene, wake up.” I rushed her from the kitchen straight to the elevator, hitting redial on my phone. “Reggie, I need to get Selene to the hospital now.”

We got downstairs with her groggily mumbling something I couldn’t make out. Reggie handed me a bottle of water after I loaded us in the back of the SUV. He sped out towards Northwestern. I needed her to be okay. She managed to get a few sips of water in before we got there.

The team of doctors rushed her in and started to examine her. I sat there while she was being fitted with an IV and everything. After they settled her and pulled some blood they let her rest with monitoring devices on her.

I ran my hands through my hair and paced in that small place. Hours passed, and they were still trying to work on her. She was breathing with tubes in her nose and hooked up to ten monitors. My parents showed up about twenty minutes after we got here, but they weren’t allowed in the ER room. What could be wrong with her? I thought of a million things. Maybe she didn’t eat today and the stress got to her.

“Hello, Mr. Jacobs,” the doctor said, “This is Detective Torres, he needs to ask you some questions.” What the hell could he want? The detectives already assigned to her case are the ones that should be here. Not some guy who wasn’t aware of the situation.

“I’m not leaving her,” I warned the fucker. Right now, I wasn’t feeling generous enough to be polite to anyone. All I wanted was my Selene to come back to me. Nothing and I mean nothing took precedent over that.

“Please, just step into the hallway here.” He looked at me like this was a step away from getting arrested. If he had any information on what was going on I wanted to know, so I agreed and followed them outside her room. “We have to ask, does Miss West do drugs?”

I scrunched up my face, wondering what the hell they were talking about. “No, of course not. Why would you ask something that fucked up?” My pain and frustration had morphed into anger.

“She had a potent amount of an opioid in her system.”

“She wouldn’t take drugs. I’m sure of it. We don’t even have any meds more than the over the counter stuff.”

“Then, there’s really only one other option. She must have been poisoned.

“Poisoned?” I turned to look at her in the room, and for the first time in my adult life I cried. “What the hell do you mean poisoned? She couldn’t have been.”

“Sir, she had a recent dose of a strong drug. It’s a part of the opioid family,” the doctor added, holding Selene’s chart in his hands.

“I’m going to call my mother over here. She was with her since I left this morning. They went shopping together.”

“We’ll bring her in,” the doctor said before walking away.

“I’m telling you, I see her almost all day. She doesn’t even leave the house most days. Today was a nice one and we thought her crazy murderous stalker was locked up.”

“Stalker?”

“Yes, I need to call the detective on the case. Something doesn’t seem right about this at all.” What did Ken do that he was standing outside my building? Was he waiting to see ambulances arrive?

“Devlin.”

“Son,” my dad added. “What’s going on?”

“Mom, what happened today with Selene?”

“Nothing really. We were shopping and everything was wonderful until we ran into that woman who worked at the museum. She threatened Selene.”

“Mrs. Jacobs, I’m Selene’s doctor, Dr. Meadows. Did she touch Selene’s skin at all?”

“Yes, actually she did. We thought she was trying to be a snotty twat, but she tapped Selene’s like this.” She then demonstrated the tap on me. It was almost patronizing, or something you would do playfully with a child. “Selene was about to hit her when Reggie got in the way.”

“Goodness, that’s more than likely what it was. Nurse, come here. I need you do to a swab of Miss West’s nasal hoses and the tip of her nose. If any of the chemical shows up that’s how it was done.”

“What do you mean?”

“People are learning new ways to do messed up shit,” the detective said, typing this stuff into his phone. “They have been informing the public to wipe down shopping carts and things like that because users are leaving chemical trails on them and it has been sending people to the hospital. We have at least two deaths because of it in the city.”

“What about Selene? I just want her to make it.”

“She will. We’ve already started treating her for the drug overdose. We’ve become very aware of the epidemic and we tend to look out for opioid ODs on our screenings. She’s going to be just fine after a few days of treatment and rest.”

“Who did this?” I informed him of the woman from the museum. Just as I was finished breaking it all down, the detectives on the case came in.

“Sorry about the delay in getting here. Matthews isn’t getting out. He gloated about this attack on her. It was a set up. She was followed after leaving the condo.”

“Damn it,” I roared. I wanted to fire my staff for not noticing, but we thought Matthews was in jail. “I need to see Selene.” I went in the room and sat beside her bed. My heart had cracked into pieces when she passed out. I had no idea I was losing her. Holding her hand in mine, I told her how much I loved her, and that I couldn’t wait for her to get better.

“Dev, I love you.” A faint whisper escaped her lips. The nurse that was switching IVs smiled lightly and tipped her head. I returned it and the small gesture.

“I’ll let the doctor know she’s awake.”

“Thank you,” I mouthed before returning all my attention to Selene. I felt a weight fall off my shoulders, knowing she was going to be all right.