Chapter 14
Recker couldn’t help but inwardly admonish himself. He’d shown up at Alex’s full of resolve. Today was supposed to be the day he cut her from Amanda’s list of employee candidates. He’d even stalled inside his truck for twenty minutes giving himself a pep talk. He wouldn’t break, he wouldn’t even bend. Iron-clad was what he’d been calling his decision.
Now, he had Alex wrapped in several blankets and cuddled in his arms as he hustled her down her apartment stairs and out to his truck that he’d already started. He’d rushed out and blasted the heat on high so that when Alex got in, it’d be nice and toasty for her.
Made of fucking iron¸ he mocked.
Truth be told, he was worried. Skin Walkers didn’t suffer illness, so seeing Alex like this was worrisome. Jenny had said she should be fine with rest, food, and liquids, but fuck that! Honestly, did humans really just endure the type of agony he’d found Alex in? Seemed foolish.
Once he got Alex settled into the passenger seat of his car, he drove as fast as he cautiously could to the hotel he’d been staying at. The place was nice because…well, he was kind of a hotel snob. And why not be? Living at StoneCrow meant he paid no rent or mortgage and was provided meals. The only thing he had to spend his salary on was gasoline and clothes, which meant—like most Walker Sentries—he had a nice little nest egg stashed away.
At the front of the hotel, Recker balked a moment when the valet stepped off the curb and circled around to the driver’s side door. His mind raced through a half dozen lies about Alex before the valet opened the door and had Recker settling for near-truth.
“Oh!” the valet exclaimed when Recker stepped out and he saw Alex slumped over in the passenger seat. “Sorry, Sir. Didn’t see your companion.” He stepped back like he was going to go around and open the door, but Recker stopped him.
“I got it. My girlfriend’s not feeling well. I’ll get her.” Hooo, something about calling Alex that had chills blasting up Recker’s spine and all the fine hairs on his body standing on end.
The valet nodded and didn’t ask any questions as he followed Recker around the car.
Five minutes later, Alex was nestled in his plush bed in the warm hotel room. Seeing her sigh and relax into the comfort, he felt like shit. Should he have done this sooner? It felt like it, but what right did he have hauling her here to the lap of luxury only to have to reject her back to her miserable little shithole? None.
Pressing a finger to his lips, he paced and eyed Alex the whole time. What are you doing, Sentry? What in the fuck are…you…doing?
Alex started coughing, and he stopped and faced her, dropping his arm quickly. His shoulders hunched and his leg and stomach muscles flexed as his body prepared to spring into action. What kind of action, he had no idea. She was just sick, damn it! But his inner beasts were rallying like she was under attack by some unseen enemy.
If I collared her… He forced the thought aside. He wasn’t about to collar Alex just because he knew it’d cure her cold. Hell, it’d cure everything.
Walkers didn’t suffer illness or disease, and once their Angel was collared with a Walker halo, a genetic mutation would begin transforming her so that she too would become immune.
Alex quieted, and Recker heaved a frustrated sigh.
Okay, I’m not collaring her, so what else can I do?
Jerking his cell from his back pocket, he pulled up Google and took a seat.
***
Four days later, Alex was ready to kill Recker. He’d stuffed her so full of cough drops, soup, and hot tea that she thought she was going to start sprouting tea bags. Worse, he had rarely let her leave his bed the entire time. Normally, she’d be giddy as all get out that a beast like Recker Rhodes wanted her in his bed for three whole days. The problem was he wasn’t in it too. Nope. When he wasn’t hovering over her like some damn vulture, watching her cough up a storm, he was trying to force feed her or get her to drink more tea with lemon and honey. Honestly, it was kind of adorable once she got over the whole him seeing her look like a hot mess deal. Today though, she was feeling better and was determined to get a shower if she had to fight him for it.
She watched as he came out of his room’s ensuite kitchenette carrying a steaming mug of something.
Aw hell no.
“Tea,” he asked merrily as he set it on the bedside table.
“No. No more tea.”
Instantly his brows speared down over those big baby blues, and she knew she was going to have a fight on her hands.
“I’m feeling much better.” She ripped the covers off.
On day two of her illness, she woke to find Recker unpacking familiar looking clothes from what she knew was her duffle bag. He’d told her that he’d had Sentries retrieve some of her gear from her place and she’d been slightly annoyed, but more grateful because it meant she didn’t have to spend one more night in her jeans and t-shirt.
Now, dressed in yoga pants and a loose t-shirt, Alex swung her legs off the bed. “I need a shower.”
His response was instantaneous. “No.”
“No?” Her face screwed up in annoyance. “A, I wasn’t asking, and B, what part of I’m feeling better don’t you understand?”
Planting hands on his lean hips, he splayed those long legs and stared down at her. “Inter-webs say this kinda shit lasts a week.” He flicked his fingers at her legs like he expected her to get back in bed.
“Don’t you flick your fingers at me, mister!” She scooted to the edge of the bed and wanted to laugh at the panicky look that took Recker’s eyes as he quickly dropped his arms like he was getting ready to wrestle her back under the covers.
“I’ve had hundreds of colds. And yes, they can last up to a week or longer, but I’m better now.”
Truth be told, she’d give anything to spend the next week in Recker’s luxurious hotel room while he took care of her, but she’d already missed a day of work. It couldn’t happen again.
“Besides,” she glanced at the clock on the nightstand. “My shift starts in three hours. I gotta get ready.”
“You can’t go to work!”
She blinked up at his incredulous tone. “Why not?”
“You’ll infect all the other humans,” he accused. “You all have the damn immune systems of infants.”
Alex’s delicate brows speared down. “Well, so-rry.” She shoved to her feet and wobbled a minute. “We can’t all be magical, mystical creatures who are immune to life!”
She was halfway to the bathroom when Recker grabbed her around the waist and lifted her carrying her back toward the bed.
“Recker!” she snarled. “Put me the hell down.”
“No! You need seven days.”
“I don’t have seven days,” she bellowed and tried to kick him in the shin. The quick man lifted his leg just in time to avoid the blow. “I didn’t have these days. I have to work, or I lose my apartment. Do you get that?”
All the talking had her sucking in a breath that crackled in her lungs and turned into an epic coughing fit that kept her from doing anything as Recker lifted her into the cradle of his arms and took her back to the bed where he settled her in before covering her legs. His hand was on her back rubbing firmly as she continued to cough.
This really wasn’t helping her argument. Worse, the way he was looking at her with his eyes all full of concern while his hand continued to stroke her back was doing funny things to her insides.
When her coughing finally subsided, Alex fell back against the pillows stacked against the headboard. Fuck, I need to get out of here.