Page 6 of Untamed Heart

I released my bottom lip just shy of tasting blood and pasted a smile to my face so the false happiness I spoke with would sound more genuine. “Yeah,” I chirped. “I’m totally fine. Or at least I will be once I stop somewhere to pee. Just a word to the wise, a forty-four ounce soda isn’t advised during a road trip.”

When all else failed, deflect, deflect, deflect. It was yet another thing I’d gotten really good at over the years in order to mask the ugly truth.

As I hoped, my sister’s laughter rang through the cab of my car.

“I’ll keep that in mind. But I’m just a phone call away if you need anything. If it gets to be too much.”

“I’ll be fine, I swear,” I lied. It was amazing how easy it was to lie once you’d been doing it long enough. “You don’t need to worry about me. Just keep living your life, okay? Be happy.”

Remy huffed out a frustrated sigh. “See, that’s exactly what I’m talking about. You take too much on by yourself. You’ve always done that, even when we were kids. You know you don’t have to do this alone.”

She was talking about every hit or slap or kick from our mother that had been meant for her. What she couldn’t understand was that I didn’t regret a single one. If it meant keeping her safe, I wouldn’t hesitate to do the same thing over and over. But I also understood her need to try and repay me for protecting her all those years.

“I promise, Remy, if it gets to be too much I’ll call you.”

“Thank you,” she said quietly, relief at the sincerity in my tone bleeding into her own. “Love you more than all the sour Skittles in the world.” My sister had her own comfort food addiction.

“Love you more than all the fries in existence,” I returned as I rounded a bend that brought the hospital into view. The large building loomed in the distance like a giant red flag waving in a stiff breeze.

“I should go. I’m almost there,” I said, trying to sound light and breezy despite the fact my heart was suddenly beating like it was trying to escape my chest.

“Remember what you promised,” Remy reminded. “You need me, you call and I’m there. I love you.”

“And I love you right back.”

I disconnected the call as I pulled into the hospital parking lot. As I stared up at the three-story structure, I felt like I was preparing for my doom.

TWO

DAKOTA

The automatic glassdoors slid open with awhooshand the first thing that hit me was the antiseptic smell that all hospitals had. Unfortunately, it was also mixed with the cloying scent of the massive arrangement of stargazer lilies that sat on a round table right inside the hospital entrance. Like adding a huge arrangement of flowers might somehow make the cold, sterile lobby more comfortable.

That failed, and the sickly-sweet scent they created only made the headache that had been pulsing in my temples the entire drive from Colorado to Tennessee worse. The dull throb turned into an icepick being stabbed into my eyeballs.

“Can I help you?” The woman behind the information desk appeared to be in her mid-to-late seventies, her tightly permed curls tinted the palest blue and a pair of old school half-rimmed glasses perched on her button nose. She reminded me of a sweet grandma sitting in a rocking chair next to a fireplace with her knitting in her lap, like you’d find in a children’s storybook.

I was instantly jealous of whoever got to call this woman Grandma. She looked like she was in constant supply of hot chocolate and freshly baked cookies.

“Yeah, hi.” I moved closer and braced my hands on the counter to try and ground myself. If I didn’t I was afraid I’d take off running. “I’m looking for Ezra Riley’s room.”

“Are you family?”

“I’m his daughter.” It was a word I hadn’t used in sixteen years, and it felt as foreign on my tongue as it probably sounded.

The kind granny gave me his room number and pointed me in the direction of the elevators. With every step in that direction my heart beat faster. A film of cold sweat coated the back of my neck as I stepped into the metal enclosure and jabbed the button for the second floor.

The ride up felt like an eternity and the blink of an eye all at once. As the doors slid open with a ding, I clenched my hands together to try and mask the way they trembled and stepped into the hallway where my past immediately slammed into me with all the destruction of a wrecking ball.

Pope must have spotted me before I saw him, because he was already frozen in place by the time our eyes connected. Resentment slithered along my skin like oily fingers, causing my stomach to pitch. I hated how it felt, which only made the resentment worse. It was a vicious cycle I hadn’t been able to break back when I was nineteen, and apparently I hadn’t gotten any better at it at thirty-five.

He leaned down to whisper something to the stunning woman on his arm, but his focus never moved from me. It took more strength than I realized I had to continue in that direction, toward the sea of men in Iron Wraith cuts gathered all along the hall around my father’s hospital room, but I would be damned if I let them see anything but disdain.

I kept my gaze pinned to Pope and narrowed my eyes, hoping to block out all the men at his back. I was shaky enough as it was. If I caught sight of Roe before I was ready I knew I’d lose all my nerve.

Instead of stepping aside like I hoped, he stayed put in the middle of the hall, determined to have some sort of interaction. I pulled on a mask of bitchy indifference as I stopped in front of him. “Pope.” The patch on his chest that readPresidentglared at me like a blinking neon sign, and it could only mean one thing. If Pope was the president of the Iron Wraiths now, Roe was his second-in-command.

“Dakota,” he returned, and the soft, almost warm way he said my name damn near broke me. “It’s good to have you back.”