Page 102 of Diary from an Inked Throne

He’d grown inside me. And my heart knew.

I leaned down to press my lips to his velvet head, trying to stop the full-body shakes for fear I’d drop him.

MacGregor leaned on the open door. “It’s good to see him back where he belongs.”

I finally dragged my gaze off James’s face. “Please don’t take him from me again. I can’t…I won’t survive it…whatever you want, I’ll do. Just please don’t take him from me.”

And I meant every word. I loved Dax and Luca and Lynx. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for them, except this one thing.

I couldn’t give James up. Not for anyone, no matter how much I loved them.

MacGregor chuckled. “Why would I want to do that? I have everything I want. My woman. My child. The entire Guerra empire at my control…”

I snapped my head up. “Luca…”

MacGregor’s smile was slow and wide. “Don’t worry, lass. He’s taken care of.”

31

LUCA

Dear Diary,

Next time someone asks me to stay at the hospital, I’m leaving.

French didn’t talk much in the ambulance. The paramedic kept reassuring him he was fine, that he’d get a full checkup at the hospital but all his vitals were good. She questioned whether he’d eaten enough that morning, and if he’d felt dizzy before getting on the ice, but French had barely mumbled answers to any of her questions.

I didn’t say anything, just tried to stay out of the way and let the woman do her job.

At the hospital, it was more of the same, French being asked question after question that he barely answered. He kept shooting little looks at me, his leg bouncing nervously, and there was a fine sheen of sweat on his forehead.

At one point, I pulled a nurse aside. “I know you all keep saying he’s fine, but he’s not. I’ve never seen him like this. He’s normally much more focused.”

She patted me on the arm. “Could just be shock. Fainting is never a pleasant experience. We don’t think he’s seriously injured but we are going to keep him overnight. He needs his head scanned, just in case he hit it when he fell, and we’ll keep an eye on him for a concussion.” She smiled at me. “You’re his coach?”

“Sort of. Owner of the team.”

Really, French was more the coach than I was. He was the only reason there even still was a team, after Lynx and I had abandoned it completely to search for James.

“It’s nice of you to stay with him. He didn’t want us to call his family. He has a sister listed as his next of kin, but he was very adamant we didn’t try to call her.”

I nodded. That fit French’s personality. He wouldn’t want to worry anyone. “It’s fine. I can stay a while longer. At least ’til he gets his head scanned.”

The nurse checked her watch. “Might be a few more hours yet.”

Guilt ate away at me over French being in here. He was a good guy, and the Saint View ER was hell on earth, no matter what time of the day you turned up. The sounds of pain surrounded us, a woman moaning, someone shouting at the nurse over how long they’d waited, a junkie strapped down in a bed surrounded by closed curtains…

I grabbed the nurse’s hand before she could walk away. “Are there any private rooms available?”

She laughed. “That’s not how this works, honey.”

I pulled my wallet from my back pocket and started taking out hundred-dollar bills. “How many of these do I need to lay down to make it work that way?”

Her eyes bulged as the hundreds kept coming. I didn’t care how much I had to pay her. I didn’t want any of my father’s money. I had no idea what I was going to do in the future, but it sure as hell wasn’t going to be running drugs and trafficking women like my father had.

Maybe it would be owning a very average Saint View hockey team.

The thought almost made me laugh. It had been the last thing I’d wanted to do, and now it was the only thing I could stomach.