A Deal in the Dark

Lily’s POV

Marcus came within two minutes. He was the thin man in the dark suit I had seen through the door the night before, and when he looked at me, his face gave away nothing.

Ethan held up the blue pill. “Find out who ordered this,” he said. “And find out who hired her.”

The nurse started to cry. “Please, sir, I was only doing what I was told. The agency sent me. They said the family doctor wrote the order.”

“Which agency?” Marcus asked.

“Bright Care,” she whispered. “Mr. Richard picked them. He said they were the best.”

Nobody in the room said a word. I watched Ethan’s face when he heard his uncle’s name, and it didn’t change at all. Somehow that scared me more than if he had shouted.

“Take her downstairs,” he told Marcus. “Keep her there until I call. And Marcus, nobody else knows about this. Not my grandmother, and not my uncle.”

“Yes, sir.”

Marcus led the nurse out and closed the door. Then it was just me, Ethan, and Duke, who had gone back to lying at my feet as if nothing had happened.

Ethan leaned back against his pillows. He looked tired now and much paler than before.

“Sit,” he said.

I sat.

“How did you know what that pill was?”

I had been waiting for that question since the moment I grabbed his wrist, and I still didn’t have a good answer. I folded my hands in my lap so he wouldn’t see them shake.

“A friend of mine was sick for a long time,” I said. “Her little brother had heart problems. I used to help her sort his medicine when she was too tired. His doctor told us never to mix that blue pill with a head injury. I just remembered.”

It was almost the truth. I only changed who the brother belonged to.

“A friend,” Ethan said. “Which friend?”

“You don’t know her. She’s not from our world.”

He looked at me for a long time, and I made myself look back. Finally, he said, “Do you know what the doctors told my grandmother last week?”

I shook my head.

“They said my brain was healing, but I wasn’t waking up, and they didn’t understand why.” His voice was quiet. “Now I think I understand. Someone didn’t want me to wake up. If you hadn’t been here this morning, I would have swallowed that pill, and maybe I would have gone right back to sleep. Maybe for good.”

A cold feeling crept down my back. “You think your uncle did this?”

“I think my car didn’t go off that road by itself,” he said. “And I think the person who took over my company while I was asleep is the person who wanted me to stay asleep. But I can’t prove it. Not yet.”

He turned his head toward the window. For a moment, he didn’t look like a cold, powerful man. He looked like someone who had just found out that his own family wanted him dead.

“I’m sorry,” I said softly.

He looked back at me, surprised, as if no one had said those words to him in a long time.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” he said. “Everyone in this house is going to believe I’m still very weak. I’ll stay in this bed. I’ll sleep a lot. I’ll forget things. And you, my loving wife, are going to stay by my side every day.”

“Why me?”

“Because nobody will think twice about a new wife who never leaves her husband’s room. And because,” he said, “you’re the only person in this house who just saved my life.”

I didn’t know what to say to that.

“From now on, every pill, every meal, and every drink that comes into this room goes through you first,” he went on. “You check everything. You tell me who comes and who goes. Can you do that?”

I thought about Noah. I thought about the bills that were paid and the deal I had made with Mrs. Sinclair. If I stayed close to Ethan, I would be in danger, and I would be close to the one man who was already trying to find out my secret. But if I said no, I would look even more suspicious.

And if I said no, someone might try again.

“Yes,” I said. “I can do that.”

Something in his face softened, just a little. “Good.”

I stood up and picked up the breakfast tray. My legs felt weak, and all I wanted was to get to my room, lock the door, and breathe. Duke followed me toward the door, his tail wagging.

I had my hand on the doorknob when Ethan spoke again.

“One more thing.”

I turned around. “Yes?”

He was looking at the bowl of strawberries on the tray in my hands. A small smile pulled at the corner of his mouth. It was the first time I had seen him smile, and it wasn’t a nice smile.

“Vanessa Sinclair isn’t allergic to strawberries,” he said. “At our engagement party, she ate a whole plate of them dipped in chocolate, right in front of me.”

The tray almost slipped out of my hands. The room was so quiet I could hear the clock ticking on the wall.

Ethan didn’t move. He just watched me with those sharp gray eyes.

“So I’ll ask you again,” he said quietly. “And this time, think very carefully before you answer.”

My heart was beating so hard it hurt.

“Who are you?”