“When can I see her?” I squeeze the arm of the chair to keep myself in place.
“In just a few minutes. The nurses are setting her up in a room right now and once they’re finished, I’ll have them come out and get you.” He smiles, but I can’t bring myself to return the gesture. I’m thankful that Claire is okay, but I know she’s got a long road ahead of her.
“Thanks, doc.”
“You’re welcome.” He walks back through the double doors and disappears into the E.R. leaving me alone with my thoughts once more.
All that matters is that she is okay. That she won’t have to return to that house or be hurt by her father ever again.
Thirty minutes and three coffees later, a nurse finally comes to get me. I feel sick to my stomach when I enter the room and find Claire lying there, hooked up to a bunch of machines with an IV protruding from her arm.
Her skin is ashen, in the spots that aren’t bruised, and she looks like a fallen angel. Battered and broken. I vow then, in that single moment, to never let something like this happen to her again, not as long as there’s air in my lungs and blood pumping through my body.
Moving closer to the bed, I spot her tiny hand cradled near her cheek. I want to reach out and take it into mine, to let her know that she isn’t alone. Dragging my gaze from her hand, I return to her face and find her eyes open.
They’re big and wide with the residue of sleep crusted to them. Recognition takes place in an instant, and the moment it does, she is easing as far back on the bed as she can, both terror and fear overtaking her features. The dread in her eyes, it shakes me to the core. Steals the air from my lungs and makes my heart skip a beat. She’s truly afraid of me. Afraid that I may hurt her the way I hurt her father.
All I can do is stare at her, see her delicate face morphed with fear and pain, see the bruising. Her green eyes glisten with unshed tears, and I hate seeing them there, knowing that I’m the cause for them. It eats me up inside.
I feel responsible for her, but knowing she is afraid of me, knowing that I can’t even get close to her, tells me everything I need to know.
8
Claire
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Lucca says. He is only a few feet away, but it sounds like he is at the end of a long corridor. His voice barely above a whisper.
“Y-youuu…” I croak, feeling the vibration in my throat but having a hard time recognizing my own voice. It seems so raspy and far away.
The nurse told me that I hurt my ear very badly and that I’ll have a hard time hearing, but it’s more than that. Everything feels wrong. All the sounds around me are off.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I pray that everything goes back to normal the moment I open them again.
“Claire, look at me.” Lucca’s voice reaches me, but only barely.
I shake my head slightly, making the insistent pounding inside my skull worse. I’m so confused, so lost. None of this can be real.
A few seconds later, I blink my eyes open again, hoping my surroundings have changed, but I’m still in the hospital bed. Lucca is still standing in front of me, looking at me like he knows exactly what I’m thinking of him now.
“Please, don’t look at me like this. All I did was protect you. He could’ve killed you. Hell, he almost did.”
“I… you’re a bad person. You work for bad people. My father told me. Told me that you would hurt me.”
He takes another step toward the bed, and my entire body starts to tremble. Pausing mid-step, he says, “Claire, I would never hurt you.”
“Don’t come any closer… or I’ll scream.”
“Okay.” He lifts his hands like he is showing me he’s not a threat before he takes a few steps back.
“I’m going to make this right…” The distance between us makes it harder to hear him now, but I don’t want him to come closer again. I have to look at his lips and watch them move to make out the words he is saying. “I will protect you, provide for you, and ensure you’re always taken care of.”
His words are heartfelt, and if he had said them to me a week ago, I would have been over the moon. Now, everything has changed. Now his words make my skin crawl.
I can’t shake away what I saw. I can’t forget the person he transformed into. He’s a bad man. A horrible man. Yes, my father hurt me, but he was still my dad, the only family I had. He didn’t deserve to die. He didn’t deserve what happened to him any more than I did.
“Claire, I know you’re scared right now, but I swear, I’ll make this right. I won’t ever let you down again. From now on, I’ll never let you out of my sight.”
His words cause a shiver to run down my spine because I know he is telling the truth. He is never letting me go again, and right now, that’s scarier than anything else.
Thank you for reading Fragile Wings, continue Claire and Lucca’s story in
Broken Beginnings
Keep reading for a sneak peak of Savage Beginnings…
About the Authors
J.L. Beck and C. Hallman are a USA Today and international bestselling author duo who write contemporary and dark romance.
Sign up for our Newsletter to receive FREE BOOKS, as well as sales and updates.
Join our Facebook Reader’s Group to interact with us, exclusive giveaways and teasers.
Check out our Website to order Signed Paperbacks and special swag.
Also by the Authors
CONTEMPORAY ROMANCE
North Woods University
The Bet
The Dare
The Secret
The Vow
The Promise
The Jock
Bayshore Rivals
When Rivals Fall
When Rivals Lose
When Rivals Love
Breaking the Rules
Kissing & Telling
Babies & Promises
Roommates & Thieves
***
DARK ROMANCE
The Blackthorn Elite
Hating You
Breaking You
Hurting You
Regretting You
The Obsession Duet
Cruel Obsession
Deadly Obsession
The Rossi Crime Family
Protect Me
Keep Me
Guard Me
Tame Me
Remember Me
The Moretti Crime Family
Savage Beginnings
Violent Beginnings
Broken Beginnings
The King Crime Family
Indebted
Inevitable
Savage Beginnings Sneak Peek
Chapter One
Elena
Slipping into my nightgown, I sit down on the edge of the bed and finish drying my dark hair while humming some pop song I heard on the radio earlier.