by K. M. Scott
He listened to me, but nothing I said made him feel better. Walking away, he began pacing back and forth across the waiting room until he stopped in front of me a few minutes later.
“How did you come to find her?”
The look in his eyes was one of suspicion. Did he think I did this to her?
I couldn’t tell him she’d messaged me that she was afraid Oliver would hurt her. Even though I could prove it with the text she’d sent, that would only make him question why she and I had been communicating that way at all. He may have thought of me as his son in some respect, but he’d ordered me to stay away from her and the two of us texting back and forth meant I’d disobeyed him.
So I lied once again.
“I was outside and heard a noise near the back door of the house. That’s how I found her at the bottom of the steps.”
He thought about my answer for a moment and then shook his head. “Where is that husband of hers? Why isn’t he here?”
“No idea. He wasn’t home when I got there,” I answered truthfully, wishing I could tell Robert what I really thought.
“I better call him. He should be here when she wakes up.”
Robert began pacing again as I thought about how little her husband deserved to be anywhere near Serena. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stop myself from ripping the fucker apart if I got stuck anywhere near him either.
But I couldn’t leave her here with just her father and him. Neither one of them gave a real damn about her. Part of me wondered if Robert only came to the hospital because it would be what he was expected to do because of who he was.
It wouldn’t do for Robert Erickson, wealthy and influential businessman, to have his daughter lying in a hospital bed near death and him to be nowhere nearby. What would his friends in high places think?
Robert stopped his pacing in front of me again and returned his phone to his jacket pocket. His eyes narrowed to slits, he made a growling sound and said, “He’s on his way. Says he was at his brother’s house because of work.”
I opened my mouth to say that claim would be easy enough to check but instead just nodded. With security cameras trained on all the outside spaces and a guard at the estate’s front gate, there would be no way for Oliver to not have been seen if he’d been home at any time that night. I saw in Robert’s suspicious look that he knew that too.
As we waited, my rage toward Oliver grew until my hands stayed in constant fists at my sides. I’d beaten the hell out of dozens of people as a fighter and then for Robert, but I’d never hit a woman. Hell, even Robert had never asked me to do that.
To many people, we’d be villains, for sure, but even we didn’t lay a finger on women that way. Only fucking cowards hurt a woman.
Robert continued to talk in spurts when a thought entered his head as he passed by me sitting in one of the plastic waiting room chairs until a doctor came out to speak to him about Serena’s condition. Tired looking with grey peppered through his dark hair, his face seemed to be in a permanent frown, probably due to what he usually had to say to people when he told them the news about their loved ones.
“Mr. Erickson, your daughter’s out of surgery and in recovery. She’ll be taken to a room as soon as she can be.”
“I want a private room for her. And I want to know what’s going on. What happened to her?”
The doctor nodded solemnly, like Robert impressed him with his demand, and answered, “She doesn’t have any broken bones, thankfully. She has a bruised kidney and a few bruised ribs. A fall down a flight of stairs can be quite bad, but thankfully, she’s young so she should be fine after some rest. I’m sorry to say she lost the baby, though. However, she’s lucky to be alive since whoever attacked her tried to strangle her before they pushed her down those stairs.”
Robert’s mouth hung open for a moment before he said, “Attacked! Did she say she was attacked? And what baby are you talking about?”
The doctor looked confused and shook his head. “Your daughter hasn’t said anything, Mr. Erickson. The marks on her neck tell us she was nearly choked to death. And your daughter was very definitely pregnant. We stopped the hemorrhaging, but we couldn’t save the fetus. I’m sorry. We’ll take you to her as soon as we get her into a room.”
He walked away as the news that our child was dead settled into my brain. That fucker Oliver had done what he set out to do. There was no way with the marks on her neck and the text she sent me that it was anyone other than him who was responsible for this.
The urge to find him and pound my fists into his face until all that was left was a bloody mess of flesh and bone nearly overwhelmed me, and I stumbled back into one of the waiting room chairs. He’d tried to choke her to death, and when that didn’t work, he pushed her down a flight of stairs and killed my child.
As Robert paced again, mumbling about how he didn’t even know she was pregnant and questioning how an intruder had gotten onto the estate to hurt her, I pushed my hate for Oliver down into my gut and swore that no matter what, he’d pay for what he did to Serena and our baby.
RYDER AND SERENA’S STORY CONTINUES IN
IF YOU FIGHT (CORRUPTED LOVE #2)
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About the Author
K.M. Scott writes contemporary romance stories of sexy, intense, and unforgettable love. A New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, she’s been in love with romance since reading her first romance novel in junior high (she was a very curious girl!). Under her Gabrielle Bisset name, she write erotic paranormal and historical romance. She lives in Pennsylvania with a herd of animals and when she’s not writing can be found reading or feeding her TV addiction.
Be sure to visit K.M.’s Facebook page at facebook.com/kmscottauthor for all the latest on her books, along with giveaways and other goodies! And to hear all the news on K.M. Scott books first, sign up for her newsletter today and be sure to visit her website at www.kmscottbooks.com.
Books by K.M. Scott:
The Corrupted Love Series
If I Dream (Corrupted Love #1)
The Heart of Stone Series
Crash Into Me (Heart of Stone #1)
Fall Into Me (Heart of Stone #2)
Give In To Me (Heart of Stone #3)
Heart of Stone Volume One Box Set
Ever After (Heart of Stone #4)
A Heart of Stone Christmas (Heart of Stone #5)
Unforgettable (Heart of Stone #6)
Unbreakable (Heart of Stone #7)
Heart of Stone Volume Two Box Set
The Club X Series
Temptation (Club X #1)
Surrender (Club X #2)
Possession (Club X #3)
Satisfaction (Club X #4)
Acceptance (Club X #5)
The Complete Club X Series Box Set
The SILK Series
SILK (Volume One)
SILK (Volume Two)
SILK (Volume Three)
SILK (Volume Four)
The SILK Box Set
K.M.’S BOOKS ARE IN AUDIOBOOK TOO!
Books by Gabrielle Bisset:
The Sons of Navarus Series
Vampire Dreams Revamped (A Sons of Navarus Prequel)
Blood Avenged (Sons of Navarus #1)
Blood Betrayed (Sons of Navarus #2)
Longing (A Sons of Navarus Short Story)
Blood Spirit (Sons of Navarus #3)
The Deepest Cut (A Sons of Navarus Short Story)
Blood Prophecy (Sons of Navarus #4)
Blood Craving (Sons of Navarus #5)
Blood Eclipse (Sons of Navarus #6)
The Sons of Navarus Box Set #1
The Sons of Navarus Box Set #2
The Destined Ones Duology
Stolen Destiny (Destined Ones Duology #1)
Destiny Redeemed (Destined Ones Duology #2)
&nbs
p; The Victorian Erotic Romances
Love’s Master
Masquerade
The Victorian Erotic Romance Trilogy
