Blood and Bonds
Valenticias POV~
Gideon’s blood remained damp and clung to my skin.
The USB drive felt like a cold lump in my hand, slick and red with his blood. I stood in the hospital’s sterile corridor, my lungs burning with that antiseptic smell, paramedics shouting as they raced Gideon into surgery. Stefan steadied me, his arm holding me up with a firm grip just as he had done back at the pier when he’d protected me from the masked attackers. That act of protection, etched my heart, marriage contract or not. The next vehicle had been police, the sirens a distant salvation, but the attackers had disappeared, leaving only Gideon’s broken body and my breaking resolve.
I blamed myself.
It was my search for Victor Galden that had led Gideon to that pier; his loyalty to Stefan left hi
