Chapter Four - Making a Deal with Shadows
1859 Words
The only sound was the monitor beeping the heart rate. "Ethan was lying on the hospital bed, his chest rising and falling under a threadlike white sheet." His cheeks were regaining some of their color, but Sienna couldn't breathe - literally. Not with Damian there in the doorway like a storm in a fancy suit.
Damian was out of place under the harsh fluorescent light, too sharp, too regal. Even shadows had the appearance of inclining toward him.
“Is he mine?”
The words s***h through the noise of the machine. No hello, no hello, just a s***h like a knife at her side.
It covered Ethan's hand with Sienna's. Her voice choked; she was unable to breathe. “Damian, not here. Please.”
He moved closer and the smell of rain and metal wafted after him. “You had years to tell me. You cannot ask for privacy anymore.
Her pulse ran fast. All was within her to fight, but she was too exhausted to resist. “You think I wanted this? To encounter you in such a manner again?
"There, I think," he said deliberately, his voice sinking, "that you took care I should not."
That was the prosecution she had filed against herself since he disappeared.
She faced him fully. “You walked away, Damian. You left me nothing but a note.”
His jaw tightened. Because I knew that it was better than destruction of your life.
“You did that anyway.” Her voice cracked. "You do that as soon as you get out the door."
With a long moment of contemplation the three remained silent. The air was thick with everything she did not say - lies, longing, work years separated them.
Suddenly the silence was interrupted with a knock. One of Damian's security, a man in a black suit, walked in the hall and nodded to Damian. “Sir, we need to talk. There’s been an incident.”
Sienna’s stomach twisted. “Incident?”
Damian's expression shifted; and it was less furious, more controlled. The CEO mask settled back on. “Stay here.”
She reached for his arm and stopped him. “What kind of incident?”
His gaze wandered where she was touching him. His voice softened a bit. "The kind which makes me realize that you are not safe."
Needles and Ethan avoided his room and moved out to the corridor. Here there was crueltier light, rebounding from aseptic walls. Damian's security head gave him the tablet and said a few words under his breath. Damian glanced at the screen for a moment, then flicked out a curse.
“What?” Sienna demanded.
He didn’t answer right away. Someone attempted to obtain the hospital records of your son. Twice.”
Her blood ran cold. That's - no, that is clearly a mistake.
“It’s not.” He gave her the tablet with her name and Ethan's name and the failed attempts and the unauthorized logins.
Sienna’s legs felt weak. “Who would—”
"I have my suspicions," Damian said slowly thoughtfully. And to yours and mine I never look twice, till I am certain both are animals.
Already, she felt the automatic take on the protective voice, where the voice would shake a little; she didn't want his protection.
Damian looked at her as someone who made life and death decisions on a daily basis. “You do. You just don’t want to admit it.”
She despised the fact he was right, how he still had confidence that rattled her heart.
The policewoman sounded less upset now. "I can look after myself," she added.
Damian's Stony look softened the tiniest bit. “I used to think that too.”
Minutes later they stood in the cold and damp night air. Going on around the hospital gates, between patients taking out their stents, the city buzzed, with a siren in the far distance, and rain pattering on the concrete. Sienna's tightly crossed arms were suffocated by nerves, warmth battling the cold.
Damian stood before her with his hands in his pockets and his dark eyes burning with intent. “You haven’t answered me.”
She swallowed. “About what?”
“You know what.” For his voice dropped to a dangerous calmness. “Is Ethan mine?”
Silence fell. Just rain and the sound of her heart breaking again.
Her mouth opens, but still nothing came out. Damian looked at her face, the spark in her eye, the tremble on her jaw. He didn't have to look any further for an answer.
“Jesus, Sienna.” He walked through his hair, running his fingers through it. "You stole my son, and kept me away from him?"
“Don’t twist this.” She said sharply. “You left. You said I was a mistake, you made it clear to me,
"I left because--the principal purpose, because--I was afraid," he stopped, his jaw essentially locking. "My reason for loving you is that I had no right to desire you."
She laughed bitterly. “And now you do?”
He turned to her, and he was close enough she could breathe him in. “Now I have every right. And every reason.”
Her pulse jumped. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He paused and said just below the level of felt panic, "It's not really just the past that I am here for, either." There’s more you don’t know. I can't afford to go crying here, things impossible to explain.
Her eyes narrowed. “You’re hiding something.”
“Maybe.” His tone darkened. “But so are you.”
They remained in silence again, rain making circles around them. Damian's security team stood quietly off to the side watching but making as if not to see.
Finally, he exhaled slowly. “I can protect you both, Sienna. But I need you to trust me.”
She scoffed. “Trust? You think that word means anything between us anymore?
“I think it has to,” he said. For if it fails to do it, people get hurt.
Her eyes zeroed inward and her arms clutched at herself tighter. “What are you saying?”
He advanced further; his eyes glaring, hard, fearless. “Marry me.”
The words landed hard. “What?”
“Marry me.” He repeated. “I’ll protect you and the boy. My resources, my protection, and my name will be yours. Nobody will touch you.”
She looked at him as if he was insane. “That’s insane. You can’t just—”
“I can,” he said flatly. “And I will. As the threats are not random. They’re personal.”
She blinked hard. “You’re not serious.”
He gave a humorless smile. “Dead serious.”
His hair was a sleek and dark as the rain slid down around him, making a path on his cheekbones. In looks, he was both horrific and humane at the same time.
"You would pity me enough to marry me?"
“This isn’t pity.” He took a step closer. “It’s strategy.”
You aren't able to call this strategy. "Again, you want my life to be entwined with yours.
“I’m giving you a way out.” His eyes searched hers. “And maybe—maybe a way back.”
She flinched. “Don’t you dare.”
He stopped, swallowed something − regret, perhaps. “You’re right. I don’t deserve to ask for that. I am not leaving you unprotected though.
“I don’t want your protection.”
“You need it.”
“And you need control. You always did.”
That hit him hard. Drill sergeants do not lie, and he didn't refute it, clenching his jaw, shading his eyes. Maybe control is the only thing I have now to keep me alive.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Gertheuer paused a moment longer than he should have.
She approached them, pressing automatons with her hands; Damian, she pressed. “What aren’t you telling me?”
He glanced away, hands will not open into fists. Nothing that alters the fact that you are in danger.
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s all you get tonight.”
Then your answer to their proposal should be no.
He didn’t flinch. “You’ll change your mind.”
“Don’t be so sure.”
Slowly he came closer, his voice little more than a whisper. It's not that I'm doing this because I care about control, you think? You’re wrong. "Having seen what is coming I am doing this.
She frowned. “And what exactly is coming?”
There were eyes, steel on fire in their depths. “War, Sienna. The kind which does not run with words.
There was a snap of thunder above her and she jumped. He put his hand on her elbow, holding her up. The touching was familiar, dangerous.
She snapped back sharply, throwing him a powerful look of anger. “Don’t touch me like that.”
He nodded once, slowly. “Understood.”
His voice was MECHANICAL; he had a c***k somewhere behind the facade.
To try to make her voice seem steady, she took a deep and shaky breath. "You give me one day, I will figure out how to keep Ethan safe without you."
His expression darkened. “Then you’d better move fast. Because the person or people chasing you already know where you are.
Her stomach dropped. “What?”
He looked towards the entrance of the hospital; under the rains stood a black car. The driver had not been seen, but the way he was standing spoke volumes.
He turned back to her voice low and final. “This isn’t a game, Sienna. You have a single opportunity to keep your son safe, and me in control of the madness.
She shook her head. “You’re insane.”
"Maybe," he said, turning back on the storm-water, "but at least I'm the insane that keeps people alive."
Later when once again the hospital corridor became silent Sienna stood at the foot of Ethan's bed, watching as his tiny palm twitched in his sleep. Her mind refreshed the memory of what Damian had told her, his offer, his warning.
Marry me. I’ll protect you and the boy.
She would have laughed at the absurdity - but all she felt was fear. Because on a deep down level, she knew that the man who sat before her called Damian Holt never made empty promises. And if he was scared, something really dangerous was coming his way.
Her effect in the window appeared to be that of a ghost - tired, uncertain, as though she were caught between two impossible alternatives.
Stacia: It was beeping behind her, a vaporous rhythm bolstered by the heart monitor's strength against the storm outside.
And standing somewhere beyond glass, under the rain, Damian concretely stayed, the phone to his ear, voice made short with commands. “Double the security. No one gets near her or the kid. If anybody questions - tell them she's my mine.
- Writer
