“What’s going on? I should be in the hospital.”
Ivory edged away. “I’ll have the men leave,” she said gently. She grabbed Charles’ arm and pulled him toward the door. “You’re freaking her out.”
“She doesn’t seem freaked out to me,” Charles said coolly.
Ivory flicked her gaze toward the ceiling. “Well, I know her, and she’s freaked out, okay? Just take a hike. I told you I’d take care of this.”
“A few minutes is all I ask.” He lowered his voice. “Adrian’s the best person to help.”
Without waiting for Ivory’s response, Charles squeezed around the bed and settled into the window seat beside me. “I have some questions for you. Are you well enough to speak?”
I scowled. “What do you think?” I turned toward Ivory, interrupting her and the other man’s whispered conversation. “What about you, Ivory? Obviously you’re okay.”
“I’m fine.”
“Some guy tried to kill me.”
She walked over and slid onto the edge of the bed. “You had an unfortunate night.”
Charles scoffed. “Unfortunate? You shouldn’t have brought her there.”
“Oh, like you weren’t having the time of your life with her.”
“Only because I was trying to figure out who she was working for.”
Who I was working for?
“Shut it, Charles,” Ivory snapped.
I held back a growl. “Is anyone going to tell me what’s going on?”
Ivory and Charles exchanged a glance, then they both looked at me expectantly.
“What?” Did they think I was going to tell them what happened?
Charles tilted his head back and covered his face with his hands. “You sound genuinely unaware of what you’ve gotten yourself into, and I have given you the benefit of the doubt. But you must have been up to something if you garnered Marcus’ interest.”
“Are you freaking kidding?” I looked to Ivory, but her crystal-blue eyes just stared back without expression.
“Were you following me?” Charles asked.
Ivory lifted her hand. “I told him you weren’t.”
Charles glared at her before returning his attention to me. “Answer the question.”
“I thought you were following me, remember?”
His chest puffed out, and he scowled. “Why would someone be following you? Is there something you’re not telling us?”
“Why don’t you tell me why someone would be following you.”
“When we were dancing, you had guilt written all over your face.”
I’d felt guilty all right, but not because I was following him. “I wouldn’t have even been there if Ivory hadn’t invited me. I don’t see why I’m defending myself to you. You’re the one who left me stranded in the woods.”
“How do you know Marcus?” Charles pressed. “Did he hire you? I can’t help you if you aren’t completely honest with me.”
“Why are you interrogating me? I’m the one who was attacked!”
“Nothing,” he said, which wasn’t at all a response to my question. He shook his head, the scowl slowly slipping from his features. “She’s telling the truth,” he said to Ivory. “She doesn’t know anything.”
“I told you,” Ivory said.
“Can someone tell me?” I asked.
Ivory frowned. “It’s just…things like that don’t usually happen there.”
“Well, I fucking hope not.”
I could’ve strangled her. How could she be so cavalier? My world was crashing down, and I was stuck here in this stupid bed, no one giving me a direct answer, while some man I didn’t know stood to the side of the room, watching the whole thing as though he was about to self-combust.
I slanted my gaze back toward Ivory. “How do you know Charles?”
“We met at the club a while back,” Ivory said. “It’s always been safe for humans.”
“Safe for humans? As opposed to…?”
Charles stood. “Take her to the hospital and keep an eye on her.”
“No,” Ivory said, giving him a hard stare. “You don’t get to make a bigger mess of things and then walk out as if nothing happened.”
“Not my problem.”
“I’ll make it your problem.”
Charles glowered, but her words stopped him in his tracks. “Did you not say you were taking care of this? If you care about your friend, you’ll leave it alone. It’s bad enough she got Marcus’ attention. Did you know she was…?”
Ivory shook her head. “How could I?”
Just before a scream of irritation nearly burst out of me, the man in the corner interrupted our conversation.
“Tell her,” he said, his voice calm, even.
Charles and Ivory turned to him, their expressions blank.
“Tell her,” he repeated. “If they know of her, it’s better she knows of them.”