Dangerous Resurgence: An Alpha Billionaire Romance With a Side of Mystery (The Devil Wears a Suit Book #6)

by Teresa Wolf

  “Yeah, she gives me nanny vibes,” Scott said. “Nannies are always sweet.”

  “Unless there's a plot twist, and she's a killer nanny.”

  "Yeah, she's part of the mafia, and she kills her patients on purpose, so she can sell their body parts on the black market."

  “So she can fund her child trafficking business.”

  “Where she makes kids fight killer llamas at an underground betting ring.”

  Hope laughed out loud, giving up. "Alright, you win," she said in between her laughter.

  “I knew I’d get you,” Scott laughed as well.

  “Alright, don’t get cocky,” Hope said. “I’ll be ready for you next time.”

  "You're on." Scott took a seat next to Hope's bed, leaning back and crossing his legs. "You must be bored as hell in this place."

  “I get some cable,” Hope said. “All that’s available is soap-operas, and I have no idea what they're saying, but I like to watch their crazy facial reactions.”

  "And the way the camera zooms in like crazy whenever something dramatic happens?"

  “Yeah,” Hope laughed. “What is that about?”

  “They're afraid we might not see the facial expression and miss the drama," Scott explained. "It's based on real-life; you know.”

  “Oh, everyone knows that. Every time I tell someone I got stabbed, they gasp, and the music gets more intense.”

  Scott cleared his throat, not sure if he should laugh at that.

  “Oh, it’s alright,” Hope said. “If there’s one thing I’m used to, it’s joking about really sad things.”

  “Your childhood must have been really tough, for you to develop that skill,” Scott said.

  "Well, something like that," Hope explained. "But that's a really long story; I'll tell you later if you're still interested."

  “Oh, I’m very interested,” Scott said, looking Hope in the eye. They held each other’s gaze for a few moments, with much less awkwardness than the first time.

  “I am really very grateful for your help,” Hope broke the silence.

  “Oh, it was nothing, really,” Scott waved her thanks away. “I’m sure that anyone who’d have found you like that would’ve done the same thing.”

  “But not everyone would have paid my medical bills,” Hope said, looking a bit embarrassed.

  Scott didn't know what to do now. He had no idea that she knew about that. He guessed it was probably that nurse and her meddling.

  “It’s very kind of you, and I want you to know that I am very grateful,” Hope said again.

  "It was a pleasure. To be honest, I pitied you," Scott said. "A pretty girl, bleeding out on the asphalt from a stab wound. I felt I had to do all I could."

  “Pretty?” Hope asked.

  Scott blushed visibly. "Uh, yeah. So, there is a way that you could repay me if you don't mind."

  “What is it?” Hope asked, curiously.

  "I would really like to know how you got there in the first place," Scott said. "I know you said you didn't want to talk about it, but-—"

  “You’re curious,” Hope finished for him.

  “Very,” Scott admitted. “I mean, it’s a very odd occurrence, and in a secluded neighborhood like that. What happened?”

  Hope sighed, and Scott immediately regretted asking her about it. He didn’t want to seem too forward, but that was exactly what he was doing, by asking her a question she had already said she didn’t want to answer.

  “You know what? Never mind,” he said. “I shouldn’t have asked again.”

  "No. It's fine," Hope said. "I don't really blame you; the whole thing is kind of odd. In fact, everything that's happened since then has been odd as well; but it's nothing compared to what happened before."

  “Way to build up anticipation.”

  "I learned it all from the hospital TV," Hope said, and they both chuckled. "I guess I should start from when we met. His name was Gabriel, Gabriel Lark."

  “What? The Gabriel Lark?” Scott exclaimed.

  “Yeah, the tech guy.”

  "That's kind of an understatement; he's pretty big in advanced software."

  “Was, actually. He’s dead now.”

  “Wow, spoiler!” Scott said, making Hope smile. “But he’s the one that stabbed you, right? So, screw him.”

  "He wasn't always like that, you know," Hope went on. "When we met, he was very charming. A bit aggressive and a little too horny, but he was also a gentleman. He treated me like a princess. However, he had anger issues. He could hardly control his temper."

  “Oh, my gosh,” Scott exclaimed.

  “No, he never hit me or anything," Hope quickly said. “In fact, I was kind of the only person that could calm him down when he was angry. He was just a deeply troubled guy, you know? I mean, aren't we all? He had crazy childhood trauma, and I couldn’t help but sympathize with him.

  “His brother, Tony, came to town with the sole intention of causing chaos, so Gabriel and I didn't talk for weeks. Then I heard that Tony died and I had to be there for him. Things were alright from that point onwards. OK, there was some family drama, but we stuck together through it all. Then one fateful night, his sister found out that he was the one who had had his brother killed."

  “Whoa,” Scott exclaimed.

  “Yeah,” Hope continued. “It was beyond crazy. Gabriel got really angry then, and he killed her. Maybe he was trying to close up a loose end, or maybe it was done out of the frustration of being found out. The whole family witnessed it, so he killed everyone else as well, and then he came after me. I tried to fight him off. I grabbed his gun, but when the chance came to gun him down, I hesitated, and he managed to stab me. I emptied every bullet remaining in the gun in his direction and fled, which is where our own story begins.”

  “You loved him,” Scott said.

  “How could you tell?”

  “Well, even after witnessing him slaughter his entire family, and with the threat of death, you still couldn’t bring yourself to shoot him,” Scott said. “In my experience, the only three reasons we accept bad behavior from people is; one, if we think we deserve their actions.”

  "As I said, he never touched me, before that night."

  “Until he poked you in the spleen with a kitchen knife, of course,” he continued. “The second reason is if we’re blinded by our love for them.”

  “And what’s the third?” Hope asked.

  "The third is obsession," Scott said. "You can also label that worship or adoration. Basically, when we've already made up our minds about someone, we cover our eyes to any information that tells the contrary, even if it's a feeling."

  "So, you think I was obsessed with him?"

  “I’m not in the position to make that call. My first guess was that you loved him, but it seems you think obsession was a more likely case.”

  “You’re quite the thinker. You remind me of him,” Hope said, squinting her eyes.

  "Not too much, I hope. I don't want you freaking out every time you see me with a knife or something," Scott said, taking a risk at the joke.

  Hope snickered. She readjusted herself on her bed, looking up to the ceiling, but her eyes seemed to look beyond it. She sighed profoundly, obviously deep in thought. Scott was worried he had offended her, or maybe triggered some form of trauma. Still, Hope didn’t seem like the type of girl to be offended easily, and he liked that about her.

  "It's not that, I know I didn't love him," Hope said finally. "I just . . . all my life, I never thought I was capable of such emotions. I searched for it rigorously, though, and I thought I’d found it with Gabriel, I really did. I'm sure you can tell, but I'm not the most emotional person in the world, and still, when he put the knife in me, I felt my heart break."

  Scott watched as tears fell down the side of her cheek. Hope didn't weep as such; her eyes didn't close, and save for the tears, it would have been impossible to tell that she was anything other than bored. Scott found her to be very peculiar, which only heightene
d his enthusiasm to get to know her.

  “How long do you think you’ll be in here?” Scott broke the silence.

  “The doctor said I should be able to leave in ten days,” Hope said, wiping her tears away. “Why?”

  “Well, you seem utterly bored in here,” he explained. “It’ll be a shame to leave you here alone for that long, bored out of your mind and all.”

  “What are you proposing?”

  "I was planning on traveling back to my hometown, but I think I'll stay a little longer to keep you company."

  “Oh, you’ve done enough already.”

  “So, you want to do nothing but watch soap-opera’s all day for the next ten days?”

  Hope smiled, her pretty eyes glistening with her previous tears. "I mean, if you insist."

  3

  Scott’s brown eyes haunted Hope’s dreams, both when she was asleep and when she was awake. She couldn't stop picturing his curly hair and thick eyebrows, and that made her wish she had a photograph of him. She thought back to the sound of his voice, and that made her want to have a recording of it, on repeat.

  Hope had never had anyone make her open up so much at only the first time she spoke to them. Hope had told him things she didn’t even feel comfortable talking to herself about, and she had talked to herself a lot. There was something about him, the way he made her feel, that she couldn’t put down to any particular thing that he did. He spoke in the same tones most people did and used the same words everyone else used. Scott wasn't even the most handsome person Hope had ever met, though he was handsome. Yet, everything he said felt different.

  Hope was new to caring for people. Since she had been a child, and all through her teens, emotions had seemed to evade her, almost completely. At times, she liked feeling that way, as she saw other people, who were obviously ruled by their feelings, as inferior. Other times, she felt envious, noticing that her apathy derived her of the sense of meaning that everyone else seemed to have.

  Gabriel had made her feel again, to a certain extent. He was a case-study of a sort to her, and as soon as she started actually to feel something for him, she did everything in her power to keep it away. But, after only one encounter, if the one where she was bleeding to death and barely conscious wasn’t counted, Scott had made Hope feel more than Gabriel had managed in their entire time together.

  The next morning, Hope sat on her hospital bed watching the soap-operas on the television with newfound enthusiasm, as if her conversation about them with Scott had somehow given them more color and made them more interesting. Even when he wasn't around, he seemed to make her feel happy. The food tasted better, the sheets felt warmer, and nothing made her more nervous than the anticipation of his promised arrival.

  As she struggled to use the bathroom that morning, Hope realized that it would take some time before she was able to walk properly again, without pain, even though the doctor had said it shouldn’t be very long. For the time being, Hope walked with a walking stick for assistance, leaning on it instead of her left leg. She walked around the room for an hour in the morning, determined not to need it as soon as she could possibly manage.

  “Hello,” Hope’s nurse sang cheerfully as she knocked on her open door. “Someone’s been busy.”

  “Yeah, just trying to get used to this, you know?” Hope replied.

  “I admire your fire. You’re such a strong girl,” the nurse said. “So, what about your handsome friend?”

  “Who?”

  “Oh, don’t play that game with me,” she laughed. “I saw you two yesterday, making each other blush like nobody’s business. Very cute.”

  'How wouldn't you have seen us? You basically stalked us,' Hope wanted to say. It took Hope a great deal of effort not to tell people what she really thought of them, but she knew the unfortunate truth – that humans needed other humans to survive. Making enemies was the dumbest thing you could do in that respect. It would've been extra dumb for Hope to make an enemy of the person directly in charge of her health, comfort, and recovery.

  “Yeah, he’s really nice,” Hope smiled. The Englishwoman was especially difficult for Hope. Most people only required a fake smile or a reciprocation of their will, but this woman pushed Hope’s performance to its very depth with every encounter, and it was quite exhausting.

  “Such a charming young man,” the nurse went on. “He's quite wealthy, too, from what I gather. You hardly ever find a wealthy man with that much politeness.”

  “Oh, you’ll be surprised,” Hope said without even thinking.

  “Ah, I see you’ve had your share of eager bachelors. No surprise there, love, you’re a beauty, no doubt.”

  “Thanks, Maggie,” Hope quickly said. She felt that if she didn’t interject, the woman would never stop talking. “Do you know if he’ll be in today?”

  “Well, I couldn’t say, darling,” Maggie answered. “It seems unlikely that he’d come two days in a row. He must be a busy man, you know?”

  Hope walked to her bed and sat on the edge of its foot. She didn't know what to do with herself all day. He was right when he said that she would be bored. At the time, Hope had barely spent a day awake in the hospital, but now, she couldn’t imagine spending another nine days with nothing to do. Her phone was still in the Lark mansion, and had probably been taken in as evidence. There was nothing incriminating on the device, but Hope wished she had it at least.

  “Don’t worry, sweetie,” Maggie said, rubbing Hope’s shoulder. “I’m sure he’ll turn up.”

  “You guys talking about me?” Hope heard Scott say.

  She quickly looked at the door, where his voice came from, and he was leaning against the frame of the door with a smirk on his face and a black bag in hand. Hope smiled involuntarily, her heart telling her that she was excited.

  “Hello, Scott,” Maggie greeted him.

  “Good morning,” he said. “You look fine today.”

  “Oh, what a charmer,” Maggie blushed as she made her way to the door.

  Scott made way for her, and she scooted past him awkwardly. He pushed himself off his leaning position and walked towards Hope, looking as happy as she felt.

  “Nice to see you up and about,” he said, pulling up a chair and seating by the bedside, his legs crossed as the day before.

  “Nice to see you, too” Hope replied. “What’s that?”

  “Oh, this?” Scott raised the black bag in his hand. “Just a little something to get you settled in. I got home yesterday and realized you probably don’t have your phone with you, which was honestly just depressing.”

  “Yeah? Try being on this side of it.”

  “I’ll take a raincheck on that offer,” Scott smirked. “But given your honestly pitiful condition, I took it upon myself to get you a phone to use while you’re here.”

  “No, you didn’t.”

  "You'd be wrong on that account," Scott said as he reached into the bag and pulled out a little box and tossed it on the bed.

  “You didn’t have to do that,” Hope said, looking at the package on the bed.

  "I mean, as I said before, I felt sorry for you," Scott shrugged. “And if I’m being honest, boredom is probably more terminal than your stab wound, just saying.”

  Hope laughed audibly. Scott didn’t come across as a very confident guy, but he seemed fearless when it came to humor. “Thank you, Scott. I really appreciate all of this.”

  “Sure, sure,” he smiled. “Also, I hope you’re into books.”

  “I used to read a lot,” Hope explained. “But not as much, lately.”

  “The story of our lives, right? Hardly anyone has the attention span anymore. Fortunately for you, being stuck in a hospital with limited mobility and a bunch of spare, useless time is just the condition you need to get your read on.”

  “I’m guessing you also brought a library with you in that bag?” Hope said.

  “I did, actually, but it only has one book on it,” Scott laughed.

  He reached into the bag o
nce more and pulled out a red book. He placed it on the bed, facing towards Hope so she could see its cover properly.

  “The alchemist,” Hope read, smiling.

  "Yeah, by Paulo Coelho," Scott said. "It's one of my favorite books. Trust me, you'll love it."

  “I do,” Hope laughed.

  “What?”

  “I’ve read this one,” she said.

  “Oh,” Scott said, sounding discouraged and already pulling the book away.

  “No, no,” Hope quickly reached for the book, holding it in place and stopping him from taking it. “I’d love to read it again.”

  Scott looked at her hand, and Hope noticed that their hands were in contact. This was the first time they touched, and Hope, for some reason, felt its significance, something to which she wasn’t accustomed.

  “Its re-readability is one thing I really like about it,” Hope finally said.

  “Uh, yeah, it’s a really good book,” he replied. “Very inspiring.”

  “So, is that all that’s in your magic hat?”

  “Well, I was saving the best for last, of course.”

  “Of course.”

  Scott then proceeded to pull an entire console out of his black bag. He bounced it on the bed and brought out two controllers. Hope’s mouth remained ajar; she couldn’t believe he’d gone through so much trouble for her.

  "Calm down," Scott said, probably noticing her surprise. "I didn't buy it for this particular occasion. I've had this for a while; I just never get to play it. It seemed like a perfect time to pull it out."

  “You really put a lot of thought into this, didn’t you?”

  “I kind of put a lot of thought into everything,” he shrugged. “Besides, I’m taking advantage of your particular situation. Now I get to play games with a total noob without feeling like I’m wasting my time.”

  Hope loved the way his right eyebrow rose whenever he shrugged; it was something she never thought would be a turn on for her. “So, being here is time well spent for you then?”

  “I won't shy away from admitting that," Scott got up, putting his hands in his pockets. “I like hanging out with you. You're cool, especially for someone who just got stabbed. Plus, I kind of feel responsible for you now."