Prince

by Cambria Hebert

  “What?” Ethan asked, and then I remembered him charging into the fight.

  My entire body jolted. I recoiled in pain, but I pushed on, grappling for his face, eyes widening when I took in his black eye and the lump on his forehead. “Look at you!” I wailed. “You’re hurt.”

  His large hand swallowed mine. “I’m fine.” He promised, pulling mine down to tuck it under the blanket.

  “You have bruises!”

  His eyes narrowed. “And you are in a hospital bed.”

  Reaching up, I fingered the bandage on my head. “How long was I out?”

  “All night,” another voice replied. It was Beau, and he said those words around a massive yawn.

  I glanced over, and my mouth fell open. “You guys are here?”

  All of them were. Neo, Earth, Beau, and Ivory. They were stuffed onto a small sofa and a couple of uncomfortable-looking chairs. Their ball attire was gone. They’d changed at some point into dry and comfortable clothes.

  My eyes rushed back to Ethan, noting that he, too, had changed. Gone was his dashing tuxedo, and in its place was a sweatshirt and matching pants.

  “I know I said no designer, but you could have done better than a hospital gown,” I muttered, glancing down at the garment I wore.

  “Of course we’re here,” Neo said, rising from the couch to stand at the other side of the bed. “How ya doing, kid?”

  “I’m not a kid.”

  “Yes, you are,” all three of my brothers said at once.

  I huffed. “I fought off three men last night! Can a kid do that?”

  “They would have taken you down eventually,” Earth muttered darkly. “I oughta kill them.”

  I didn’t bother to tell him not to. I was too offended he thought I was weak. And I didn’t really like those men anyway. They tried to beat up Ethan too.

  I glanced at Ethan. “You saw me, right?”

  He nodded, eyes filled with pride. Gently stroking my hair, he said, “I saw. You held your own until we could come and help you. You did so well.”

  I preened under the praise and glanced back at Neo with an I told you so look.

  Neo rolled his eyes. “You spoil him,” he told Ethan.

  Ethan made a rude noise. “So sue me.”

  I snickered because if anyone tried to sue Ethan, his lawyers would eat them alive.

  Neo opened his mouth, and Ivory materialized beside him. “You will not.” She admonished, stopping whatever he might say. “Now tell your brother he did well.”

  Neo grumbled beneath his breath. Ivory elbowed him, and I smiled.

  “You did good, Fletch,” Neo said dutifully, but then his eyes and words turned more sincere. “But I always knew you could. You survived in the Grimms all these years. We might give you shit, but we know you’re tough.”

  I beamed. The cut in my lip didn’t even burn I was so happy. “Finally, you admit it!”

  “You’re still the baby.” Beau reminded me.

  Earth grunted his agreement.

  “You just had to go and ruin it, didn’t you?” I complained.

  Beau shrugged.

  “Lie back.” Ethan admonished me gently. “Don’t get too excited. Are you cold?”

  Blinking my doe eyes at him, I nodded pitifully.

  “I’ll get a blanket,” Ivory said, starting for the door, but Ethan was already up and tugging the hoodie he was wearing over his head.

  “Don’t bother,” Ethan told her. “This is what he wants.”

  I lifted my arms happily so he could slide the soft, oversized fabric down over me. It was warm from his body heat, and the scent of Christmas swirled beneath my nose.

  Sighing appreciatively, I burrowed into it, leaning back in the bed.

  “He’s created a monster,” Neo accused, pointing at me but staring at our brothers.

  “Like you’re any better with Ivory,” Earth muttered.

  Neo gave him the finger, making Ivory gasp. “How unbecoming!”

  I smiled, bouncing my stare between Neo and Earth. “You two are getting along again?”

  Earth’s eyes slid to Neo, and Neo looked as if he’d swallowed a frog. Clearing his throat, he turned to me. “Well, you needed us.”

  “But you made up, right?” I pressed, glancing at Earth.

  Earth crossed his arms over his chest. “We’re working on it.”

  “Drink some water,” Ethan said, nudging a straw against my lips. I listened, sucking down some of the cool drink, letting it soothe my dry throat.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked when I released the straw. “Do you want me to get the doctor?”

  I grabbed his hand, shaking my head. “No, stay here.”

  “I’ll get the doctor. Someone should examine him,” Ivory said, heading toward the door. Pausing, she turned back to the room. “Why don’t you all accompany me?”

  “Princess can’t even find a doctor on her own?” Earth quipped.

  A haughty glint came into her eye, and she lifted her chin. “I could find a doctor easier than you could find your brain.”

  Neo and Beau laughed.

  Still exasperated, Ivory put her hands on her hips and glared. “I was trying to offer Ethan and Fletcher some privacy.”

  Beau smacked Earth on the shoulder as he stood. “C’mon, I need coffee anyway.”

  Everyone filed out of the room except for Neo who stood at the foot of the bed, glaring.

  “Do you have a problem?” Ethan asked, voice mild.

  Neo thrust his hand at Ethan. “I had my doubts. Lots of them. But I can see you really care about him.”

  “Love. I love him.” Ethan corrected.

  My heart swelled.

  Neo made a sound and shook his hand in Ethan’s face. Ethan placed his inside, and they shook on it. “Welcome to the family, I guess,” Neo muttered.

  “If I’d known this was all it took to get you two to get along, I would have gotten hit in the head sooner.”

  Both men turned, giving me dark looks. “Don’t ever do this again!” They both scolded me.

  “Aow,” I whined, slinking down into the bed.

  When Neo was gone, Ethan leaned over me once more, sweeping over my entire face with a thorough cobalt stare. “How are you really?”

  “Kiss me.”

  We’d already established I was spoiled, so of course he kissed me. I really liked it. Being spoiled was pretty good too.

  Pulling back, he bumped his nose against mine, his breath tickling my skin. “How much do you remember?”

  My heart dipped, and my breathing turned shaky. “I remember everything.”

  The heat of his palm seeped through my skin when he placed it on the side of my neck. I loved when he did that. The touch was so steadying, as if he were reminding me I wasn’t alone. “It’s a lot. I know. We don’t have to deal with it all at once. I’ll be right here for anything you need. Just don’t run, okay? Promise you won’t run.”

  I couldn’t be upset at the insecurity in his voice. I’d run so many times. The only way to prove to him I wouldn’t was through action. To stay. “I only run to you now, remember?”

  “After everything, I wasn’t sure that would still be true.”

  I scowled, thinking of Sienna and Preston. “Still not running.” I confirmed. “But definitely jealous.”

  He smiled. “I can work with that.”

  Nerves bunched inside me. My belly churned with fear. “Ethan?”

  “Yes, puppy?”

  “Where is she?”

  The darkening of his face and even the air surrounding him made me shiver. Concerned, he tugged the blanket a little closer around me and then gently rubbed his hands along my arms to generate heat.

  “The police took her away.”

  Surprise made my eyes go wide. “She’s in jail?”

  His brow furrowed. “Where else would she be?”

  “I was worried Earth killed her!” I burst out, deflating in relief to know he hadn’t.

  He mad
e a small sound and leaned a little farther over me. “He wouldn’t do that, love. He knows it would hurt you.”

  I burst into tears and immediately pulled the hood up to hide my face. Embarrassed but unable to stop the water from falling, I rolled onto my side, putting my back to him, biting my lip against the pain.

  Not only was my head hurting, but my body was too. Just because I held my own against those three guys didn’t mean I got away unscathed.

  The bed dipped under new weight, and even though Ethan was huge, he somehow scooped me up so gently, shifting so I was in his lap without causing me any discomfort.

  Looping my arms around his neck, I buried my hood-covered head in the side of his neck, tears smearing against his skin.

  “It’s okay.” He soothed me, rubbing my back. “It’s okay to cry.”

  I didn’t want to cry. Not for her. “She doesn’t deserve it.”

  “No, but you do.” He reasoned kindly. “She might be a terrible person, but for a very long time, she was your person. The only one you had. For lack of a better term, she raised you. She might not have a heart, but you do, and it’s so big and beautiful. So it’s okay to cry for her, to not want anyone to cause her harm. Feeling that way doesn’t make you bad. It makes you too good for this world.”

  His words soothed wounds in me I didn’t even know were there. I didn’t need his permission to feel the way I felt, but honestly, his understanding made it easier. His acceptance that I couldn’t just shut off her connection to me somehow made that connection more tolerable to bear.

  Sniffling, I lifted my face, peeking at him from behind the now-wrinkled hood. “She’s not my person anymore. She hasn’t been for a long time. You are.”

  He dropped a brief kiss to my lips. The tip of my nose. Each wet cheek. I sniffled the entire time, but he kept on landing butterfly kisses everywhere he could reach.

  “She’s going to be in jail for a long time,” I observed solemnly.

  “Yes.”

  “I don’t want to see her.”

  “You don’t have to.” Reaching into the hood, his fingers clasped my chin. “But if you ever change your mind, that’s okay too. I’ll take you to see her.”

  “Are those people really my parents?”

  His lips curled in on themselves, and a haunted shadow passed behind his gaze. “It seems that way. But we don’t know for certain. They wanted to run a DNA test right away. I wouldn’t allow it. I told them they would do nothing of the sort until you were awake and could decide on your own.”

  The fierceness in his tone calmed me more. Picturing him standing over my sleeping form, refusing to allow anyone to take advantage, was a luxury I never thought I’d have. It also made it easier to say, “You think I’m him.”

  The sound of his thick swallow echoed in my ears, the answer already reflecting in his stare. “Yes, I do.”

  I curled back into his body, hiding my face. His arms held me loosely. I needed more. “Tighter,” I whispered, pressing closer.

  After a brief hesitation, his hold was firm, and I was safe.

  “Am I hurting you?”

  I shook my head, pressing my lips beneath his jaw.

  I thought I might be him too. It seemed impossible, but it felt true. How else could I describe the jumpy, uncomfortable way my stomach squirmed when they approached me? How even though they made me want to hide away, my eyes always lingered on where they were.

  He played violin just like me.

  Her laugh sounded just like mine.

  “You look a lot like her,” Ethan murmured, his words running parallel with my thoughts. “And the song…” His voice trailed away.

  I lifted my head. “The song?”

  “That day in Central Park when I heard you playing, it seemed so familiar, but I was so taken with you that I gave it no thought. That was the song you played tonight?”

  I nodded. “The music in my heart.”

  “That’s the music in your heart?”

  “Been there as long as I can remember.”

  “Henry composed that song for his son. He played it for him before Samantha even gave birth. They played it for him every day after he was born.”

  I gasped. “B-but it can’t be. I-I must have heard it somewhere, some—”

  “He refused to play it after you were… taken,” Ethan said. “He never once played it in performances or in public. Not ever. Most people didn’t even know about that song.”

  “Then how did you?”

  “My family is very close to the Cossgroves. I sort of became a son to them throughout the years.” He glanced up, searching my face, hurrying to add, “Not that I could ever replace the boy they lost.”

  “I know,” I whispered, chest aching.

  “Anyway, he played a recording of it once. One year on your birthday.”

  I shot up, nearly tumbling off his lap. Ethan’s hands shot out, cupping my body, pulling me back in.

  “The fireworks!” I exclaimed.

  “Settle down,” he insisted, patting my back in an effort to calm me down. “Your voice is strained, and your body is tired.”

  “Those fireworks we watched, those were for me?”

  Tenderness filled his entire face, softening every line and all traces of exhaustion. “Yes, puppy. Do you still think him very lucky?”

  I thought it over for a moment, my lip jutting out. “Yes.”

  “Come here,” he crooned, taking my weight, rubbing my back.

  I soaked in his comfort, my eyes beginning to droop closed. “I guess that rumor you told me about the woman scorned was true.”

  His hand paused. “I still think it best to get a DNA test to give yourself some time to process.”

  “Okay.”

  “Just like that?”

  “Mmm.” I agreed, nuzzling into his neck.

  Just as I was drifting blissfully to sleep, the doctor interrupted. I kept myself pressed into E, hoping the man would take a hint and get lost.

  No such luck.

  But he did let me stay in Ethan’s lap when he examined me, so I guess it wasn’t all bad.

  55

  Ethan

  * * *

  A mild concussion. Stitches. Bruises, minor scrapes, and burns.

  Fletcher’s physical wounds would heal, but it was the ones I couldn’t see that worried me most.

  How much would he have to endure in his life? The crimes committed against him could irrevocably change a man forever. I was sickened by the woman who’d inflicted this on him. Anger burned within me so bright that jail didn’t seem a grave enough punishment.

  However, it seemed jail was the harshest punishment Fletcher could withstand. How cruel was life that a woman who really deserved so much worse was granted mercy because delivering everything she truly deserved would only hurt her victim further?

  I didn’t care about that wicked bitch. I guess it didn’t really matter if she got what she deserved. The satisfaction would be lost anyway because someone as vile as her probably wouldn’t even suffer the consequences she was handed. Her warped sense of reality likely didn’t even comprehend the ramifications of her terrible ways.

  And also, even if we had killed her, she’d probably feel at home in hell.

  Seeing her in a tiny cell would have to be enough. Caged like the beast she was, locked away for the rest of her existence and unable to cause Fletcher further harm. The cruelest thing to her would probably be the lack of vodka, and I silently wished her dry-out period was wrought with vein-burning pain and horrendous withdrawal.

  The door hadn’t even closed behind the doctor when Ivory poked her dark head inside. Her blue eyes held apology and were also filled with regret.

  “What is it?” I asked, wrapping my arms around the boy still in my lap.

  “They’re insisting to come in.”

  “Who?” Fletcher asked, glancing between me and Ivory.

  I sighed woefully. “They’re still here.”

  “Yes.”

&nb
sp; “Now really isn’t a good time for this,” I said, feeling the guilt I saw in Ivory’s eyes, but my concern for Fletcher outweighed it.

  “Who’s out there?” Fletcher asked.

  “I will tell them—” Ivory’s voice was cut off by another.

  “Please. I just want to see if he’s okay. Please.”

  Ivory’s face fell, her eyes darting to mine.

  My stomach cramped the moment I heard the sheer misery in Samantha Cossgrove’s plea. Her life had not been an easy one. Every moment of every day since her son was stolen, she never felt a moment of true peace.

  And now here he was (possibly), found after twenty-two years, and we were keeping her away.

  “Samantha,” Fletcher murmured, gazing toward the door.

  “Yes. She and Henry have been here all night.”

  “You wouldn’t let them in?”

  “No.” Resolve made my tone hard. Guilt made my heart ache. The Cossgroves really were like second parents to me. In a way, I’d been the son they didn’t get to have. So my refusal to them stung us all, but no matter how difficult it was, Fletcher came first.

  “Please, Ivory.” Samantha’s voice floated into the room.

  “It’s okay. They can come in,” Fletcher said.

  Ivory looked at me, slightly uncertain.

  “Are you sure?” I asked him gently. “You don’t have to see them yet. I know it’s a lot.”

  “She’s been kept from her son all his life. If I really am him…” His voice paused as he drew in a deep breath. “She just wants to see me. It’s okay. Let her in.”

  Without another word, Ivory stepped farther into the room, holding open the door.

  Samantha and Henry hurried in, eyes fixating on the bed immediately. A broken sob ripped from her throat, and she rushed over.

  Fletcher went slightly tense, his body wiggling closer, but outwardly, he stayed calm.

  “Oh my goodness, look at you,” she crooned, tears flowing freely over her cheeks. She started to reach for the bandage on his head, but he ducked his face into my neck. Her hand fell away, and more tears fell. “How badly does it hurt?” she whispered.

  “It’s okay,” Fletcher said, voice muffled.