Ruthless Noble by Alley Ciz
CHAPTER 3
“The best thingyou can do for her is to stay calm,” King coaches through the phone.
Savvy may be his sister, and I take it he has experience with her having asthma attacks, but does he not remember how scary it is to see the tendons in her neck pop out in stark relief or the skin on her chest pull tight around the thin bones of her clavicle?
Stay calm?
Yeah, oh-kay.
“Who the fuck was that?” King barks, and I guess I said that part out loud. “It doesn’t matter.” He dismisses his own question just as quickly as a ring beeps through.
Another glance down shows Carter’s switching to a video call, and again Duke cuts me a look warning me to keep myself in check.
Chuck stretches his arm out, his hand hitting my chin as he angles the phone so Savvy can blink hazy eyes at her brother on the screen.
Shit!
Carter King is her brother. That means she’s a King. That makes her connected. Which means…Governor Delacourte will only want Duke to pursue her more. Double shit.
“Cart,” Savvy wheezes, her cheek pillowing against my chest, more of her weight falling into me. I shift to better support her, now able to see the screen while my face stays out of view of the camera.
“Oh, baby girl.” The harsh line of Carter’s brow softens as his gaze bounces over his sister’s face. If I had any doubts about how important Savvy is to him, that simple and automatic change to his facial features would erase them. Things are only growing more complicated by the second.
Mitchell returns during another coughing fit from Savvy, and it’s clear this is far more than an anxiety attack brought on by unexpected news. Uncertainty flashes across his features and his gaze bounces from Savvy in the center of our small cluster to his silent wife, looking for direction.
Thankfully Duke has enough presence of mind to ask Mitchell to have the hotel’s staff allow for elevator access to the penthouse for anyone getting on at the seventh floor.
Mitchell does so immediately, his phone at his ear at the same time Carter asks Savvy where her inhaler is.
Having freed it from her pocket, I hold it up for her. I don’t get the chance to appreciate the way her lips tip into the tiniest hint of a smile—at me—because the tremble in her fingers as they curl around the inhaler is more than concerning.
“Can she use it if she only did an hour ago?” Chuck asks, but his timeline is off, and I’m smacked with the realization of how dangerous fucking the shit out of Savvy could have been.
I’m not a fan of the slimy sense of guilt coiling in my gut. It pisses me off. It’s probably why there’s more attitude riddling my words when I inform them that Savvy used her inhaler less than thirty—not sixty—minutes ago.
Without having to be told, Chuck spins the phone, and now I’m face to face with Carter King. If looks could kill, I’d be roadkill behind his Corvette.
His eyes are more gray than the purple of his sister’s, but I’d recognize that defiant, challenging gleam anywhere. I see it every time I attempt to exert my dominance over Savvy. Except…Carter’s has a lethal edge. It’s not a threat; it’s a promise—of punishment and pain.
His glare is steady, but the video is not as the details in the background seem to fly by to the soundtrack of male shouts and orders being called out.
“Yeah, baby,” Duke coos while I continue my stare down with Carter King. I don’t get the chance to give him shit for sounding like an outdated Austin Powers impersonation. The sound of shoes slapping the ground at a run is the only warning I get before a body is throwing my arm up by the elbow and shoving its way between Savvy and me.
Red and gold fill my vision as hair goes up my nose, causing me to sneeze, all while I wonder what the hell just happened. It’s the friend.
With a confidence that matches the surprising strength that was able to move me, she liberates Chuck’s phone from his hold. “I’m hanging up.” King goes to interrupt, but she cuts him off. “Don’t argue. You can’t drive the way you want if you’re on the phone. I already called the ambulance, they’re on their way. Meet us at the hospital.” She pauses, waiting until she has his full attention again. “I got this, Carter.” Another pause. “Promise.” She holds out a crooked pinkie, black I can’t make out scrawled across the inner skin.
The finality and utter conviction she infuses in that one word immediately calms the worst of the panic brewing inside me, and the slight nod I catch Carter give before she disconnects the call proves he feels the same.
The phone gets passed off to Chuck.
There’s an eye roll given to Natalie.
A hair flip dismisses Duke and his cocksure grin.
An elbow nudges me back farther.
Hands cup Savvy’s face, and that possessive instinct floods my veins. It doesn’t matter in the least that it’s a female doing the touching this time. It should be me.
“Breathe, Savs, just breathe,” Tessa coaches. Tears dot Savvy’s lower lash line, one falling free and coasting down her now ruddy cheeks as she meets her friend’s eyes. “I got you. I’m here. It’s going to be okay,” Tessa continues, and like Carter advised us to do, she keeps her entire demeanor calm, her words steady and even.
Savvy’s own mother is in the room, yet it’s a high school senior who is in command of the situation.
Savvy’s gasping now and swaying on her feet. I tighten my hold and wonder if I should make her sit down or not.
“Where’s your inhaler?” Savvy answers Tessa’s question by holding up the device in question. Tessa grabs it, thumbing open the cap and shaking it.
“She’s already used it twice in the last hour,” Chuck cautions.
Tessa’s face screws up in contemplation, but I look away as something brushes along my abdominals. I glance down, purple fingertips ghosting over the black of my vest before clutching at it, however weakly.
She’s bent forward, her forehead dropping to Tessa’s shoulder while she rubs at her back. Her best friend is here, right in front of her, and she’s reaching for me.
“Tessa Marie Taylor, you don’t just order someone to call 911 then run off on your own,” an unfamiliar voice calls out from the foyerasfour more people come rushing in. Holy shit—I’m pretty sure Eric Dennings from the Baltimore Crabs is among them.
“Yell at me later,” Tessa answers, keeping her focus on Savvy instead of the super-tiny blonde scolding her.
Having made the BA varsity hockey team as a freshman—thanks mostly to my exceptional skating skills—I’ve spent years facing down opponents larger than me. Tessa may be tall for a girl at around five six or five seven, but she shouldn’t have the ability to intimidate me. Yet, when she turns her attention to me, eyes assessing, lips flattening as she takes my measure, that’s precisely what I am—intimidated. I don’t like it, and I lash out.
“Are you going to help her or not?” The strangled whimper Savvy expels only ratchets up my temper, and I take it out on Tessa. “You told her brother you got this, but from where I’m standing”—I do a quick scan up and down her body—“it doesn’t seem like you do.”
Tension and animosity crackle around the room. I don’t give a shit. Every other person can go fuck themselves. A few hurt feelings are the least of my concerns.
Tessa shifts her eyes to check on the other new arrivals and holds a hand up as if to stop them from intervening. She wraps an arm behind Savvy’s back and dips her shoulder to act as a crutch on the side not pressed against me.
Behind me, Duke moves until he’s at my back between the newcomers and me.
Tessa steps into my space, getting all up in my face and poking a finger into my sternum. I don’t know this chick from Eve, but in this moment, it’s clear to see how she became friends with Savvy. “Oooh, like you’re one to talk.” Another poke to my chest. “Just because you played nice all week doesn’t mean you aren’t still a dipshit.”
Someone snorts while somebody else shushes them, and this whole thing is unraveling faster than the rolls of toilet paper we used to teepee the BP locker room.
“Pretend all you want, Noble.” Tessa says my last name with the same derision as Savvy, the only noticeable difference being that it doesn’t make my dick perk up. “But I’d bet good money this current attack could be added to the column of ones you’ve been the cause of.”
Wait…
Hold up.
I’ve given Savvy asthma attacks before? How? When?
“Now…” Tessa moves to take more of Savvy’s weight from me, which I reluctantly allow. “If you want to continue acting like you’re my girl’s white knight—”
I get the impression she selected those specific words with purpose. I can see it in the challenge issued by the arch of one eyebrow. For once, I’m smart enough to ignore it and wait for the rest of her directive.
“—you need to help manage her symptoms as best we can without her using her inhaler.”
Fear hits. “Why?” Mitchell and I ask in unison.
“Isn’t that what her inhaler is for?” Duke asks, echoing the exact thought that came to my mind.
“It is, but an overdose on albuterol could be just as dangerous, if not deadly.”
Did I say fear? No, now I’m…I don’t know what; it’s unfamiliar and wholly uncomfortable. “What can I do?” Is that my voice coming out all garbled?
Tessa pauses a beat. Then with a nod more to herself than me, she eases Savvy toward me more. Once she’s sure I am fully supporting her friend and she doesn’t need to worry I’ll drop her, she spins around, searching the room for god knows what.
It hasn’t been all that long, but Savvy goes from her body having physical reactions to weakly sagging against me. It only reinforces my dismay, and I watch Tessa like a hawk, waiting for a cue, despising how utterly helpless I am.
She stops in front of the St. Jameses, and I find it interesting that it’s Mitchell she asks to turn up the thermostat. Natalie looks close to stomping her foot when Mitchell removes his arm to follow through on the directive. Tessa keeps walking, perking up at the sight of the lit fireplace, even if I do catch an eye roll.
With a snap of her fingers, Tessa calls me to bring Savvy over. I take a step but feel the way Savvy wobbles. “I got you, Princess,” I promise and scoop her up from underneath her knees.
Tessa pats the floor in front of the hearth. “Put her down here.”
I clench my jaw, annoyed by her ordering me around like I’m some lapdog. “Were the aesthetics not to your liking over there?”
“Untwist the panties from around your balls, douchewaffle,” she snaps back.
There’s another pattern of a snort and shushing from the random arrivals, this one capped off with a “Told you she didn’t need you.”
“The cold makes it harder to breathe. Keeping her warm will help keep her airways from contracting more.”
People move around us, each asking questions and voicing concerns, but it’s mostly ignored as I watch the way Tessa crouches in front of Savvy, once again cupping her face in assessment.
We’re all on edge as emotions run high. Constantly snapping at each other isn’t getting us anywhere. Instead, I take a breath—something I’m all too conscious of Savvy struggling to do—then ask, “What can I do?”
There’s the slightest softening around Tessa’s eyes when she glances my way again. “Give her your coat.” I shrug my shoulder and already have it halfway off before she calls out, “Yours too, sidekick.”
“I’ll show you my sidekick, baby.”
“Bro.” I give him the Keep it in your pants eyeball.
“What?” Duke mutters, his voice pitched low. “Not appropriate now that I have a fiancée?”
His comment sets Savvy off on another wave of coughing, and Tessa snaps her gaze between the two.
Me? I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear it, because if I don’t, I’ll only get pissed at my best friend, and he didn’t do anything wrong. Instead, I concentrate on draping my suit jacket then Duke’s around Savvy.
Again at Tessa’s instruction, I plop down behind Savvy, positioning a leg on either side of her, using my front as a backboard to help her sit up. Pressed against me the way she is, I can feel the way her chest rattles every time she inhales.
Where the fuck is that ambulance?