Chapter 18

"Where are they…?" Casey mumbled, rummaging through the drawer in her washroom. She could barely see through the terrible throbbing behind her eye socket. She'd crawled from her bed to the toilet several minutes earlier where she'd emptied her stomach. Now that the horrific nausea had passed she was searching for the migraine pills Ignacio's doctor had given her. Sometimes they worked and sometimes they didn't.

Her hand closed over the box and she pulled it out with a relieved sigh. She collapsed sideways onto the bath mat and lay still for a few seconds, one hand clutching the small white box and the other pressed tight against the side of her head. Tears streamed unchecked down her cheeks. She bit back sobs of pain, knowing they would only echo in the small space around her and make the throbbing in her skull that much worse.

She cringed when something thumped against the washroom window and a loud howling sound heralded an end-of-summer Florida storm. She hadn't realized one was coming, but if her head was any indication, it was going to be brutal. Sometimes she got really bad migraines when the weather was stormy. She wondered if they were due for a tropical storm or worse. She'd been so preoccupied with Ignacio's and Reyes' drama that she hadn't been paying any attention to the news.

When she finally managed to get her breathing under control, she squinted her eyes at the packaging in her hand and used the dim light from a lamp in her bedroom to peel back the foil. With shaking fingers, she pushed the pill into her mouth and used her tongue to press it against the top of her mouth where it slowly dissolved. She'd already taken several Tylenols and one Advil. They hadn't lessened the pain and anything that hadn't yet broken down in her stomach had been thrown up a few minutes ago. She knew from the intensity of the headache that she was past the point of over-the-counter pain meds helping her now anyway. She would just have to wait this one out.

Casey slowly pushed herself up onto shaking hands and knees. Whimpers of pain escaped her and she nearly collapsed back onto her side. She leaned forward for a minute, pressing her forehead into the cradle of her arms for relief. She used her the back of her hands to wipe the tears from her cheeks before pushing herself back up and taking several deep breaths. Fuck, it even hurt to breath. She was fast approaching the point where she was going to curl up in a ball wherever she landed and just cry and beg for death until the migraine passed. She just wanted to make it to the bed before that happened so she could wake up on the other side of this bitch in relative comfort.

"Casey," a deep voice reached softly out to her.

She cried out, startled and then nearly vomited from the sudden movement. She slammed her swollen eyelids shut and took several gasping breaths as she tried to control the nausea that threatened to overwhelm her once more. After a few more moments, she was able to peel her eyes open into slits and see the man crouched in front of her. Alonzo was looking at her with that usual mix of resigned concern. He was used to these godawful headaches.

"Crawl to me, Casey," he said patiently. "I'll help you get into the bed."

They both knew he wouldn't touch her. He never touched her because he always followed Ignacio's instructions to the letter. But he would help her as best he could. Some small part of him cared about the frail mistress he'd been tasked to care for over the years. Slowly she did as he bid her and began to crawl painfully toward him, biting back a moan. He coaxed her with gentle words of encouragement until they reached the bed where she was forced to pull herself up before collapsing onto her side.

He leaned over her placing his beefy arms next to her and asked, "How many pills did you take, Casey?"

She closed her eyes and whispered, "Not many. Three maybe."

It was the truth as far as she could remember, but they both knew he didn't believe her. Because she'd lied to him once in the past and almost managed to kill herself. Plus, she had a tendency to forget how many pills she took or how often she took them when her head hurt this bad. She heard him sigh and move away from her. Then she heard him run a glass of water before returning to the bed.

"Sit up and take this," he urged her.

She knew what Alonzo was giving her. "I don't want it," she told him. She'd promised Reyes she wouldn't take any more sleeping pills. A tiny sob escaped her as a fierce longing hit her hard in the chest. She wanted him with her so badly it took her breath away. She desperately needed his comfort, the savage protectiveness he seemed to feel toward her.

"You don't have a choice, Casey. Bosses orders. When you hurt like this you take the pills," Alonzo said, his voice hardening. "Now sit up and take the pill."

There was no point in arguing. If she resisted Alonzo he would tell Ignacio and she would have to deal with her husband's anger and possibly a punishment. Which she absolutely couldn't handle in this weakened state. She pushed herself up into a semi-sitting position and reached for the pill and water, taking both from him.

"Thank you," she murmured and tried to palm the pill instead of putting it in her mouth.

Of course, she didn't fool his sharp eyes. Not when she was half blind and clumsy in her agony. He caught her hand, touching her for the first time in years. She gasped and tried to pull away from him, but he held tight. She forced herself to look at him, trepidation clear in her pain-dulled eyes. His dark, remorseless gaze met hers without flinching.

"You need to take the pill, Casey," he said in an even voice.

Her heart pounded in her chest, the blood in her head throbbing in tandem. She swallowed hard, trying desperately not to throw up on her lovely bedspread. Slowly he pried her fingers open, pulled the smooth, round pill from her hand and lifted it to her lips. She opened her mouth and let him feed her the sleeping pill. She had no choice. She could fight him, but she was in too much pain and she wouldn't win. If Alonzo was willing to touch her to get her to take the pill then something significant had changed in their relationship.

He wrapped his hand around hers over the water glass and lifted it to her lips, urging her to take a drink. She sipped, swallowing both the water and the pill. Tears leaked from her eyes. She'd tried to keep her promise to Reyes. She'd wanted to, but she wasn't strong enough.

Alonzo took her jaw in his giant hand and squeezed, forcing her mouth open so he could see for himself that she'd swallowed the pill. She was too frightened, too overwhelmed by the meaning of his touch to protest. Nodding, satisfied, he let her go, took the glass from her and set it on her night table, then he drew the covers back and waited for her to slide under. He treated her as though she were a child, with careful efficiency. But she felt more from him than she had before. She felt something that made her heart stutter in her chest. He was allowing himself closer access to her than he'd ever allowed in the past. He'd always kept that careful distance. She was never entirely sure why. She suspected it was partly to keep himself safe from Ignacio's wrath and to keep his post as her bodyguard. To make sure he wasn't replaced with someone else.

She kept her eyes on him, watching his every move as he pulled the quilt back up her body and tucked it lightly around her. She tried hard not to flinch away from him when he ran his knuckles down her cheek; she was so used to him never touching her. She simply couldn't wrap her head around why he was suddenly touching her now. He reached over and flicked the lamp off, throwing her bedroom into shadows except for the dim lighting from outside her bedroom, caused by lanterns from the patio leaking in from outside her window. The throbbing in her head eased slightly and she let out a grateful sigh.

She stared after him as he moved in the darkness to sit on her vanity chair and face the bed. He bent so his elbows were on his knees and he watched her. He'd done this in the past. Watched over her when she had a migraine and he didn't trust her word on how much medication she'd taken. Somehow, she thought this was different. She felt he was watching and waiting for her to fall asleep. He was waiting for something.

She desperately wanted to stay awake. She didn't trust those eyes, gleaming black in the darkness. Her head pounded in rhythm with the outside elements, battering her bedroom window with stormy fury. She couldn't seem to stop the waves of fatigue from overtaking her and gradually her eyelashes fluttered shut, no matter how hard she urged them not to. As she finally succumbed to a deep, unnatural sleep she wondered if the man watching over her was her friend or her enemy.