Roman looked at Markie lying in the hospital bed. She had fallen asleep and it was for the best. She needed surgery as fast as possible and it would be best if she just slept through it all and woke up to someone standing guard over her.
"What will you do?" Paul asked.
"I need to make some arrangements so she won't be alone here at any given time. It will take some time to set up a schedule. In the meantime, you stay with her," Roman said.
Roman ran his fingers down Markie's cheek. Things were going so good. This was just a minor setback. The second he would be allowed to, he would take her home and care for her. He would be the best damn boyfriend he could be and she would fall in love with him all over again. Maybe this would end up being a good thing in the end.
"I'll call you if anything changes," Paul said.
"You better," Roman said. "Keep a close eye on her. No one can fucking know what I'm up to."
"Don't worry," Paul said.
Roman nodded at Paul and left the hospital. He got out in his car and drove back home. He walked inside the house and saw the tray of spilled breakfast in the hallway.
"Fucking hell," he sighed.
He cleaned up everything and washed the floor. At least Markie hadn't gotten anything to eat so she should be able to go directly into surgery. He needed to call some people to get guards to watch over her from the moment she got out of surgery. He walked towards his office but stopped in the open door to the library. For some reason it needed to look good when she returned home. Her bed was a mess. The least he could do was make the bed.
He walked inside the room and over to the bed. He picked up the pillow and gave it a good shake. Something fell out of the pillowcase and landed on the floor. He couldn't believe his own eyes. He squatted down and picked up the pill Paul had given Markie before they left for the hospital. Panic suddenly set in. He grabbed his phone and called Paul who answered after two rings.
"Where is she?" Roman asked.
"Relax, Roman," Paul said.
"Where the fuck is she, Paul?" Roman yelled.
"They're prepping her for surgery so they kicked me out," Paul said.
"Get back in there," Roman said. "She fucking tricked us, Paul. She never took the pill which means she was never in pain to begin with. She better still be fucking in there, Paul."
Roman listened to Paul rushing through the hospital ward and into the room.
"Shit!" Paul hissed.
"You better talk to me, Paul," Roman said.
"She's gone," Paul said. "Hey, lady? Where did this patient go? Damn it! She just shrugged at me, Roman. Markie's gone."
Roman looked at the book shelves and suddenly noticed a boot sticking out a bit. He walked over to it and saw it was a medical book. He sneered and pulled it out. She had even folded the corner of the page on the chapter about appendicitis. She had been able to read everything about symptoms and pain in that chapter.
"She's fucking mocking me," Roman said.
"How?" Paul said.
"I'm standing with a medical book she read from my own damn library," Roman said.
"Why do you have a medical book?" Paul asked.
"I don't know, Paul. I just bought old books to make this place look romantic and to make me look smart. It always worked on women," Roman said.
"Until now," Paul said.
Roman gritted his teeth and threw the book into the nearest wall.
"Until fucking now!" Roman growled. "You better fucking find her, Paul. You lost her. She was your responsibility."
"Are you gonna hurt me?" Paul asked scared.
"I haven't decided yet," Roman said.
Meanwhile Markie was running through the streets as fast as she could. She knew she couldn't go home. Roman would look there first and maybe even hire someone to camp outside her home. Instead she ran to the only place she could think of. Her cousin LA had to help her. She reached his house and started pounding on the door. She heard the lock click and fell through the door and into his arms before he even got a chance to see who it was.
"Wow there, little miss Knight," he chuckled. "Where's the fire, Markie?"
"Roman fucking kidnapped me and locked me up in his library," she said.
"I thought you were gonna break up with him," he said.
"I did. He didn't accept it apparently," she said. "And then he made me wear this bikini and raped me, and I pretended I had appendicitis, and so his doctor friend tried to drug me but I only pretended to swallow the pill so I could run away from the hospital."
She had been rambling everything off in one long sentence. She took a deep breath and looked at him.
"He raped you?" He yelled.
Tears fell down the cheeks and she nodded.
"Oh, Markie," he said.
He pulled her in for a hug and held her for a few seconds.
"I'm gonna punish him," he said.
"I know," she said.
"What do you wanna do?" He asked.
She looked around the room. He had a love of weapons. She walked over to the wall and picked her favorite dagger. He had often chuckled and said that one day he would let her use it for the right cause. It had been a joke. Neither of them ever thought the right day would come.
"He always calls me his princess. I hate that nickname," she said.
"You know I don't like fairy tales. Women always have to be weak and be saved by a prince," he said.
"Not this one. I don't need a prince. I'm my own fucking knight," she said. "It's time this princess goes to war and slays the dragon guarding the den."