“Yes, she can. That night-light thing of hers bugged me. I’m a total-dark sleeper. She told me she would turn it off if I would hold her. She can sleep in the dark if I’m there to hold her. Will, I’m in love with your sister. We need to talk about the payment. I can’t…”

Will held up a hand. “One thing at a time and I know what you’re going to say, but I think Moneybags will insist. You need it. I would rather you got it from family than a bank. We can work out terms down the line, but I want Lisa to have a steady home. She deserves it.”

His pride made him want to turn it all down, but Will was right. Pride would leave them both without jobs and his town in shambles. Their town. “All right, but she won’t talk to me.”

“Yeah, she can be stubborn. You’re going to have to insist, I’m afraid. The good news is she’s being moved to a private room. Lila’s with her, but I think she needs a guard on her door,” Will mused. “You up for the task?”

He was. He was going to talk to her, to make her understand. “Yes, I believe I am.”

* * * *

Lila looked down at her, examining the bandage around her brainpan. “You did this to yourself, you know.”

“Lila!” Laurel sat in the chair to Lisa’s right, sending their big sister a what-the-hell look.

Sometimes her know-it-all nurse of a sister was kind of a bitch. “Well, I was bored and there was nothing to do but bang my head against a heavy metal trunk lid. What can I say? It’s a hobby.”

Laurel leaned over, putting a hand on Lisa’s. “You’re okay now.”

“I’m as okay as a traumatized chick with a mafia assassin after her can be,” she qualified. Yep, an assassin. She would be in the hands of an assassin had Remy not saved her. At least that was what everyone said. She hadn’t talked to him. “And I probably am out of another job. I hope I dented that asshole’s trunk and they charge him for it. I’m pretty sure that was a rental. Good luck getting back that deposit, asshole.”

She wanted Remy here with her, holding her hand. When she’d woken up, her head aching along with every muscle in her body, she’d been wheeling down the hallway, her brother looking down at her. All she’d wanted was Remy, but she remembered well that he didn’t want her.

Absolutely not. I’m not taking you with me.

She could still see the look of distaste on his face, feel how her heart seemed to stop.