AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Solo?”
“Yeah, okay,” I finally said, and when Gucci let me go, I headed toward the bathroom. “I’ll just be a few minutes.”
I could feel Gucci’s eyes on me as I made my way through to the bathroom, and after I stepped inside and closed the door behind me, I looked at the mirror.
The man looking back at me was a mere shadow of myself. The dark circles under my eyes, the sad shade of my sallow skin. The lack of sleep had gotten to me, and I knew Gucci was right. If I had any hope of finding my way back from this, of being able to focus again on all of the reasons I was here—number one being to win—then I needed to overcome this. I needed to push past the terror, past the fear, and not let old ghosts consume me, because if I did that, they would eat me alive.
It was time to face my demons—and Panther—head-on.
3 Panther
“IT’S ABOUT TIME you woke up. The whole ‘I’m unconscious’ bit was getting old, and I didn’t want to be known as the guy who won by beating an invalid.”
At the sound of Solo’s familiar voice, I turned my head on the pillow to see him leaning up against the doorjamb, looking better than anyone had a right to look. In worn jeans that molded to his body like a second skin and a tight t-shirt with the word NAVY printed across it, he looked built, sexy, and exactly as I remembered him. Pity the same couldn’t be said about me.
He pushed off the frame and scanned the empty room as though checking no one else was there. Then he stopped by the bed, looked me over and said, “I gotta say, I much prefer the way you looked the last time I saw you in a bed than this.”
My lips twitched despite myself, and when my cheeks moved in response, a hiss of air left me from the pain it caused.
“Shit.” I reached for my face, but when that hurt just as much, I let out a breath instead. “Hi.”
Solo slipped his hands into his pockets as though needing something to do with them, then gave that crooked smile I knew so well. “Hi. I would say something like ‘fancy meeting you here,’ but…”
I half coughed/laughed and shifted, trying to sit up a little. “Yeah, you were kind of cheesy that first night.”
“Is that right?”
I nodded, and he shrugged.
“Eh, what do I care?” he said, dark eyes twinkling with mischief. “It worked. So, fancy meeting you here.”
And just like that, my day got a little brighter.
Solo glanced over his shoulder, and I knew he was checking to see if anyone we knew was standing outside or about to enter the room, and when he seemed happy the coast was clear, he placed a hand on the rail of my bed and leaned in close to me.
I could smell his cologne as it swirled around me and replaced the sterile alcohol that had become the norm, and then his eyes turned serious and he said, “If you ever scare me again like that again, I will hunt you down and fucking kill you myself. You got it, lieutenant?”
He hovered over me, and just as I was about to answer, he brushed his fingers lightly across my bruised face.
“And I thought I looked bad…”
I swallowed, my heart thudding so hard that I was shocked the monitor wasn’t screeching. But when no sound other than his breathing and mine could be heard, I licked my dry lips and said, “You look perfect.”
A grin slowly curved Solo’s mouth as he straightened. “How many drugs they got you on right now?”
I blinked, about to tell him not enough, when laughter rang out down the hall and Houdini’s familiar drawl traveled inside the room. Like a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar, Solo took a quick step back and schooled his features, and a second later, when Houdini walked inside with Gucci, I was hard-pressed to find the man who’d just been so close to me that I could’ve kissed him.
“Well, well, if it isn’t Solo himself come to grace you with his presence,” Houdini said as he walked by Solo and knocked shoulders with him. “’Bout time you showed up. You have something more important to do these past couple days?”
“Bite me,” Solo snapped, and just when I thought he might lunge at him, Gucci walked into the room and stepped between the two.
“So, Panther,” he said, wrapping an arm around Solo and guiding the two of them toward the bed—away from Houdini. “You get an ETA on when you’re allowed to go home? You gonna have to quit the course?”
At Gucci’s waggling brows, I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Not quitting the course, no.”
