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"It's a bite mark," he admitted, trying for bashful, but looking quite pleased with himself.
"Don't look all proud of yourself for branding me," I told him, giving him small eyes even if I liked the idea a heck of a lot more than I should have.
"Can't help it," he said, shrugging. "But I can try for more discreet locations in the future," he added, making my stomach wobble at the idea of getting more.
"That would be appreciated," I decided, leaning forward, snuggling back into his neck.
"Tired, huh?" he asked, fingertips starting to trace up my spine, sifting into my hair, seeming fascinated by the texture as he ran his fingers through the strands over and over.
"I haven't been sleeping," I admitted. My brain had been such an ugly place. My thoughts refused to settle, to let me relax. Even when I managed, the nightmares woke me up with screams caught in my throat.
There were memories of the shootout, somehow my subconscious remembering it all in much more vivid detail. The colors amplified. The blood. God, the blood was so red. When I looked down, I could see it covering my hands, streaked across the front of my scrubs.
But the worst dreams were the ones that could happen if I didn't do what I was told. Those dreams seemed to exist in their own world where time went horribly slow, leaving me trapped in the nightmare for what felt like hours or days as I watched little pieces of Niro get ripped off, his screams echoing through my brain.
"You can rest now. We got it from here."
"No," I said, jolting back. "No. You can't do anything. They're watching. They'll know," I insisted, panic rising up through my system, a firm hand around my throat, cutting off my air.
"Andi, it's okay. We will deal with it."
"You can't deal with it. He's... he said he would string you up and start cutting parts of you off while I watch, Niro. You can't let on that I told you anything."
"If they're watching, they've already seen me come here today."
"Yes, well, he will assume I am, you know, distracting you. He said if I keep distracting you with my..." I started, trailing off. I don't know why I struggled so much with curse words, having grown up around people who used them so liberally. But it had just never been my cup of tea. And I definitely couldn't say the ones that were about, you know, my anatomy. I didn't have Billie's confidence like that.
"Pussy?" Niro asked, and I was convinced only doing so to get a rise out of me. And, darn him, he succeeded. The heat rushed to my cheeks and I knew the blush was one for the books.
"Yeah."
Niro took a deep breath, exhaling it so hard it made my hair dance around. "Look. No one is going to be able to pretend like this shit isn't happening, Andi. No one is going to stand by and let you get extorted or coerced or whatever the fuck legal term this shit is. That's not going to happen. It's not like I'm alone in this. We have the whole club. We have Hailstorm. No one is going to carve me up. You need to relax and let us handle it."
He made it sound so easy.
But I had grown up in the club just like he had.
I'd been there through the street wars, through every major and minor brush with new and old enemies. I knew that no matter how prepared the Henchmen had always been, that sometimes people got hurt. Really hurt.
"If it makes you feel better," he started, scooting to the side a bit so he could watch me as he spoke, "this isn't going to be on you. If we have to take them out, it's not because of you. It's because we can't have a violent cartel running around and threatening our people. We can't risk that."
He was right. Of course he was. Them being out there was an ever-present threat not only to Niro and me and my parents and even Hope, but everyone else we were related to who tried to get in their way.
"I know," I agreed, letting out a deep breath.
"We can—" he started, but I never got to know what he was going to suggest because one moment, we were just sitting there, having a conversation. And then the next, the door was flying open and, of all people, Hope and Billie were bursting in.
"Oh for the love of all that is holy," Hope gasped, turning on her heel as she tucked her gun away. "Yep. You're both naked," she added, sounding choked. "I, ah, I hadn't mentally prepared for that possibility."
"It's fine!" Billie insisted, waving a hand around casually. "The body is beautiful. We don't mind at all," she said, but I swore I could hear Hope declare under her breath Yes, yes we do. "So how was the lovemaking?" she asked. "Or were you fucking?" she rushed to add. "They're both valid forms of self-expression," she explained, nodding. "There's a time and place for each."
