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“I’m good,” she whispered.
Zach cupped her injured face and pressed his lips to hers. He’d come so close to losing her. To losing the fragile connection they shared but had yet to define. That was going to change. Once this was over, he was locking that shit down. No more running. No more games. She was going to be his if he had to handcuff her to her bed and make her come until she was too exhausted to fight anymore.
“Z, we need to roll, brother. Mav ain’t good.” Copper stood behind him. “Your truck is closest. I’ll ride with you, and we’ll bring him to the hospital in Townsend.”
Zach nodded. “You okay to walk, Toni? We have flashlights.”
“Yes, I can walk it,” she said.
“Where’d you get that gun, baby?”
Toni gasped and grabbed his arm. “Oh, Zach!” Her eyes flooded. “It was Special K’s. He was k—I mean they sho—” She shook her head and pressed a fist to her mouth. “I can’t even say it.”
Zach felt it like a sucker punch to the gut.
Copper nodded, his face impassive.
“I’m so sorry,” Toni said, tears falling freely now. She shook her head and a sob broke free. “I tried to stop the bleeding. And I didn’t want to leave him, but they found me.”
“Not your fault, babe,” Zach said, rubbing a hand over her back. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Copper just turned and started through the woods. “Get movin’, you two. We need to catch up.”
“It’s okay, babe,” Zach said as he caught Toni’s stricken look. “He doesn’t blame you for a thing. He blames himself.”
She nodded and took a deep breath, straightening her shoulders. “Let’s go.”
They made their way back to the truck at a rapid clip. Toni shielded her eyes from the blood spot on the ground where Special K’s body had been. His brothers must have moved him to one of the trucks farther out.
Her eyes were solemn as she climbed into the pickup. With Copper and Rocket’s help, they were able to maneuver Maverick into the back seat with her. He lay across the bench with his head in Toni’s lap.
Copper drove like there was no such thing as a speed limit. The car was quiet but for Toni’s occasional whispered words of comfort to Mav. She stroked her fingers through Mav’s hair as she spoke, telling him they all loved him and they’d take care of him. That with a little time, he’d be good as new. He didn’t move and his breath whistled in and out of his lungs.
She’d just been injured, watched one man die, killed another, and was probably out of her mind with stress, yet her only concern was for Maverick’s comfort. If he hadn’t fallen for her before, seeing her care so much for Zach’s brother would have done it.
She was a gift he sure as hell didn’t deserve but was selfish enough to keep.
They made it back to Townsend and to the small hospital in record time. Copper ran in through the Emergency Department entrance while Jig and Rocket darted over from their SUV to assist in getting Mav out of the vehicle.
Zach helped Toni out of the truck. “I want you to get those scratches checked,” he said, gently running a hand over her arm.
Toni shook her head. “No. It’s just scrapes. All I want is to go home.”
Zach considered her. A few of the gashes were angry and ragged, but she was right. They were just scratches. Some soapy water and Neosporin and she’d be just fine. “Okay, but you can’t go home. I’ll have Jig take you to the clubhouse and show you to my room. You can hang out there. Shell and Beth should be there.”
She rubbed her arms as though cold, so Zach shrugged out of his black hoodie and draped it over her shoulders. “You’re not coming?”
“I’ll be there as soon as I know Maverick is stable.”
“Okay.” She stepped close and stared up at him. “Zach, I—”
He placed his hand over her lips. “Shh. We’ll talk later. Everything is going to work out, baby, I promise.”
She nodded then raised up on her tiptoes, parting her lips. Despite all the shit of the past few hours, happiness filled Zach. Toni was hurt, scared, feeling guilt, and trying to hide it all. And she was turning to him for comfort, reassurance, care.
He pressed his lips to hers, planning on a chaste kiss, but she gripped his T-shirt and held him close. He deepened the kiss and tasted her until she moaned. A throat cleared nearby making Toni jump and pull back.
“I needed that,” she whispered, then turned and disappeared into the SUV with Jig.
Once inside the hospital, he quickly found Copper and Rocket looking like giants in flimsy plastic waiting room chairs. The six or so other people waiting around all stared like his brothers were leather-clad chimps at the zoo.
