Page 47 of Overkill

Her phoenix eyes turned to me, and her face lit up as she weakly smiled, before rasping out an, “I’m okay.”

“You’re a terrible liar.” I wanted to stick her in a plastic bubble and never let her out of my sight again. “You wanna try that again, but tell me what hurts, this time?”

“Concussion is the worst of it. Got the wind knocked out of me. Landed on my arm wrong. It’s no big deal.” She shrugged, the winced. “Just a lot of bruises.”

She was struggling to breathe, and I’m willing to bet those “lot of bruises” were making it hard to exist.

I fell to my knees in front of her. She wasn’t even my girlfriend yet, but I didn’t care that this was too intimate of a position to be in for a man who hadn’t claimed her. I didn’t care that this was absurd.

My mom had only ever said one thing that resonated with me. One thing I took, even when it failed her again and again.

“When you know, you know.”

And she had known with Barrett. Then Julius. Then Lucas. She’d known that “Aunt Daisy” was put in her life to help her take care of her kids, and that we were all safe with the revolving door of assholes that she kept throwing in and out of our lives. Every single one of them had hurt us.

Mom didn’t know shit.

But I did.

I knew Melody was the one for me. I would not find a more perfect creature. Even now, with a bruise on the side of her forehead, arm clutched close to her body, and her shoulders hunched, the skin at her torn jeans red, scraped and raw, she was perfect.

“Tell me what happened.” I tucked a sweat-soaked strand of hair behind her ear.

“Some Cyphertruck blasted past the crosswalk and almost hit Miriam. I got in the way instead.” She is an absolute master of understatement. “It’s no big deal.”

It was an enormous deal. I hated that she wouldn’t tell me that she was in pain. She didn’t trust me. Or maybe it was everyone else around us she didn’t trust?

I’m willing to bet my life on the fact that Melody was the kind who never let anyone worry about her. She wouldn’t admit she was in pain unless she had to. Complaining never fixed the problem, so why waste your breath? Why risk that people might judge you for being hurt? I hated how well I understood that. How I’d learned that lesson, too.

God, it made me want to protect her even more.

“She says she didn’t see who did it,” Ian butted in.

“I was asking her!” I must have glared at him, because he stepped back, shrinking into himself. Turning back to Melody, I tried to relax every part of my body before trying again. “Tell me what happened, sweetheart.”

She swallowed and slumped, like the last of her strength was leaving her body. Defeated. “I saw the car. It was going to hit Miriam. I pushed her out of the way.”

There was something like disappointment in her eyes. I didn’t think it was because she’d managed to save Miriam. Perhaps it was because she had not, in fact, died. She was disappointed she’d survived.

“Your first instinct was to save your sister.” I whispered the compliment just for her to hear. “You’re fucking heroic.”

I meant every god damn word, and I was falling so hard.

I cupped her face, looking at her beautiful golden tan. Olive, beautiful, and so fucking different from my mother who wouldn’t have even noticed if I’d been hit by a car except that it meant I couldn’t do chores around the farm.

Melody was so full of love, it made me want to give her love as well. I had something precious in my hand, and the thought of losing her now, before I even got to kiss her, made me wild with fear, desperation, and grief.

“Between me or her, it’s an easy choice.”

Oh, my sweet Melody…

My heart sank down to my feet, burying lower and lower into the ground until I was six feet under.

“I’d like you to stop sounding disappointed that you survived, sweetheart.”

Her head popped up like she was surprised by my request. Had no one told her the world was better with her in it? I kissed her forehead, hoping I didn’t hurt anything tender, as she leaned into me.

“Everyone’s watching,” she said on a breath. “They’re going to think something’s going on.”