Page 117 of Carson

“You don’t have to ask. In this club, we protect what’s ours. You’re his, Luna. You’re ours.”

The truck fires up outside the window. Dirk and Raffe are on their way to the shack.

Jesse runs up the stairs. I recognize her footsteps.

“Jesus,” she says, rushing to Luna’s side. “Baby.”

“I’m okay.” Luna smiles at her.

This girl is strong.

But she deserves to not have to be.

I let Jesse fuss over her. “Are you hungry? I’ll fix you whatever you want.”

Luna begins to tell her she’s fine, but I stop her. “Tell her what you want, because you’re eating it. I know for a fact you haven’t had supper.”

“Oh, well, I don’t want to be a bother.”

“Tell her.”

Jesse sits back at the tone of my voice. It’s the same one I gave her when I demanded she let me help her all those years ago.

Goddammit, why do these poor girls have to suffer so?

It doesn’t make any fucking sense to me, and I don’t know that it ever will.

“Well, I do love to have breakfast for supper,” Luna says quietly, pulling me from the rabbit hole I was about to go down.

“Say no more. Big Guy?” She jumps to her feet. “Just kidding. I know you’re starving.”

Even with her graying hair, I see the dark-haired girl who walked into my tattoo shop, dumping a coffee can full of change on my counter.

Luna laughs lightly, flinching when she does.

Someone knocks on the side of the doorframe.

“Doc.” I stand up and greet him.

My mind runs through the possibilities of how this plays out. Luna is acting normally, but that’s the damn problem. None of this is normal.

“Somewhere safe. Somewhere far away.”

Doc confirms that the bullet grazed her. It’s fairly deep though, and it’s going to take a while to heal. He bandages her up, giving me instructions on how to care for it as he does. Before he leaves, he hands me a bottle of antibiotics.

“Thank you.”

Jesse is back, offering to help Luna out of bed. “I have everything set up downstairs,” she tells her.

“Oh,” Luna says, tugging away from her. “I … I think I’ll stay up here for a while. If that’s …” Her eyes meet mine. “If that’s okay?”

And there it is. Please don’t make me leave here.

“Of course. I’ll go down and fix you a tray. Do you like blueberries?”

Luna nods, wincing as she lies back down.

Jesse pats my stomach on the way out.