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He brushed his fingers through my hair, twisting them in the strands so he could pull my face forward and place a kiss on my forehead.
Romeo had moved off into the corner, and Levi and Skins were both sitting on one of the beds in the room, Dakota was still completely knocked out between them. Skins was brushing his hand across her hair in a comforting gesture, while Levi sat back against the wall staring straight ahead. He looked completely exhausted, his body drained.
I knew Levi wasn’t new to this. He’d almost died trying to protect the women when Skylar’s brother came to try and take Emma. But it never made taking someone’s life any easier.
Levi was still young, he wasn’t immune to these things. He hadn’t created that hard shell that most of the men had developed over time. Ham had been a part of the club for years, and he still struggled sometimes, even though he probably wouldn’t admit it.
I took a deep breath, pulling back from Ham and trying to be a little braver than I thought I was.Fake it till you make it.
I was an Old Lady now. I’d seen the women in the club do this a million times when things got stressful, and when the men would come home from places and missions that I didn’t even try to imagine. They comforted their men, and then they checked on the other boys. The ones who maybe didn’t have anyone to stand beside them, yet. The younger ones who needed to know there was someone there after they had been through hell, and after they had done and seen things which would scare even the hardest assholes.
I squeezed Ham’s hand and stepped around him, walking over to the bed and taking a seat on the edge where Levi was lounging. With the movement of the bed, his head shot up, and when he saw me sitting there, he sat a little straighter. “Hey, Meyah.”
“You all right?” I asked seriously.
His brow pulled together in confusion for a moment. “Was about to ask you the same thing,” he replied with a grin, his body relaxing a little. “But yeah, I’m doing all right. Your uncle told me a while back that sometimes you just need to take time to breathe.”
My instant reaction was to smile. I could hear those words in my head, something that Uncle Leo had said to me many times while I was growing up. When he helped me to ride my bike without training wheels. When he put together the shelves in my bedroom.
“He’s pretty smart, huh?”
Levi nodded. “Yeah, he is. Thanks for checking on me, though.”
“Come on, Meyah.” Ham was suddenly at my side again. “We need to talk about this.”
I put my hand in his and let him pull me to my feet, even though they were still shaky. We walked over to the table where Romeo was still brooding and glaring at everything and anything that moved.
I sighed as I took a seat. “I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t know.”
He looked up at me from beneath his heavy set brow. “You know how fucking scared I was when I saw you in that club. How many times I’ve seen that asshole go…Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo, and pluck a girl off their barstool, and in thirty minutes she’s never fucking seen again.”
Ham grabbed my hand under the table, squeezing it tightly.
“I’m sorry.”
I was strong enough to admit when I was wrong. We didn’t know the area, we should have stayed with Ripley and the boys. We should have known better than to just wander off on our own in a city like this. It was a stupid thing to do.
Romeo got up from his chair and came around the table. He pressed his hand to the back of my head and leaned down, pressing his lips to my forehead. “I don’t want to lose you. Unfortunately for me, you’ve become kind of important,” he whispered before walking over to the mini bar and searching through for something alcoholic.
My heart slowly began to find its regular beat. Romeo was angry but only because of the situation. Because this hard-ass man had actual emotions and cared if I got hurt.
This was new for him, he wasn’t really sure after years of keeping to himself and keeping the emotional shit to the back.
“I love you, too,” I murmured, enjoying the way his body froze, and Ham chuckled under his breath.
“I didn’t say that,” he growled, refusing to turn around and look at me.
“You didn’t need to.”
