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“You were such a good guard dog,” I tell him. “Wilbur knew someone was in the house before the Ring alert went off on my phone.” I glance at the Russo men sitting around me. “What happened to Cory?”
Jim jerks his thumb toward the door. “They just got done patching him up in the ER.”
“Now what?”
“Now, he’ll serve time for possession of an unlicensed weapon and attempted murder.”
I cover my mouth with my good hand. “He needs help. He’s just a lost soul.”
James’s jaw tics. “He almost killed you.”
“But he didn’t, so now he’s getting a chance to make things right.”
Jim’s eyebrows rise. “Are you saying you don’t want to press charges?”
“I just want him to get the help he needs. If he gets clean and goes to a mental health facility, maybe he can still have a bright future.”
James strokes my cheek with the back of his hand. “We’ll talk about it another time. Right now, he needs to pay for what he did—on drugs or not.”
I glance over at Leo, who’s unusually quiet. “Hey, little bro. Whatcha reading over there?”
“This reverse harem you gave me has me all kinds of messed up. How can they share her and not get jealous of one another?”
I see through his joke and reach my hand out for him. “You okay?”
He gestures to his shirt as he comes to stand by my bed. “I never want to wear this much of your blood ever again, Nixie.”
“Thank you for being there with me. I know I was in and out of consciousness, and I know you were scared, but I knew you had me, and I knew I was safe.”
His dark eyes glisten. “I thought I was going to lose you.”
I shake my head. “Never.”
He lifts my hand to his lips and presses a kiss to my knuckles. “Love you, sis.”
“Love you more.”
Jim rises and his sons back away from the bed as he leans down and drops a kiss to the top of my head. “Thank you for what you did. I’ll never forget it.”
My bottom lip trembles and emotion clogs my throat, making it impossible to say anything in return.
Jim and Leo take Wilbur home, and James wedges his big body onto the hospital bed with me. I rest my head on his chest, inhaling a lungful of his familiar scent as we lie together in the quiet room.
His voice is low and deep when he speaks. “You jumped in front of me and literally took a bullet for me. I never want you to do that again.”
“I’d do it a hundred times over if it meant you were okay.”
He lets out a slow exhale. “I’m supposed to protectyou.”
“You protect everyone else. I’ve got your six, remember?”
He grunts. “Still, you can’t go doing that. I can’t lose you.”
“You saved me right back. You got me to the hospital in time.” I press my lips to his neck. “Ripping off your shirt and making a tourniquet out of it, all sexy and shit.”
He barks out a laugh. “You were half-conscious. What do you know about me ripping off my shirt?”
“When you’re this sexy, a woman would rise from the grave to witness something like that.” I lift my head. “Oh, maybe we got it on camera. Check the Ring for the video.”
