AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Okay, okay.” Alani switched gears into full mama bear mode as she assessed his injuries. His lip was split, and there was bruising around his eyes. His shirt was torn, and the rain had washed blood down his sides. She didn’t want to touch anything until she got him inside and dried off, but it was hard to resist the urge to nurture and fix him right then and there. “Let’s get you up. We’ll go inside.”
“Thank you,” he whispered the words to her, barely audible over the storm, and Alani gave a curt nod as she sidled under his arm and tried to hoist him up. The first attempt failed—he was just too tall and too heavy for her to manage without him helping—but the second was marginally more successful. Once he was up, however, the challenge was keeping him on his feet.
“Are you lightheaded?” she asked when he started to sway, planting her feet hard and using all her strength to keep him standing.
“A little,” he admitted, “but I’ll be fine.”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” Alani told him, skeptical. “Can you walk?”
“I walked here, didn’t I?”
She inhaled deeply, annoyed with his sassy response, but let it slide. From the blood and bruises, his knuckles looking pretty beat-up too, she figured he was in a world of hurt. Lecturing him about being an ass to someone who only wanted to help would fall on deaf ears until the pain was taken care of.
“Sorry,” he grunted, eyes seeming heavy. “Yeah, I can walk.”
“Okay, let’s just get inside,” she said as she led the way back to the front door. “You let me know if we’re going too fast.”
He nodded with a wince, and she moved her hands away from his ribcage, wrapping them around his hip instead. What on earth could have happened to him? It was a little early in the day to be the victim of a bar brawl. Car accident? Surely someone would have called the police.
Whatever it was, Alani only knew one thing for certain—Ivo needed help. She would ask questions later. For now, she had to get him out of those clothes so she could assess his injuries, warm him up, and put some light food in his belly.
And then he would have a lot of explaining to do.
