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Aidan saw Sofia through the glass of the front passenger side, but before he could react, Leo and Gavin were at the door, wrenching it open with a groan of metal. Evie came around from the other side of the van supported by Declan, and Aidan’s stomach did a little flip. Where was Viv?
“She’s in the back,” Evie said in response to his unanswered question. “Viv is. I couldn’t get her to wake up. I think she hit her head.”
Before anyone else could, Aidan raced around to the other side of the vehicle and climbed into the open side of the van. Viv was slumped over in her seat, kept upright only by her seatbelt. Heart thudding a sluggish beat in his chest, he reached out to grip her chin, strangely relieved when he felt her breath warm against his fingers.
Not dead at least, but she had a nasty cut down her hairline from where her head had connected with the window. Bracing her shoulders, he reached down to release the seatbelt and gently rotated her until she was leaning back against his chest. He sank carefully down onto the opposite seat so he could draw her into his lap.
He brushed her hair off her face to inspect the cut. It didn’t look deep. She probably wouldn’t even need stitches, but she’d have a hell of a headache later. He tucked her hair behind her ear and tried not to think about how it was even softer than it looked. At the sound of approaching sirens, she stirred in his arms and looked up at him, eyes confused and a little hazy until she fully registered his face.
“What are you doing?”
“You were in an accident.”
She rolled her eyes, wincing from the pain. “Yes, I was there. I remember the accident. I mean, why am I in your lap?”
His eyes narrowed, and he put a little steel into his voice. “I was making sure you weren’t dead.”
“Aww, Callahan.” She laid a warm hand on his chest. “I didn’t know you cared. Here I was thinking you’d be crossing your fingers, hoping to find me dead so you can get off the hook.”
“Maybe you’ll be less resilient next time,” he said, tone dry.
“You could only be so lucky.”
He was saved from giving in to the urge to kiss her mouth—which she’d painted an enticing shade of plum today—when emergency vehicles pulled up to the scene. She slid carefully off his lap when the EMTs jogged over, holding onto the side of the van for support.
The police took a statement and arranged for a tow, and the EMTs confirmed what he suspected. No stitches but plenty of rest and pain meds and monitor for a concussion, though one was unlikely.
Once the official vehicles cleared out and the tow truck disappeared with the van, they gathered between the two SUVs. Evie curled into Declan’s side, Julia into Falcone’s, and Viv clutched her sister, a couple of butterfly bandages holding her cut closed.
“Declan, I didn’t tell the cops this, but…” Evie paused, eyes meeting Julia’s, who nodded. “I don’t think that was an accident.”
Aidan’s body went rigid, and he found he couldn’t tear his eyes away from Viv, who looked equally shaken.
“It was too fast,” Julia agreed. “They didn’t even try to brake. It was almost like…”
“Like they sped up. Gunned it,” Viv finished, her voice small.
“Who the fuck would do that?” Leo demanded, wrapping a protective arm around Viv’s shoulders.
Aidan glanced up at the traffic lights stretched over the intersection and counted one, two, three cameras. He shared a look with Declan.
“Whoever it is, Brogan is going to find him for us,” Aidan said.
“And then we’re going to fucking kill him,” Declan added.
ChapterFive
Alone in the fitting room of the bridal boutique while the consultant scoured the stock for dresses that fit her mother’s specific parameters, Viv studied her reflection in the mirror. She wouldn’t normally consider herself a vain person, but the stark white bandages holding the angry red of her cut closed looked unsightly against her dark hair.
Add that to the purple bruise on her forehead she hadn’t quite been able to disguise with makeup, and she’d been forced to endure everyone with working eyeballs asking questions about it. Or staring. She wasn’t sure which one was worse.
She prodded at the bandages with a gentle finger. The pain meds she’d taken this morning had worn off, and the cut and the accompanying bump where she’d hit her head on the window pulsed with a dull ache that was more annoying than painful. She took the meds more to try and forget it was there than to ease the pain.
The wedding was a few weeks away. She had a million things to do, and she’d only met her unwilling fiancée twice. She didn’t have the time or the energy to wonder who was trying to take cheap shots at her father. Or the Callahans.
Just like she didn’t have time to wonder about that look she’d seen in Aidan’s eyes when she’d come to on his lap. Concern tinged with possessiveness. She didn’t have time to wonder why it had sent a little thrill through her either.
He’d made it very clear what he intended this marriage to be, and he had no business looking at her in a way that made her want to wrap herself around him and see what all the fuss was about. The prick.
