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“Viv,” Aidan said, his voice deadly. “You okay?”
“Yes,” she replied, even though her voice sounded thin to her ears. “I’m okay.”
Aidan advanced on Collin, who had straightened, his injured arm hanging limp at his side. “I told you what would happen if you said her name again.”
When Aidan raised his gun, Collin crouched down and reached for something at his ankle, but he was too slow. A single shot rang out, and Collin crumpled to the floor. Aidan put another bullet dead center in Collin’s chest before bending to retrieve the gun from the ankle holster he’d been going for.
“Vivian,” he said, his voice desperate as he pushed to his feet. She jumped into his arms, burying her face against his neck while he wrapped around her. “You’re okay. It’s okay. I’ve got you.”
She could hear someone approaching them rapidly, and she jolted when Aidan set her quickly on her feet and pushed her behind him. His body relaxed just before she heard Nico's voice.
“Papa’s on his way. He wants you to get her out of here.”
“Nico—”
“Don’t worry about this. Me and about two dozen people saw exactly what happened. I’ll make sure Papa knows you had no other choice.”
She felt them grip each other’s hands in the jerk of Aidan’s body, and then he was scooping her up and carrying her around the outside of the house to the driveway to avoid the crowd. When they reached the truck, he quickly helped her inside and sprinted around the hood to climb in.
Once the doors were locked, he punched on the overhead light, and his hands were on her, skimming over her tangled hair, across her cheeks, gently down her throat where Collin had squeezed. He mapped every inch of her he could reach before he was satisfied she was unharmed.
“Christ, Viv.” His voice broke, and she wanted nothing more than to climb into his lap, so she did. “I’m sorry,” he murmured into her hair. “I was looking all over for you. I didn’t even think to check outside. I’m so sorry.”
She wound her arms around his waist and pressed her face into his neck. “You found me. I’m okay.”
“Did he hurt you? Do you need…do you need a doctor?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I just want to go home.”
He eased her gently back into her seat and reached to buckle the belt around her, planting his hand on her thigh as if to reassure himself she was still there as he started the car and drove toward home.
Whatever fallout there was from tonight, she wouldn’t feel bad that the man who’d plagued them for months was finally gone. Despite the rapid beat of her heart, it felt like a weight had been lifted off her chest. They were free. Now she and Aidan could finally get on with the rest of their lives. She was eager to get started.
ChapterTwenty-Nine
Aidan spent days making sure she was okay, and Viv was happy to let him. Once the adrenaline from facing Collin wore off, she’d crashed and slept for twelve hours straight. Each time she woke up, Aidan was with her, always touching some part of her body like he was afraid that if he let go, she’d disappear.
She’d recounted her version of events first to her father and then to Declan, and Aidan had done the same. In the end, there were plenty of eyewitness accounts to back up that Collin had attacked Viv, threatened her, and Aidan had done what was necessary to keep them both alive.
The only Milano family member who had spoken out against what happened that night was Collin’s father when he showed up at her parents’ house in a drunken rage and heaved empty beer bottles at the garage door. Even the Bellos had distanced themselves from the Milano family to side with the Falcones.
Apparently no one wanted to be subjected to the wrath of Adrian Falcone or the Callahan syndicate in the aftermath of attacking a Callahan bride. Declan, at least, was pleased with the success of the first test of their new alliance, though Aidan would have preferred Collin dead and buried long before he’d ever put hands on her.
With the weight finally lifted off them, it felt like they could really look ahead and plan for the future. Because the future was fast approaching. She’d mentioned moving out of Glenmore House a few times, and when Aidan didn’t immediately balk at the idea, she took that as a good sign. She was ready to build a life with him.
Rolling onto her back in the middle of the bed, she stretched out her sore muscles. It hadn’t taken too much convincing to get him to make love to her again. He’d touched her reverently, coaxing some of the most intense orgasms she’d ever had from her body while he worshipped her.
It had taken some convincing that she wasn’t breakable, though. That she loved when he fucked her senseless. She’d finally gotten through to him last night, and now she was delightfully sore in all the right places. She still wasn’t sold on the nipple clamps, however. The man was too good with his hands already.
She could hear the splash of the shower from the bathroom and thought about joining him when his phone started buzzing incessantly, signaling a string of incoming text messages. She rolled to grab it from the nightstand in case it was something important enough from Declan to interrupt Aidan’s shower and caught her name and pregnant in the flurry of message previews.
When the messages finally stopped, she hit the button to expand them all. She felt a little guilty reading through his private messages, but she wanted to know if he knew already. And if he did, why he told some guy named Liam.
Heard about what happened the other night with that Collin asshole. Shit, man.
According to Liam, the murmurings through the syndicate were that Aidan should have drawn it out and made Collin suffer. That had a grin tugging at her lips.
Remember the blonde from the club last week?
