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Which was insane considering the reason I was here was because of his crazy ass wife.
“Why are you here, Johnston?”
He growled. “The fuck kind of question is that, Red? Why the fuckwouldn’tI be here?”
I swung my sharp, angry gaze to him. His eyes were narrowed on me, his jaw clenched, fury and confusion lighting up his eyes. He had no right to be angry. He wasn’t the one lying in a fucking hospital bed with a gunshot wound to the fucking abdomen provided by his little wife he should’ve obviously gotten rid of a long damn time ago.
“Maybe because it was your wife who put me here?” I snapped at him. His jaw tightened so much, his molars ground together, fury coloring his expression. But I didn’t care how pissed he was. “She pulled the trigger on me, Johnston. Or did you forget that?”
“I also fucking remember Geek and Blayke standing in front of you to protect you, but you decided to do what the hell you wanted anyway,” he seethed.Was he fucking serious right now? He was trying to pin this on me?
He jerked up to his feet and scraped his hands over his face before dropping them to his sides. “Fuck,” he swore. He looked over at me. “I’m not trying to argue with you when you’ve barely been awake, Aaliyah.”
Tears sprang to my eyes. Agony washed through his at the sight of them. “Where is she?” I demanded, a lump clogging my throat, making it hard to speak. I forced myself to swallow it down. “You protect her even though she’s a crazy, psychotic bitch?”
He leaned over me, placing his hands on either side of my head. I swallowed thickly, my heart hammering in my chest, and it was even worse when the heart monitor mimicked those beeps, letting Johnston know just how he made me feel.
Afraid. Turned on. Worried. Needy.
I was everything all at once, and it was confusing.
“I let her ass get carted off to prison,” he told me quietly. My lips softly parted in surprise. I hadn’t been expectingthat, though I’d been hoping for it. “I didnotprotect her, and the only reason I didn’t kill her was because Trigger stopped me. He didn’t want me getting locked up. Said you needed me. So make sure you fucking thank him because I was beyond the point of giving a fuck about anything but revenge for what happened to you.”
Those tears came right back. I was defenseless against this man. I could hear the raw fear in his voice as he recalled those memories, the rage.
“You…you let your wife get arrested?”
He nodded, moving one of his hands to cup my cheek. I couldn’t help but lean my face into his palm, seeking his heat and comfort. The pad of his thumb brushed against my cheekbone in soft, rhythmic movements. “I did, Red. And if I fucking could go back and shoot her, I just fucking might. She deserves to suffer for what she did to you. But, as much as I hate to spare her fucking life like this, prison is probably better. It’ll kill her in a way a bullet won’t. And I want her to suffer, Red. Ineedher to suffer for what she almost took from me.”
My lips trembled. A tear spilled down my cheek, coming down to meet his hand. He watched it, anger and sadness washing through his eyes. A man normally so guarded, a man that usually held his emotions extremely close, was letting me read everything he was feeling, and it broke my fucking heart.
I never wanted to see him like this again.
“What she almost took from you?” I whispered, still hanging onto those words.
He nodded, his eyes running over my face. “Red, she almost tookyou. I’ve wanted you ever since you started working at the clubhouse. I’ve needed you—craved you. And just when I finally got you, I almost fucking lost you. And that shit? That shit gutted me, Red.” I bit back a sob. “I’ve never felt so terrified, so fucking lost, than I did when I saw you laying on the ground in a pool of your own blood, your face paling more and more with every second that passed.”
His hand shook as he brushed more tears from my cheeks, but they just continuously fell. “I will live with this guilt for the rest of my fucking life, but if you’ll let me, I promise to take care of you, to never let you down like this again. I’llneverlet anyone or anything harm you again, Red. Ipromise.”
I sniffled. “Even if I’m handicapped for the rest of my life because of this?” I roughly asked him, my voice hoarse with my tears. The door opened behind him, a doctor and a nurse stepping in, but he never ripped his eyes from mine.
“Even then, Red. Even fucking then.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Johnston
Doctor Wilson ran his eyes over the machine reading out Aaliyah’s pulse before he nodded. “Everything looks good, girly, and your vitals are good. That blood pressure is spectacular.” He looked down at her. Thank God he was seeing improvement. Her blood pressure certainly hadn’t been good when she’d first come out of surgery. “I’m gonna keep you for a few more days just to monitor you before I send you home. That sound like a plan?”
She frowned. “I don’t know how I’m going to afford this,” she mumbled, not looking at either of us.
Dr. Wilson frowned down at her chart, taking note that she obviously didn’t have health insurance. I just waited for him to read the rest—that I was footing her entire medical bill. It wasn’t even going to the club. I was taking on the entire financial weight of it. Just as soon as they mailed me the bill, I’d pay the full amount.
She was mine to take care of. I’d failed her once. I’d never fail her again. Fuck, my soul was still bleeding out into the rest of my body even though she was now on the other side of her injury, on the road to recovery.
“Ah, I see,” Dr. Wilson murmured, nodding his head as he finished reading through her chart, obviously taking note of who would be covering her bill. He gently patted her thigh with his aging, wrinkled hand. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. You’re in good hands. You get some rest now, you hear?”
He left the room before Aaliyah could ask him any other questions. She looked confused, not understanding why they were keeping her so long when she didn’t have insurance.
