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“You’re fine?” he repeated.
“Yes. I’m fine, and also very pissed off. I wanted to get a tattoo today.”
He glared at me. “We need to have a few words…”
“You’re not seriously about to lecture me for trying to protect you, are you?”
“Damn fucking right I am,” he snapped. “Both of those bullets were meant for me!”
“How do you know?” I yelled back.
He paused, and then said, “Because I recognized the shooter.”
His admission had me clamping my mouth shut for a moment. “So…who was he?”
Viper rubbed the back of his neck. “I told you about my time in prison…”
I nodded.
“What I didn’t tell you is that on my first day in, someone tried to put me in my place by attacking me in the cafeteria. He didn’t realize I could handle myself, and when he started losing the fight, he pulled a shank. I beat the living shit out of him. Put him in the infirmary for three weeks. And because he attacked me with a weapon, he did time in solitary and they added to his sentence.” He swallowed. “They moved him out of C block to an isolation unit to keep us separated, but I kept my head on a swivel for the rest of my time in there. I knew it wasn’t over, but I couldn’t do anything. What was I supposed to do? Anything I did on the inside was going to extend my sentence, or worse, get me life in the can. He isn’t supposed to be out, especially after getting his sentence extended. How the fuck does a guy like that get parole?”
He leaned forward and placed his elbows on his knees. “You were shot because of me, Sutton. I could have lost you. You could have—”
“Viper, hey, it’s okay,” I whispered, holding out my hand toward him.
He rose from the chair and came to me.
Viper grasped the back of my neck. “You didn’t even hesitate. You dove in front of me.”
“You didn’t hesitate either. You pulled me to the ground and protected me, even after you’d been shot.”
“Sutton, you don’t take a bullet for—”
“Viper—”
“Sutton, no. Let me get this out. You don’t take a bullet for me. I take one foryou. That’s how this works.”
“No, that’s not how this works.” I wrenched away from his grip and peered up at him. “My life isn’t more important than yours.”
“Don’t you get it? If you die, I’ve got nothing. If you die, everything won’t just go back to the way it was before you—it’ll be worse. My entire life will change. You opened all this shit up inside me and I can’t fucking lose you.”
Tears gathered in my eyes. “And I’m supposed to lose you? Why is this an either-or situation?”
“Because when bullets start flying, that’s just how it is.”
“We’re not going to agree on this. I love you as much as you love me, and if I want to use my body to shield you from bullets, I will.”
“What if you’re pregnant?”
I blinked. “But I’m not pregnant.”
“Okay, but one day you will be.”
“But I’m not.”
“Sutton,” he growled.
“Viper,” I growled back.
