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All of it catches up.
“Are you safe?” I growl.
“Yes, thanks to you. Don’t you remember?”
“Some of it,” I say, taking in the sight of my woman, looking every bit the concerned wife as she sits at my bedside. If there’s an upside to being shot, it’s this. I see my woman leaning forward with concern etched in her features, the light in her eyes telling me she’s here and always will be. She tied her hair up, but she can’t stop the curls.
“Why are you smiling?” she asks while her lips turn up too.
“Seeing you,” I reply, but the I love you dies somewhere inside of me. Not the feeling. That never will, but the urge to say it, to drag it out into the light. I can’t force myself to make it real after the crush talk. It proves how badly I want this woman by me thinking about that at a time like this.
She softly takes my hand. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“Just a bullet to the shoulder,” I smirk. “I’m surprised I even passed out.”
“They said it was an unlucky shot, but you could’ve bled out,” she trembles. “I’m just so happy you’re okay.”
I squeeze her hand. “Me too. Where’s Christopher?”
“In surgery.”
“Is he going to be okay?”
Jane blinks and shakes her head slowly. “I don’t know.”
“What about the goddamn monster, Axel?” I growl, wishing he was here so I could wring his neck.
“You tackled him. You went, well… beast mode on him.”
“I hope I didn’t,” I say, laughing gruffly.
“Not like that. He’s in police custody. It’s crazy, Luke, the reason he was there.”
“What do you mean?”
“He was working for the Russian mob. My old roommate called me up right when it was happening. No, it was right before. If I acted quicker, I could’ve saved you and Christopher, but I thought she was joking, tricking me, and…”
“This isn’t your fault,” I tell her firmly. “I swear, Jane. Never think that.”
“The Russians are threatening Axel’s baby sister. Apparently, he was part of a biker gang, and they had links to the mob, so it all caught up with him right after you put him on his ass at the apartment. What are the chances of that? You can see why I thought it was a trick, right?”
She’s shaking as if the emotions are finally catching up with her. Ignoring the pulsing in my shoulder, I lean forward and wrap my arms around her.
“You’re hurt, Luke,” she whispers.
“So are you.”
I hold her tightly as it all bursts out of her, a torrent of heartache as she clings onto me.
“The fact you care this much, the fact it makes you feel this bad…”
It means you’ll be the perfect wife, the perfect mother.
“Proves you’re a good person,” I finish, the sentence sounding weak. It’s nowhere near what I want to say, what I would say if I were letting out everything in my heart.
“And yeah, I can see why you thought it was a trick. It’s one hell of a coincidence. Have you told all of this to the police?”
“Yes, they said they need to speak to you at some point, too.”
I nod. “I’ll handle that soon. It’s enough to sit here with you for now, but…”
“What?” she asks.
“What about Axel’s sister? You said the mob was threatening her?”
I remember the tears in his eyes. It only returns to me now, the wetness on his cheeks, the shuddering of his hand as if he was fighting an instinct telling him not to do it. He’s a jackass and a bully but maybe not a killer.
“I don’t know,” Jane whispers. “I told the cops, and they said they’d look into it, but that’s it.”
“Can you do me a favor? Go outside and get Chr—”
I wince since I almost just said, Christopher.
“Whoever’s lead on my security team.”
“You’re going to send somebody to check on his little sister to keep her safe.”
When I nod, she leans forward and kisses me on the lips. I return the kiss, not expecting the sudden influx of lust. I thought the pain meds—the source of the dull and distant ache—would trample all those instincts, but I’m wild right away, stroking the hand of my good arm over her back, then to her hip. I squeeze and sink my hands into her, indulging in her perfect curve, and then slip my hand lower toward her ass.
She sits back. “I should probably…”
It’s only now I notice the room, the wide-open space, the marble floor, and the tall, clean windows letting in waves of midday sunlight. There are windows on the other side with the blinds closed and the door that leads to the hospital. I can’t savage my woman in this room. Somebody might hear.
“Yes, please.”
A moment later, Jamie, another security team member, sits next to the bed, taking my instructions.
