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“We need to get you cleaned up,” I say, pulling her hands away from her shirt. “Try not to touch it. You could get the wound infected.”
“Right,” she says, forcing her hands to her sides. She’s clearly in shock, but I’d rather that than for her to be dead.
I hear motorcycles starting up in the parking lot, so I move to the door to check that they’ve all left. I don’t need anyone popping out when we have our guard down and finishing us off.
The only person in the hallway is the man Oakley shot, lying on the floor with only half a face left. I kick his head to the side, trying to hide it from Oakley as she creeps out from behind me.
“Everything is fine,” I say as the sound of motorcycles disappear into the distance outside. “I called Greg, Pasha, and Maxim when I arrived. They’ll be here to help clean things up, but it might take an hour or so. They’re not close.”
She nods, staring at the body on the floor.
“Okay, come on,” I say, pulling her away from the body and down to the bathroom at the end of the hallway. Nobody uses it, but it might have what we need to clean her up.
“Wait!” she exclaims, stopping suddenly as I pull the door open.
“What?” I spin around and sweep the hallway with my gun again.
“No, it’s just that there isn’t anything here. I think I have bandages in the other bathroom in the office,” she blurts.
“Oh, okay,” I say, a bit confused by the alarm in her voice.
I write it off as stress as we walk back to the office. Her mind is probably racing just as fast as mine is, but I doubt she’s thinking about the same thing. She’s probably imagining that we’re still in danger, but I’m thinking about how badly I failed her. Even if she forgives me, I’m not sure that I can forgive myself.
I promised to protect her.
And I failed.
Oakley seems unbothered by any of this, focused solely on her mission to bandage herself up. I help her take off her shirt, and she steps into the small shower beside the toilet to rinse the blood of her body.
“Careful with your chest,” I say as she turns the water on. “We can clean that off separately.”
She nods, and I watch her in silence as she rinses the rest of her body, color returning to her cheeks from the hot water. She takes longer than she needs to, soaking in the warmth as her wounds clot.
I sit on the toilet, putting my head in my hands and pulling my hair. I was too confident, and this is what happened. I need to be more careful. I can’t even let Oakley live at the bar anymore. I need to have her with me at all times.
“Are you okay?” she asks, thinking selflessly as she steps out of the shower and carefully towels herself off.
“I should be asking you that,” I reply, lifting my head. “I was just… I was scared I was going to lose you. I feel like an idiot of ever letting you out of my sight.”
She smiles, tilting her head to the side. “Hey, it’s okay. Don’t blame yourself. I was the one who continued running the bar despite all your warnings, and even so, neither of us are dead. We survived.”
“Yes, we survived.” I stand up, grabbing the bandages we found in the cabinet. “But we need to get you wrapped up. I know the cuts aren’t as deep as we thought, but you still need to keep them covered.”
She lifts her arms, wincing a bit at the pain but smiling through it. “Wrap me up!”
I chuckle, but I feel guilty about getting any joy out of this at all. Oakley is so pure and sweet, so well-meaning and selfless. I’ve been nothing but brutal and selfish – the complete opposite of her.
She’s an angel, and I’m a demon.
Yet, I can’t picture a world in which I don’t have her, not as my captive or as my submissive servant, but as my equal.
My partner.
I wrap her wounds carefully, trying to cause the least amount of pain even though she pretends it doesn’t hurt at all. I know she’s suffering, both mentally and physically.
I take her hand and help her out of the bathroom once we’re finished, allowing her to dress herself as I double check the parking lot. Only two motorcycles are left there, belonging to Stone and one of the Triple Six Angels that Oakley shot.
I’m proud of her for that, but she probably doesn’t want to be congratulated for taking a life. I have to keep in mind that she’s not part of the Bratva, and all this is new to her.
