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Cross chuckles to himself as he skillfully releases the snake’s fangs from Sawyer’s wrist and then studies her like a kid in a candy store. There’s only ever been a few times where I’ve seen Cross lose the chip on his shoulder, and that’s either when he’s with Oakley or he’s adding another snake to his collection, and I don’t doubt for one second that this little bastard is coming home with us.
Sawyer ties a tourniquet around his forearm and grabs a compression bandage from the first aid kit in the trunk of the SUV and gets in the backseat with Dalton, taking all measures to keep the blood circulation from spreading from his hand and through the rest of his body.
Cross gets in the front passenger seat with his new pet, and with not much more space, Oakley comes with me, climbing right into my lap and clinging onto me like a baby koala as I drive our asses toward the ER, her head resting against my chest as she watches the world pass us by.
Chapter 20
OAKLEY
My head rests against Zade’s chest as I lie awake in his arms. It’s three in the morning and technically only two days before my brutal execution, and with every passing second, the heaviness continues to weigh me down.
“Go to sleep, Lamb,” Zade murmurs, making me jump. We’ve been lying here in silence for hours, and all this time I thought he was asleep.
“Can’t,” I mutter into the night, so many things rushing through my mind, like what the fuck I was thinking telling Zade that I was falling in love with him. What the hell is wrong with me? Though, it’s not like he entirely freaked out. But he was right about one thing, he doesn’t deserve it . . . kind of. Two months ago, I would have agreed wholeheartedly, but now that I’ve gotten to know the man hidden inside, the one screaming for help, I see him in a different light. He’s fearlessly loyal and will do anything to protect those he loves, even if it means putting his own life on the line.
The boys have told me they think he loves me, and up until tonight, I wasn’t so sure, but sitting in the back of his SUV, I saw it in his eyes. Despite doing everything in his power to try and ignore it, it’s still there, like an invisible string tethered between us, growing stronger every day.
For the first time, I feel myself feeling for him, for this fucked-up situation he’s in. If I were a stranger, some random woman plucked off the street, he wouldn’t have had an issue sacrificing me during the ritual, but now he has to sacrifice the woman he loves, and I’m not sure any man could come back from that.
Zade’s hand moves across my back, gently roaming over the new bruises that I’ve added to my collection. “What’s on your mind?” he questions in a deep, rumbling tone.
“Sawyer,” I admit, my fingers tracing small circles across his chest, not ready to admit what else had been on my mind. “Do you think he’s going to be okay? I don’t really know anything about snakes, but aren’t they lethal?”
“Not all of them,” he tells me, a strange tone in his voice as if trying to sugarcoat the seriousness of the situation, “but I’m sure Sawyer is fine. Cross is rarely wrong about a snake breed, they’re just in the hospital as a precaution until they can identify the snake’s breed. If anything, Sawyer’s probably passed out in his hospital bed. He’ll probably be home by morning.”
I nod, his words putting me at ease. So at ease that it gives me the courage to lift my head and meet his eyes. “Zade?” I question, a strange reluctance in my tone.
“What’s up?”
“You know what I told you outside my father’s base?”
He nods, understanding in his dark eyes. “You didn’t mean it.”
“What?” I mutter, my brows furrowed as I lift my head off his chest a little higher, only that doesn’t seem like enough. I need to face him properly, need to really say what I know to be true, and with that, I pull myself up and scramble onto him, my knees on either side of his hips as his fingers brush my thighs. “I meant every word,” I tell him, making sure he truly hears me. “I think I’ve known it for a while, but I didn’t want to believe it. You’re the man who’s going to end my life, and I’ve convinced myself that it’s wrong of me to feel this way. I should be trying to run from you and plot your untimely demise instead of thinking about how good it feels to be in your arms. I’m in love with you, Zade, and I know I shouldn’t be, but that’s not what this is about.”
