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When she falls to my side, she keeps her face firmly planted into my neck. I don’t want to move, even as my release starts to dry on my stomach. I remove my shirt carefully and wipe us both clean with it. There’s a bathroom across from us, but I don’t want to leave her side.
I toss it on the floor beside us, not giving a shit if I make a mess for the first time in my fucking life, and turn to face my girl. Her face is flushed, and the smile she gives me is one I finally feel like I’ve earned. I pull her into my bare chest and cover us with the blanket. Her arms wrap around me and within seconds, we are fused together as if we were one being.
I kiss her on her forehead as her breathing slows and whisper more to myself than her, “I’m never letting you go.”
???
When I wake up, Evie is still pressed firmly to me but she’s dripping in sweat. I don’t want to wake her in case it’s a night terror of some kind, but I also need to know she’s okay.
I glance up at the monitors and see her heart rate is a little high but nothing crazy. I slowly remove the covers from us, not wanting to shock her body by going too fast. I carefully roll her on her side, and her eyes don’t flutter. I grab a damp cloth from the bedside table that was left after her surgery and gently pat her face.
She still doesn’t move. I keep looking at the monitors and her body, checking her over for signs of a new injury. Maybe what we did was too much. Maybe she wasn’t ready, and I was just being a selfish and controlling dick.
Fuck.
The door opens and Lev walks in to find me in a panic. He rarely ever sees this side of me so when his brain seems to catch up with the sight, he rushes over to us.
“She’s dripping in sweat and not moving,” I say in a low voice.
Lev looks at the monitors, and then gently checks her over like I just did. When he sighs in relief, I feel like every nerve in my body is going to explode if he doesn’t explain to me what’s happening right now.
“It’s just the withdrawal mixed with the meds from surgery. This is normal.” Lev reaches over and takes my hand in his before placing it gently on Evie’s chest. “Her heart is still beating, see?”
I feel the steady thump under my hand and finally let myself breathe. Lev sits on the end of the bed and looks at me. He seems better, but there’s still pain in his eyes.
“She told me what Laney did. Did she tell you?” he asks me.
I shake my head. “No.”
He nods, seeming to understand why and I try to keep myself from being frustrated by that. “I’m going to tell you, but you need to promise me you won’t kill her. Evie has started to forgive her, and Nessa seems to know the whole story. But you need to know Laney was working for Adrik for a short period of time.”
When my fists clench, Lev notices, and rushes out the rest of this story in a way he thinks will prevent me from attacking the girl the next time I see her. “Her whole family was being threatened and she had no choice. The last contact they had was when she hacked into the email system and changed the video you sent.”
I start furiously pacing the damned hospital room. I swear nothing good can happen in this damn room without a fallout afterward.
“Alexi,” Lev says cautiously, like he’s talking to a bear that’s about to tear into flesh.
“What?” I snap back, barely able to contain my rage as I watch him climb into the bed beside her and continue to dab the cloth on her head.
“She needs her. She fessed up to it and told the truth. Evie needs her. Don’t fuck this up, please? This is finally all coming together. Don’t fuck it up.”
I look at the girl laying in the bed next to him. The color is finally starting to return to her face and the bruising is nearly gone. There’s a hard line pressed into her brow, and I can feel her strength even in her sleep. If she needs this Laney girl, I’m not going to take her away, but I’m sure as fuck going to talk to her.
That video is what ruined everything, but also started everything too. I hate what it caused Evie to do and how she felt, but I can’t bring myself to hate that it eventually brought her to me.
“I won’t kill her,” I grit out, “but I am going to talk to her.”
Lev nods as he takes Evie’s hand in his. We haven’t had to make a schedule or guess who needs to be where. Like Lev said before, things just fell into place with us. The guys and I have always worked as a well-oiled machine, and Evie fits into that perfectly. As much as we all want to take care of her, we also know she can take care of herself.
That thought is both reassuring and terrifying because I know she will never need us, but I’ll settle for her wanting us. Even now, she doesn’t need us. No matter how much I want to convince myself otherwise. She would recover and come out strong on the other side without one of us being here for her to cuddle next to at all times. She would still heal and pull herself together to fight the next fight because that’s just who she is.
And that’s the only reason I’m not going to kill Laney. If Evie needs her in her life, I’m not taking anyone else away from her. She’s suffered too much. I plan to do everything I can to keep the people she cares about safe and hidden. I don’t care if we have to live out of a hut in the North fucking Pole. I will lock it down and keep them all safe.
My pace is practically a run as I shoot over to the building with Laney’s room. I might not be planning to kill her, but the knock I pound on the door might say otherwise. I swear I hear wood split at one point.
The sound of footsteps gives way to that of a gun cocking as the door opens slowly. My gun is loaded, cocked, and ready in my hand as I come face to face with a shirtless Havoc. His gun is raised as well and the sure smile he plants on his face has me wholly confused. The situation only gets worse when I see Arrow walk out of Laney's room and a fuming red-faced girl behind him.
Havoc drops his gun, but they both seem to think I’m about to kill the girl.Rightfully so. They plant themselves in front of her like they think they could keep me away, and she is pissed.
