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“Mr. Shaw, do you stand by your new fiancée?”
Drake was about to climb in behind me, his hand gripping the door, but he paused, and our eyes met. This is where he got to turn around and tell them it was all a mistake. That we weren’t getting married, and there was really no tie to me other than a one-night stand that had became this hot mess. This was where he got to distance himself from the broken girl who had just killed her abusive ex.
So it wouldn’t impact his reputation.
His business.
“Of course, I stand by her,” he announced, spinning around to face the handful of cameras and reporters licking their lips and shoving at each other, looking for a sound bite. “My fiancée faced her abuser today, and she fought back. As far as I’m concerned, she’s one brave woman. And just in case anyone thought otherwise, I’m here letting them know that if they have a problem, they’ll have to go through me and my family.”
My throat tightened, the result of tears as they flooded my eyes.
I couldn’t take my eyes off Drake as he climbed back into the vehicle, and Simon eased us away from the flashing lights and invasive questions. I couldn’t pull my eyes away from this man even though I could see the redness covering his knuckles from where I knew he’d stopped Emmett from reaching me.
We’d known each other for a few days.
The connection between us was unexplainable, but I never expected this.
A man who would stand by me, support me, and publicly have my back.
But what I did know was I felt safe.
Not because Brian was gone.
But because Drake was here.
DRAKE
Two Days Later
“Come on, Sleeping Beauty.” I pulled the curtains open, letting the sun shine through the large windows, hitting the bed directly.
Cassie was wrapped like a cocoon in the blankets, all of them tucked tightly around her body while her head just poked out the top. She blinked a couple of times, her face scrunching up as she fought against the sunlight, though it was futile. “Can we calm the brightness just a little?” she whispered as she began to unroll.
I sat back against the windowsill, just watching on.
I’d gotten all my shit moved from the hotel to Reed’s place, and thankfully, Aspen stopped by yesterday with some clothes for Cassie. Reed had offered up one of his many guest rooms for us, given he had a nurse on site who could help out if we needed it, though I was quickly learning Cassie didn’t like taking it.
When she finally unrolled herself, she grabbed the other side of the blankets and began to roll the other way. “Oh no, no, no,” I warned, walking toward the end of the bed and fisting the blanket in my hand before yanking it out from under her and tossing it to the side. “You’ve been sleeping for almost twenty-four hours. You need to eat and drink some water.”
“But I don’t want to,” she protested, trying to sit up but quickly pressing her hand to her temple and falling back onto the bed. “Dammit,” she cursed, pressing her eyes closed as the pain moved through her.
I gritted my teeth and stepped around the bed, this time pressing my hand to her back and slowly helping her into a sitting position. “Come on,” I urged, pulling at her legs so they fell over the side of the bed before getting to my feet and holding out my hand to her. “I’ll help you get to the bathroom, then we’ll get some fluid and painkillers in you.”
I could tell she wanted to object. Cassie was a woman who, for a long time, had had to do everything for herself. She found it hard to trust, and she hated asking for help.
But I was a man who was taught that we treated the women in our lives with the respect they deserved. Whether they were just a fake fiancée or a woman who I just really fucking liked, she was about to get used to this shit.
“Anyone ever tell you this whole overprotective alpha thing you have going on is a little too much?” She groaned as I walked her through the bathroom door, making sure she could stand on her own before stepping out again and pulling the door closed behind me.
“Honestly, no,” I responded, leaning against the wall, unable to keep from smiling when I realized she’d turned the tap on in the basin so I couldn’t hear her use the bathroom. “My family is very sure about how the women in our lives should be treated.”
“Constantly saved like damsels in distress?” she challenged a minute later when she once again reappeared at the door, this time in a pair of baggy track pants and a wifebeater from the bag of her clothes I’d placed inside.
“Fiercely protected,” I corrected, turning toward her and leaning into the wall with my shoulder. “If need be, with your life.” I reached out and pulled her hair back from her face, noticing she had run a brush through it but not tied it up, instead letting it hang over the large darkening bruise that now decorated under her eye and around her cheek bone.
The doctor who checked her out said nothing was broken, but fuck, I’d seen grown fucking men who had been knocked out and almost killed with less. It made me furious to imagine just what the fuck she went through with that asshole while they were together if he was leaving her with these kinds of injuries.
Cassie blinked and pulled back, stepping around me and clearing her throat. “That’s a really intense motto for a family to have,” she murmured, and I knew right away she had no clue where I came from.
