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“When she wakes up, and she will, how do you want to handle it?”
“What’s to handle? She made her choice. I want her to be okay, but there is no place in my life for her anymore.”
“And what about if I want more than that?”
He snorts. “You think she’ll stay? She already ran from us once.”
“She’ll need time to heal, and I have a dozen questions for her.”
“Well, neither Oz nor Zig will want her at Apex. There is no way they’ll trust her around Salem and Astrid.”
“Jesus, we’re not talking about a violent fucking criminal here. Her only crime is leaving us.”
“I know that, but trust is a big deal to Oz and Zig, and you can’t fault them for it. We can’t trust her as far as we can throw her. A lot can change in four years, Creed. You have no idea what she’s capable of anymore.”
“I know she’s capable of stepping in front of a bullet.”
He shrugs casually as the door opens, and the doctor walks in, and we both stand.
“How is Avery, doc?”
“Your wife is in recovery. We had to go in and remove the bullet, which thankfully missed anything vital. It did fragment, which caused some damage to the muscles and tendons. Though the damage was minimal, she’ll be in quite a lot of pain for a while. I want to keep her in for a few days to monitor her and watch out for signs of infection. She’ll need some physical therapy to make sure she gains back mobility and range of motion, but beyond that, she should make a full recovery with no lasting side effects.”
“Can we see her?”
“For a little while, but she really does need to rest.”
We both nod and follow the doctor to the room where Avery is.
“If you have any questions, I’ll be back in about an hour to check on her.”
“Thanks, doc.” I offer him my hand, which he shakes. Hawk just stands there, distracted by the sight of Avery.
With a shaky breath, I turn and watch as Hawk walks into her room, his eyes never leaving her, and I follow him inside. He steps up to the side of the bed, careful of the wires and tubes attached to her, and reaches for her hand. His much larger one swallows it up as he sits down in the chair and holds it to his cheek.
“She’s cold.”
I walk to the bottom of the bed, unfold the blanket draped over her feet, and carefully tug it up over the thin, off-white sheet covering her. I tuck it around her before I move to the other side of the bed.
She’s so fucking pale, she could give Astrid a run for her money. But she looks peaceful, though the dark circles under her eyes tell another story.
I cup her jaw and slide my thumb over her bottom lip, remembering how she used to taste. It’s something that’s tormented me since she’s been gone. I thought what we had was something special, but somewhere along the way, it all went wrong.
“She came here for us.”
Hawk looks at me and frowns. “What makes you say that?”
“Why else would she come back? She has no family or friends here. She could be anywhere in the world, yet she came back to the very place she ran from.”
“Maybe she heard about Cooper and Kay.”
They had taken her under their wing from the very first time they met, giving Avery the mom and dad she always wanted, not the ones she had. They’d been just as hurt as we were when she left. Cooper might be dead now, thanks to his actions, with Kay following behind him weeks later after losing her battle with cancer. But once upon a time, they loved her something fierce.
“I don’t see how she could know that. Who would tell her?”
“Maybe they left something for her, and their lawyers tracked her down.”
As far as I know, their house has been gathering dust since they died. None of us have been able to go there other than to close it up. The memories of a man we once trusted shitting all over us were still too much to process.
