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“Just one shot.” I pat Alex’s hand as it rests on my cheek and he takes stock of my injuries. “It was just a super shitty backhand that he didn’t mean to make. He had momentum on his side.” I meet Drake’s eyes for backup. He was there. He saw it happen.
But then Theo’s semen slides along my inside thigh, and I can’t maintain eye contact anymore.
That brings Drake’s brows up, because I’ve never broken eye contact with him before.
It’s all unraveling. One single time with Gunner, and all of my hard work is unraveling.
“Why were you locked away in here, Lib?” Holding my chin, Alex tilts my head from one side to the other. “I thought you passed out or some shit. You can’t do that if you have a concussion.”
I step back out of his reach and let his hand fall. “I wasn’t asleep, just resting for a moment. And I don’t think I have a concussion. Luc didn’t seem to be worried.”
Sophia knows differently, so her lips remain clamped between her teeth in a dangerous threat. It takes just one word, one syllable to blow my world open.
“You can come back to my place tonight,” X declares. “The baby is still up six hundred times a night, so when we get up to check on her, we can check in on you too.”
“Alex, no–”
“It’s not a big deal.”
“She can stay with us.” Soph walks into the office with a cute smile and waves Alex off. She hooks her arm in mine and pulls me away. “We already organized it. She graciously accepted our offer when Luc was in here fixing her split lip… which looks worse now than it did before,” she murmurs. “We’re heading out now. Can she clock out, Chief?”
“Yeah.” Alex turns and follows us with his eyes. “Luc said no hospital?”
I shake my head and stumble forward as Soph pulls me along. “No hospital. Luc said it’s fine and left me to rest for a minute.”
“Okay, well…” Alex seems lost as I’m pulled away. “Rest up, okay? Scared the shit out of me when Drake called it in.”
“I’m okay, X. Takes more than a drunk asshole to put me on my ass.”
“I’m not okay,” he murmurs. “You were off shift, I pulled you in. I should have brought you in to babysit Doyle while I came here. Now you have a black eye and a massive bruise on your face.”
“I’m okay, X. Everything is gonna be fine.”
“You’re off tomorrow, okay?”
“What?” I stop on a dime and pull Sophia to a screeching halt. “Why? I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“You got knocked the fuck out while on shift! What do you meanwhy? Take tomorrow and rest. Actually, no.” He waves me away. “It’s the weekend; you’re off tomorrow and Sunday. Report on Monday, but if you’re still messed up, I might push through more leave for you.”
“I don’t need special treatment, X. I’m a squad member just like everyone else.”
“Right, and that time Oz knocked himself out when he forgot to duck to climb into the cruiser?”
I burst out in the kind of crazy laughter that proves my head isn’t as right as it normally is. “He’s so dumb sometimes.”
Alex’s lips twitch. “Exactly. He took the next day off and needed to be babied by his wife because he had a headache. This isn’t special treatment, Lib, this is me taking care of my squad. Go home and eat your cookies. You earned the right to sleep in.”
“Okay.” I let Sophia lead me into the hall and away from the office I had sex in.Oh my God! I had sex with Gunner-friggin-Bishop in that room.“I need to use the bathroom.” I swing away from Soph and push into the ladies’ room to my right.
The door swings closed as I rush to the toilets and heave, but nothing comes up. I want to spew. I want to purge my body of the worry, the grief, the anxiety that Gunner Bishop creates in my soul, but I can’t even have that. My body refuses to bring anything up, so instead I dry heave and send a splitting ache tearing through my head to pulse at the temples.
“Elizabeth Tate.” Soph closes the bathroom door and flips the locks as tears stream over my face. “You need to talk to me, girlfriend.”
“I don’t know anything.”
“I didn’t even ask yet.” She’s still in that mini skirt and high heels that make her tower over me. “Who is Theo Griffin to you?”
“He’s nobody. I met him a week ago.”
