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Pounding down the steps, once I cleared the bottom, I veered toward the spare room, tucked away closer to the back and tried the handle. It wouldn’t turn.
So I knocked, politely.
“Daisy, open up please.”
Nothing.
Frustration gnawed at every nerve ending in my body, and I was still shaking from seeing her on Silas’s lap, with that gun drifting across her bottom lip.
My fist curled and I pounded on the door. “Open. Now.”
Still nothing, and my temper wasn’t built for this shit. I stepped back, and thrust my boot into the wood, shattering the frame.
Inside the tiny space was a twin bed, and on the bed was Laura, curled onto her side, facing the wall. She had a pair of headphones on, which explained why she wasn’t answering, but fuck. She had to have known I would come for her.
Walking to the edge of the bed, I placed my hand on her hip and finally saw her face. She was crying, swiping at her eyes with the sleeve of her sweatshirt, and my heart had officially hit its limit.
There was a sadness that tugged at me, burrowing into my sternum and solidifying this shaky, terrible feeling that had started growing three months ago. From the first time I ever laid eyes on Laura.
Love.
Instead of pulling her up, and throwing her over my shoulder, I slipped my boots off then my jacket, and lifted the threadbare blanket, slipping in behind her. Half my body was off the edge of the mattress, but Laura made room, scooting closer to the wall. I tucked one arm under her, pulling her into my chest, and wrapped my other arm around her. My knees bent, fitting behind the backs of her legs, until we were spooning.
Emotion clogged my throat as I inhaled her citrus scent, and the reality of the night really hit me. She could have been taken from me. She could have been kidnapped or hurt. She could have been shot when the girls pushed her forward. She could have been…
I couldn’t even think about it. I needed to keep her safe, but the only way I could do that was if I sent her away or told her to leave.
Red’s words came back to me, reminding me that Laura could handle this life, I just had to give her the chance.
NINETEEN
LAURA
There was a warm hand on my bare stomach.
My shirt was lifted, and Killian’s massive arm was twisted around me, his hand planted across my ribs as if he were worried I’d try to move in the middle of the night or something. I stared at the white wall, seeing the daylight pouring in. We fell asleep?
Not only that, we slept all night?
It was barely seven when I had run upstairs and burst outside, seeing the Death Raiders on our property. My rage had sputtered and flared when the leader pulled Sadie from the crowd and placed a gun near her temple. One shot had already gone off, but it might have just been a warning, as no one was down from what I could tell.
Killian thought they had given me up, but I was already in the leader’s face, practically begging him to look at me and leave them alone. The fucking psychopath. All I wanted in that moment was Killian. I wanted the wolf, to see him tear through the Death Raiders and maim the man who dared step foot in his kingdom and threaten his people. But then Killian arrived with Natty on his bike and he looked…scared.
I’ll never forget the way his features pinched, his dark brows dipped as if he couldn’t figure out a way to get me out of his enemy’s lap. As if there wasn’t anything he could do to guard his heart from feeling the pain of losing me. It was in that moment that I realized why Killian was so terrified of falling in love.
The great wolf was afraid of a tiny rock, one that could bring his whole world down.
I didn’t want him to regret me, and from what I knew of Killian, the very last thing he wanted was a weakness. And I’d become exactly that.
He stirred behind me, and I shifted forward, trying to break his hold on me. I’d taken my headphones off sometime during the night, or he had…but they were gone now. My hair was frizzy, my eyes were dry and cracked from crying and keeping my contacts in all night. I just needed a second to myself before I dealt with him.
“Where are you going?” he rumbled behind me.
Tucking a few stray strands of hair behind my ears, I moved to sit up.
“Bathroom.”
He seemed to accept that, drifting off to sleep. I moved to my knees so I could crawl over him to get free but right as my left leg swung over his hip, his hand came out and gripped my ass.
