Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 76695 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76695 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
The singer, Bryce, rushed back into the room then, and Finn moved away from me to talk to him.
“See that guy over there?” I asked.
“The biker?” Carl asked, likely having clocked Finn’s cut.
“Yeah.”
“He yours?” Carl asked.
My heart swelled at that wording.
“Yes,” I said.
“A Henchmen,” he said, nodding, then wincing as, I imagine, the world spun. “Yeah, I bet this fuck is gonna pay then,” Carl said.
The police officer rushed in a moment later, wanting to talk to everyone. Eventually, the paramedics took Carl to the hospital.
I wanted to go with him, but the cops had too many questions for me.
“We’ll go see him later,” Finn promised me. “They will need to do scans and shit first anyway,” he reminded me.
“I was so stupid,” I spat, watching the cops talk to the musicians, all of whom seemed jazzed up, running on adrenaline from the event. It was probably the most exciting thing that would ever happen to them.
“You weren’t stupid,” he assured me.
“I should have known it wasn’t him who texted me,” I said.
“You had no reason to think it was a trap,” he insisted, hand touching my back.
I guess I stiffened, because he looked down at me, then his brows furrowed before he was moving behind me, and yanking up the back of my shirt.
“The fuck?” he whispered, his fingers touching the skin of my back.
“Is it all carpet burned?” I asked.
“Baby, you have a fucking welt,” he said as his fingers glided over it, whisper-soft, but I still felt the sting of pain.
“Oh, the belt,” I said, nodding.
I guess the kids weren’t the only ones running on adrenaline, because that pain had been numb until Finn brought my attention to it.
“Motherfucker,” Finn seethed as he pulled my shirt back down. “He’s gonna pay for that.”
“I know,” I agreed, leaning my head into his shoulder when he moved beside me again.
About an hour later, Finn and I were walking around the studio, making sure no one was around, then putting a note on the door, and locking up for the day.
I was eager to visit with Carl, who’d been brought up to a room for observation by the time we got there. But I was glad to find he was in good spirits—chatting up the nurses, and conning his roommate’s visitor into grabbing him several pudding cups down at the cafeteria.
“I forgot how good these things are,” he said, pointing at his half-eaten third cup with his spoon.
We ended up visiting for a few hours, filling him in on the goings-on because Finn insisted it was safer for everyone involved.
“You’ll take care of my girl?” Carl asked when we were getting ready to leave, shaking Finn’s hand.
“You can trust me with her,” Finn insisted, making my belly flutter.
“I’ll come visit tomorrow,” I promised, kissing him on the temple.
“You okay?” Finn asked as we walked back down to the elevator.
“Yeah,” I said, exhaling hard.
“Come on,” Finn said, brow raised. “Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not. I’m… okay. It could have been so much worse. I’m just… exhausted,” I admitted. “And hungry.”
“That’s my girl,” he said, beaming down at me.
So then we went home.
And he fed me.
And I fell into a dreamless sleep in his arms, safe in the knowledge that once we got some rest, he was going to move heaven and fucking Earth to find the man who’d attacked me.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Finn
There hadn’t been time for rage when I’d shown up right after the attack.
There’d been too much to do, too much to handle, too many facts to sort out.
And, of course, Lexy to look after.
It wasn’t until she was curled into my body, fed, safe, and content, that it started to creep up on me.
I’d been angry before, pissed that people fucked with my family, with my club. Somehow, though, all of that paled in comparison to the fire that burned through me, igniting the lighter fluid that flowed through my veins, until I could barely think straight, until my fists were curled so tightly that my bones ached.
I slipped out of bed slowly, barely rousing the exhausted Lexy.
I closed the door before reaching for my phone.
It wasn’t more than fifteen minutes later before I saw a series of headlights pulling into my driveway.
I made my way to the door, pulling it open, and letting them in.
Not my brothers.
No.
I’d called in the girls for this one.
Hope, Layna, Violet, Danny, and—because I wanted the big guns around when it came to taking care of Lexy when I couldn’t do it for myself—Ferryn.
If you wanted a bodyguard for someone close to you, you couldn’t do any better than someone with her kill count.
“Is she okay?” Layna asked, coming in with several boxes of pizza, and a reassuring bulge by her hip.
“She’s sleeping. I think it will sink in little by little.”
“She wasn’t hurt, right?” Danny asked.