Page 116 of Smith

“Just take me home.”

Smith scooped me up. Try as I might, I couldn’t stop the whimper.

“Fuck, baby.”

“Just…” I breathed through the pain. “Take me home, Sailor.”

This time when the darkness tried to pull me under I didn’t fight it. I knew I was exactly where I belonged, safe in Smith’s arms.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

“How is she?” Ivy asked as soon as I answered her call.

I looked at the closed bedroom door. I didn’t need to lay eyes on the woman lying in the bed to see her injuries. They were branded on my soul. There was no hole deep enough, no box tight enough, no lock strong enough to bury the memory of hearing the gunshots, of running into the house and finding Billy on top of Aria. Before we’d entered the house my target was Aria, my only objective was getting her out of the house, my brothers would take down Billy. But hearing what I’d heard, seeing what I’d saw, I lost my mind and went after Billy thinking he’d shot Aria. Cash had taken my place and got Aria clear. It wasn’t until Jonas pulled me off Billy did it register I was beating a corpse. I wasn’t until I saw Aria sitting in the back of the Escalade did it hit me she was alive. And when it hit, the sight took me to my knees.

All of that burned into my brain. Aria whimpering in pain as the doctor Zane sent to the house treated Aria’s injuries—now that was tattooed on my soul. Only one other time in my life had I felt so helpless. And we all knew how that ended. But it would not end that way for Aria.

“She only woke up once last night,” I told Ivy. “She took a pain pill and I replaced the lidocaine patch. It took a while but she went back to sleep.”

“And you? Did you get some sleep?”

Fuck no.

In the last forty-eight hours since Aria had been home, I hadn’t slept. Couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t even close my eyes without seeing the blood smears in Aria’s house.

“Sure.”

“You’re lying, Smith. I can come over and sit with her so you can catch a nap.”

That wasn’t going to happen. Not Ivy coming over—she and Kira had already been to the house. And would likely show up again today.

“Her dad’s here,” I reminded Ivy.

Captain Taylor.

The man had barged into my house with Zane in tow, tossed his pack on my couch, and without saying a single word to me, helped himself to my bedroom where Aria was resting.

I gave them privacy. That lasted fifteen minutes before my need to be close to my woman had overridden my respect for a father who was out of his mind with worry. I couldn’t say Captain Taylor appreciated my interruption. It was a rocky start, but Aria smoothed the way when she visibly relaxed when I entered the room. Her dad didn’t miss her reaction, neither did he miss we were obviously together.

Surprisingly, he’d waited until this morning to give me the third degree. I’d never had a father look me over before. I gave it to him straight, didn’t leave out a single detail, knowing I was giving him everything he needed to find me lacking. We both knew I’d never be enough for his girl. But by the end of the conversation I’d made it crystal clear—good enough or not, I wasn’t going anywhere.

Aria was mine.

There was no fight he could wage that was harder to win than the one in my head.

“Oh, I haven’t forgotten Captain Silver Fox is staying with you.”

Captain Silver Fox?

What the fuck?

“I wouldn’t let your husband hear you say that.”

“Listen, Smith, I need to tell you something.”

I didn’t like the sound of that, nor did I like her unsure tone.

“Whatever it is can wait.”

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