Page 56 of Sniper

None of them had said it yet but I knew they were all thinking it. This was my fault, plain and simple. If I hadn’t run or if I hadn’t showed up here at all, Falcon and Sniper would be fine.

Gio’s shadow loomed over me, but I didn’t look up. He handed me the medical bag they kept at the clubhouse, “Here.”

“Thank you.” I accepted the bag and opened it up, putting all of my focus on the steps I needed to take because it was easier than focusing on anything else.Stop the bleeding.Clean the wound and find any debris.I went through each step methodically, mostly shutting out the conversations that went on around me.Rinse and disinfect. There wasn’t any debris, but I wanted to make sure to get the dirt and grime from the parking lot out of the wound.

“This is exactly why you don’t go off on your own.”

“It’s just a graze,” he said, the uptick in his voice said he was smiling. “My woman saved me.”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as I finished disinfecting the wound and preparing my own suturing station. It didn’t take long, but while I laid out everything I ran through what he’d just said.My woman, he didn’t mean it, he was still riding that adrenaline high from a life or death situation. I stared at the wound, watching it get smaller with every stitch until it was just a thin red line across his arm. “You’re all good.” I said after I put on a bandage and stepped back.

“Katey.”

I looked up and our gazes collided in that moment. It was long and tense and filled with unmet potential. “I’ll, uh, write out the instructions for aftercare,” I stammered and turned away, taking the familiar route to my room.Formerroom.

A massive figure stepped in front of me, hefty black motorcycle boots filled up my field of vision. I looked up and then up a little bit more until I put a face to the boots. Diesel. His expression was implacable, but I detected anger and frustration, possibly a deep desire to see the back of me. “Katey wait.”

I held up my hands because I knew what this was about. I expected this conversation the minute Sniper said he wanted to bring me back here. I wasn’t wanted here. “Don’t worry, I’m not planning to stay long. I wasn’t going to come back here at all but then, well you know what. Anyway I need to get cleaned up and then I’ll be on my way.”

“Stop.” His voice was deep and ferociously firm. “You don’t have to go anywhere,” he said and gripped both of my shoulders with his oversized hands.

“I do,” I insisted.

“You don’t. You saved two of my men and in my book that makes you family, whether you like it or not, and we protect family at all costs.”

Tears stung my eyes, and I shook my head. “I’m not. I mean thank you for that, but it’s not true. I’ve brought nothing but trouble and danger since I got here.”

His lips tugged up to one side. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed but our existence is pretty much trouble and danger. It’s our comfort zone.”

I gave a weak smile. “Still.”

“I’m serious.” He took another step forward and wrapped his arms around me, squeezing tight.

Don’t cry,I warned myself as the first tear fell. And then the second and the third until a waterfall unlocked and washed down my face. A sob escaped as more bodies surrounded me and wrapped me in warmth and affection. Gratitude.

Sobs shook my body but these men, so big and strong, they held me tight. They were my strength and, in that embrace, I felt something that felt a hell of a lot like home.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Sniper

Katey was still here at the clubhouse. For now. I wasn’t crazy enough to think that she was here because of me or because she wanted to be, but there was still so much we had to say to each other and as long as she was here there was time. For the past forty-eight hours she’d been quiet and withdrawn, pale as she stayed in bed curled into a ball.

Today she looked better. The color had returned to her skin, and she’d taken a shower, her short hair glossy and slicked back to show off her high cheekbones, the delicate slope of her nose and highlighting her lush, plump lips. It was now or it was never. “Hey Katey. How are you feelin’?”

“I’m fine. How’s the arm?”

“It’s fine.” Every time she looked at me there was guilt in those blue depths that I hated to see. “Stop blaming yourself.”

She shrugged. “How can I not when it’s my fault? He came looking for me and found you instead. If I had pulled my gun faster, you wouldn’t have been shot.”

“I would have been dead if you hadn’t pulled your gun Katey, I hope like hell you realize that.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “We’d both be dead if not for you.”

She shook her head, her gaze aimed at the floor. “If I would have just come down when you asked, he wouldn’t have snuck up on you.”

“Stop it, Katey. You saved me and more importantly you saved yourself. Got it?” I hated that she continued to blame herself for this when she was a goddamn hero.

I watched as she opened her mouth and then thought better of it before she found an acceptable response. “Yeah, I got it. I saved you.”

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