Page 89 of Rocky Top

That’s when the asshole came into view. “Thanks, I get for savin’ your sorry ass?”

“You just wanted to getyour dick wet.”

Birdie looked at me hard.

“Your brother and I got to you just in time. You were on the ground, leakin’ all over the place.”

Villain laughed like a loon. “He wouldn’t have died.”

Birdie ignored him.

“Who were those men?” Villain asked.

I sat up, wincin’. “Rival club. Ashhowl MC. Necromancer-backed. And Flint. Traitor. Little shit sold us out.”

Villain’s face hardened. “Knox is already on it.”

I stared at her, at the fire in her eyes. At the way she didn’t flinch at the blood or the violence.

She moved to sit beside me on the couch, close but not too close. “Are you gonna be okay?”

“Eventually.” I reached for her hand, and this time, she didn’t pull away.

“Birdie,” I said, voice low, raw. “There’s things I still gotta tell you.”

She looked at me, unreadable. “Then tell me. But don’t lie. Don’t sugarcoat.”

That’s when Bearcat and Loretta busted in making a fuss. They were haulin’ me back to a bed, so Loretta could stitch me up arguing about how deep my wounds were. Apparently too deep for my old blood to heal.

Birdie held my gazea moment longer, then leaned in and kissed my forehead. “I’m not goin’ anywhere.”

And I knew then.

The woman would burn the world down for me.

Chapter 23

Birdie

I’d never seen so much blood in my life.

It dried tacky on my hands, crusted beneath my nails, even though I’d scrubbed myself raw in the old farm house sink. Didn’t matter. The scent of it stuck to me, thick and metallic, clinging to my skin like shame.

Rocky almost died.

He bled out in my lap like something out of a damn nightmare. And the scariest part? He looked calm about it. Like some part of him knew he’d survive, or maybe didn’t care if he didn’t.

But I did.

I cared so damn much, it terrified me.

He was out cold now, resting in his room at the old farmhouse while Loretta patched him up. I’d hovered like a damn mother hen until Villain finally shooed me away with one of his scowls.

I paced the hall outside Rocky’s door like a wind-up toy, heart thumping like it wanted to beat straight outta my chest. My nerves were fried, my stomach a knot of guilt, fear, and something else I couldn’t quite name. Somethingelectric. Something wild.

The memory of Rocky’s eyes, half-lidded, bleeding, but locked on me like I was the only thing holdin’ him to this world, kept playing on loop in my mind.

He almost died.

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