Page 80 of Graveyards & Greed

“I know. Believe me, I know, okay? But did I die? No.”

“You should be praising her for how gutsy and smart she is,” Luna chided them. “There was one of her, four of them, and her hands were duct taped. Yet she managed to get away. Give her some credit.”

Fenn held up his hands, then came over to kiss my forehead. “You were pretty fucking amazing. Now, quit putting yourself in danger.”

Kilian patted my uninjured arm before they left. “She’s right, and we love you. Get some rest.”

Alexa walked in as the cousins filed out. “I’m taking off, but I need my keys first.”

I stared at her, not understanding. “Your keys?”

“Yeah. I shoved them in your back pocket when you were unlocking Drakos’s garage door. They have a tracker on them.”

My eyebrows went up, and I reached around to retrieve the small keyring, and stared at it in awe as tears filled my eyes. “Thanks, Lex. I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you when you told me to stop.”

Drakos growled low in his throat, but I ignored him.

Alexa took them and patted my thigh. “It’s okay. You’re alive.”

I sighed tiredly as Gia continued to stitch my shoulder. Alexa paused as if gathering her nerve, then blurted out, “I’m so glad we found you in time because I love you and Luna like sisters, and thank you for being my family.”

Luna sucked in a breath behind her. “We love you too, Alexa.”

I opened my arms to both of them, even though my shoulder twinged. “Love you too.” Alexa’s left eye twitched, but I raised my eyebrows and curled my fingers a few times in a “come here” gesture. Neither she nor Luna were completely comfortable with hugs or physical affection, but we came in for an awkward group hug.

When they took off, Gia finished up while Drakos silently watched me with his arms crossed on the other side of the bed. He made me nervous and twitchy, so I focused on her.

Gia resembled Xander, with her beautiful bone structure and quiet, dark blue eyes. “You’re lucky you didn’t get hit in the neck or subclavian artery,” she murmured, indicating those two areas. Drakos’s eyes narrowed even further.

I hadn’t known Xander had a sister until Luna told me Gia was the one who had figured out what was going on inside Bitter Creek Ranch Academy all those years ago. She finished up, patted my arm, and went to clean up.

I finally gazed up at Drakos and sighed. “I know. I’m a bleeding-heart idiot, I could have been killed, and it was stupid to go outside.” He raised his eyebrow at me. “Fine,” I drawled out. “Until this thing gets settled, I won’t go anywhere alone again, and I’ll be nicer to Milo.”

“You scared the absolute, ever-living shit right out of me. Nevereverdo that again,” he growled softly.

Alexa told me before she left that they’d tracked me to Henderson, and Drakos was just getting off on the Green Valley Parkway exit when the call came into dispatch about a wreck involving a black Escalade SUV on fire in a neighborhood close by. The SUV hadn’t actually been on fire, but Drakos hadn’t known that.

“You look like a steam kettle ready to explode. It’s not healthy for you to keep it inside like this. Come on, let me have it.”

He shook his head and finally came toward me, sitting on the bed. “You can't save them all, and since you don’t seem to give a fuck about your own safety, I’ll do it for you. If I had my way, we’d be getting married tomorrow, and you’d start wearing a tracking device just like Luna does. If you take one goddamnedstepoutside without me, one of your cousins, or a bodyguard glued to your fucking side before we find and neutralize Terrance, I will heat up your sweet little ass until you can’t sit for a week.”

He breathed in and out like a mad bull by the time he finished his little speech. I stared up at him, fascinated by the bulging vein in his neck and his flaring nostrils.

I reached up and laid my palm against his cheek. “Do you feel better?”

“No,” he snapped.

“You were worried about me.”

He leaned forward and laid his forehead on mine. “You’re a fucking genius, and you can obviously take care of yourself. But no, Sylvie, I wasn’t ‘worried’ about you. I was fucking terrified. Those men planned to rape, torture, and kill you. Terrance is a one percenter, and he doesn’t give one shit about the law. In his eyes, you killed his only son, and you’re a woman. The man is also a misogynistic psychopath. Now, are you going to work with me, or do I need to sedate you like Roman did to Luna?”

I smiled lazily as warm, happy bubbles fizzed in my chest. The man wouldn’t be this angry and grumpy if he didn’t love me—or something close to it. The sad knot that had wrapped around my heart since he proposed loosened a little in my chest. “You’re welcome totry, fancy fuck boy.”

“God, I detest that nickname.” He bent down and ran his lips along my hairline.

Sighing loudly, I slumped. “I’ll think about it.”

The glare slid off his face, and a slow, naughty grin spread across his lips. Gawddamn, the man was beautiful. He looked just like Satan tempting Eve in the Garden of Eden. Even with all my injuries, I melted as he slid his fingers into my hair and pulled my lips to his. A soft whimper escaped me, both from my sore scalp and the lust swamping my system.

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