Page 158 of Savage Reign

I was about to say something, but the shadows in his eyes stopped me. I didn’t know what the darkness was, but Killian must have known, because he said, “She’s okay, Silas.”

Was he talking about earlier? The run-in with Sebastian?

Silas confirmed it by saying, “Do you know what it did to me to see Sebastian’s hands on her?”

“I can imagine,” he said darkly.

Silas clenched his fists. “Fuck, but we could have lost her, and there was fuck all I could have done.”

I bit my bottom lip, wanting to reach out to Silas to soothe the heartache in his voice. I knew things were bad back at the garage, but they must have been worse from Silas’s point of view.

Killian grasped Silas’s shoulder. “The important thing is that we didn’t. She’s here with us.”

They both turned and looked at me.

“But she fucking disobeyed me when I told her to run,” Silas said grimly, making me shiver. “How can I trust her to do as I say in the face of danger?”

“If you think I would ever leave, then you don’t know me at all. I would never leave you,” I said vehemently.

Torment moved through his eyes. He didn’t seem as if he knew what to do with me.

I sat up and reached for him, hugging him.

“I’m okay,” I said softly.

He closed his eyes. When he opened them, I was hit with the weight of emotion.

“If something happened to you…” Silas trailed off.

I cupped his cheek. “Nothing happened to me. I’m okay.”

“Fuck, I can’t live without you,” he said, his voice heavy. “I refuse to live without you.”

“I’m okay,” I assured him.

“You’re more than okay. I’m going to make sure Sebastian won’t even get within ten feet of you.”

That was silly. Life was unpredictable at best, and Silas could try to protect me, but I doubted he could plan for everything. But I didn’t tell him that. I thought he just needed me to agree with him, so I nodded.

Silas buried his face in my neck and held me tightly. Killian had been quiet throughout this exchange. I didn’t need to read his mind to know he was feeling the same way Silas was.

I knew they loved me; I just hadn’t realized how much until I could see the clear torment in their faces. Even Maverick had looked like this back in the office, when he had always been so good at masking his thoughts and emotions.

I held out my hand to Killian. He took it, holding it carefully, as if it were a baby bird in his hand.

“Nothing can happen to you,” Silas said thickly, leaning away from me. He wasn’t crying, but I thought this was probably as close as he got to it.

I didn’t have the heart to tell him that wasn’t something we could control.

So I nodded and kissed his cheek. “Nothing will happen to me.”

“Good,” Killian said, his grip on my hand tightening a little until he realized what he was doing and loosened his hold. “We won’t let it.”

I squeezed his hand. “I know.”

And I hoped it would be true. For all of us—Maverick, Silas, Killian, me, and our baby—to be safe.

Safe and happy.

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