Page 34 of Thunder

One second, she had been on the verge of coming, the next, she was standing on shaky legs between Thunder’s bike and the wall with her underwear askew.

“Stay here and stay down,” Thunder ordered, and not in the sexy way.

Andy was clueless about what the hell was going on, but she nodded. Thunder reached into the saddlebag and grabbed what looked like a long-ass handgun and was stalking along the side of the building before she even blinked. She squatted down because that was all she could think to do.

That’s when she saw it, a silhouette sneaking down the alley. Thunder was keeping to the shadows of the building and gaining on the unknown figure.

A movement inside one of the garage bays caught her attention. It was moving toward the inside of the wall about where Thunder crept on the outside.

The door by Thunder burst open, knocking him to the ground. She heard two pops followed by a female moan and a male grunt. Andrea watched as the other shadow, the person who had been inside the garage, limped off down the alley.

Andy was frozen in place. The intruders were gone, but she still didn’t move. Thunder was lying in the same place moaning and cursing but not getting up. She was processing what happened when another sound from Thunder spurred her into gear.

Andy kicked off her heels and sprinted down the alleyway to where Thunder lay. The gravel digging into her feet didn’t slow her down. Something told her to keep moving. When she got to his side, she dropped to her knees. The gravel bit into the tender flesh. It wasn’t the sharp edges that she noted, no; it was that the gravel was warm and sticky. . .wet.

“Thunder, what’s wrong? What happened?” She touched his arms and chest. Searching. His torso was bare except his cut. Her hands came back warm and sticky, and wet like the gravel. “Oh my God, you’re bleeding. Where are you bleeding from? How? Why? Who were those people? Thunder—”

“Babe?” His voice was weak and laced with pain. His fingers brushed her cheek. “Breathe. Calm down. It’s going to be fine. Focus.”

Thunder was hurt, but he was the one soothing her because she was freaking the fuck out. One shitty night aside, this was a good man lying on the ground bleeding. Andy reached deep to the place she used to suppress shit. Found that wall and locked it down.

A few deep breaths later, she was calm and could think clearly. It was the place she used when getting into the headspace to fight. Even for training, everything goes and only focus stays. “Okay, Thunder, what do you need me to do?”

“Damn, that’s sexy,” he growled. “The way you can do that. If I didn’t have a fucking hole in me—”

“Now it’s you who needs to focus.”

A pain-filled groan followed his chuckle. “Touche.”

She gripped one of his hands in both of hers and dropped a kiss on his forehead. “Now that we’re both focused, what do I need to do? Should I call an ambulance?” Her rapidly fired questions had ceased and now she was calm and methodical. Andy felt she’d entered the correct headspace to deal with whatever was going on. Oh, she would break down and lose her shit at lightning speed later. But for now, she was in total control.

“First, I need you to ditch the condom and zip me up. I do not want my brothers showing up to that.” Without laughing, even though Thunder was half-joking, Andy did what needed done.

“Now, grab my phone from my inside pocket.” He nodded toward his denim vest. “Call—” His words were cut off by his phone ringing as she reached for it. A quick slide and it was on speaker.

“Speak of the devil. I was just about to call you. Break-in at the garage. Two fuckers with guns. I—”

“Yeah, I know, brother. Watched it go down on Whiskey’s security app. How bad are you?”

“I’ll live, but it’s bleeding like crazy, fast enough, I’m about to take a nap.”

“Have your ol’ lady put pressure on it, we’re about five minutes out. Stay awake, that’s an order.”

Granite ended the call, and Andy placed the phone on the ground. Without even thinking, she ripped the tee-shirt over her head. She had it wadded up and pressed against his wound before he could protest.

“Damn it, that hurts. Fuck. Not as bad as you kneeling there naked knowing my brothers are on the way.”

Andy rolled her eyes so hard, she damn near saw her gray matter. “Get over it, you neanderthal. They’ve already seen me like this. . .twice. You’re bleeding to death trumps my tits being out.”

Thunder was slurring his words and sounding weaker. “Nothing trumps your tits, babe.” He reached for her, but before he could make contact, his arm fell back to his side.

“Thunder? Thunder? Wake up. You need to wake up. If I have to take pressure off this wound to smack you around, I will.” A strained laugh escaped her mouth. A moment of panic that’d crept back in, but she evicted it. “Thunder! I fucking mean it.” She allowed her anger to speak and his eyes fluttered back open.

“There’s something we need to talk about, Andy.” She could barely understand his words, but she heard him call her Andy for the first time. Not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

“Look,sir. You can let me be in charge without questioning your masculinity.” She was back to trying to lighten the mood because she was freaking out again. He was losing a lot of blood. Andy had no medical training, but she was fairly sure the wound itself wasn’t fatal, but bleeding could be.

“Not that, babe. That’s sexy as fuck. Remind me so we can explore that later, but I need to explain—”

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