Page 76 of Bourbon & Blood

She pushed away from me and sat up. I let her go, dropping my hand back down to the bed and considering her.

“I… I had the worst dream,” she murmured. “About you… I mean, aboutus,” she said, and she looked at her lap. I reached out and took her hand and gave it a little squeeze. Her eyes flickered back up to mine.

“Sure it was a dream?” I asked, and she looked a little sad then.

“If I ask you a question, you promise to tell the truth?” she asked.

“Silence is better ‘n bullshit,” I told her, but I knew she knew that about me. She was smart though. I knew she’d catch my drift. The grim set of her lips in a thin line told me that she knew I knew what she might be askin’ about any second now.

“Did you… did you hurt someone the night you brought me home? The night Maya disappeared.”

I remained silent rather than feed her a line of bullshit.

She let out a shuddering breath and muttered, “I thought so.”

I raised my chin just a little, and she said, “The only time I ever faint is at the sight of blood and my dreams…” She sniffed and looked at the sun coming in around her window blinds as though it would burn the memories away that’d haunted her sleep.

“Felt like memories,” I finished for her and she looked back at me.

“Yeah,” she said.

“What ‘cha feelin’, cher?” I asked softly.

She swallowed hard. “Grateful,” she said finally after a long pause. “Grateful that you were there,” she finished.

I nodded slowly and reached out, reassured when she didn’t flinch from my touch as I gripped her shoulder, swiping a thumb over her so-soft skin.

“He touched what was mine, baby,” I said. “I can’t have that. Nobody touches you with ill intentever, you get me?”

She swallowed hard and said, “You protected me.”

“It’s my responsibility to protect what’s mine,” I said.

“I don’t think I fully understand,” she murmured, and I nodded slowly.

“I think you’re startin’ to, yeah?” I asked.

She nodded, and I couldn’t help but smile.

“Few things in this life aremine,” I said, emphasizing the word. “My bike, my club, and now you.”

“You don’t count your house?” she asked curiously.

“A house is just a thing,” I said. “It burns down, or sinks, I just build another one.You, on the other hand…youare my everything. Worth dying for, worth fighting for, worth killing for. You understand?”

Her eyes were so very wide and glassy, and those twin tears dropped down her cheeks, glittering in the light coming stronger around her blinds and draperies.

“I… I don’t know what to say,” she said.

“You ain’t gotta say a thing, baby girl. Just know that’s what you signed up for. Not just the sex, not just to find your friend. There’s a lot of bad parts to this life, sure… but there’s some good parts too, and—”

I didn’t get to finish. She threw herself at me and kissed me something fierce.

“I don’t know how to feel, knowing, I mean,remembering… having seen it with my own eyes. I just don’t.”

“Take all the time you need, huh?” I smoothed a thumb through the wet track left behind and said, “Just don’t dwell on it too hard, and know that I’ve got you.”

She nestled her way into my arms and pulling her long red hair behind her ears, laid one of her cute little ears against my chest.

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