Page 16 of The Chief
That same muscle bunched again as his dark gaze slid to me. Returning his attention to Fallon, he cupped her face gently between his huge palms and brought her face to his. Their kiss lingered—more for my benefit than hers—but I got the message.
He was pissing on the hydrant.
“You have two minutes to assess, then come out and tell me. Got it?” he told her, pressing their foreheads together.
I wouldn’t have said that love had softened our Reaper. He was just as dangerous as before, but he was more protective ofher and craved her eyes on him. I wondered whether I would ever find a woman as good as Fallon. A woman who could love me despite my flaws and violence, like she loved Orin.
“Come on,” I muttered to Fallon, unlocking the door and ushering her inside. Before I could slip in myself, Orin gripped my arm.
“Watch yourself, Chief.”
I shot him one of my devil-may-care smiles and followed his woman inside. After I shut and locked the door, I turned to find Fallon already kneeling beside Molly.
“What the hell happened, Keir?” she demanded, her tone nowhere near as gentle as it had been with Orin only moments ago. “Why is Molly here?”
Running a hand through my hair, I blew out a breath. “It’s a long story.”
Fallon continued to look Molly over. “She doesn’t appear to have any serious injuries. Some contusions around her neck…” She glared at me. “Did you do this?” She motioned to Molly’s throat, and my fists clenched. I wanted to kill Grady all over again.
“No. Someone else did that.”
Fallon knew enough about how the clan worked to know thatsomeone elsewas probably not breathing anymore.
After a beat of stunned silence, she nodded. “Okay. It looks like she is just unconscious. There’s not much I can do now.” She rose to her feet and moved to push the jacket from my shoulders.
I stopped her but refrained from touching her. “Woah, what are you doing, lass?”
She served me with a flat stare. “You’re bleeding.” She said the words slowly, like I was an eejit. “I need to look at it before you die of exsanguination.”
Orin hammered on the door. “Fallon,” he barked.
With a roll of her eyes and a sigh, she cracked open the door to speak with her man. “He has a girl in here. It looks like she was attacked. She’s unconscious, but will be fine.”
“Who? Who’s the girl?” he demanded.
“Don’t tell him,” I barked out.
Fallon sighed again, stuck between my rank and Orin’s. “She’s someone from my world,” she said. “Now I know she’s okay, I’m going to patch up Keir.”
“Patch him up out here.”
“In the strip club? Where there are customers and girls walking around?” She posed her question firmly. Stitching me up in private was the far better option, Orin had to see that.
After a beat, he replied darkly, “Fine. But you need to check in with me every couple of minutes.”
She let out a sigh. “If I didn’t love you so much, I’d find this overbearing guard routine tiresome.”
“It’s a good thing you love me then,” he murmured. “You should know as soon as we’re done here, I’ll be taking you home, tying you up, and fucking you to multiple orgasms.”
She moved closer, shifting onto her toes to kiss him. “No complaints here.” After one final kiss, she stepped back and shut the door. Then to me, she said, “Jacket off. Are you bleeding anywhere else?”
I grinned as I said, “Got stabbed in the thigh, too.”
Fallon rolled her eyes at me. “Why do you like pushing Orin’s buttons so much?”
“Because I can,” I replied. “Plus, I outrank him. He may have gotten you, but at least I have that.”
Her expression sobered. “Keir, I?—”
