Page 69 of Beneath the Midnight Sky
He’d made me a comfy bed of blankets and had me set up on the couch. Kissing my forehead, he smirked. “You should have guests over at any moment, angel.”
I arched a brow at him. “Who?”
He shrugged. “Girls’ night, apparently. I have a few things to take care of before I’ll be back home to curl up with you.”
I put up a fake, exaggerated pout, and he laughed, but just then, Ivy came walking in through the front door. She saw me, dropped her bag on the floor, and ran toward me, wrapping her arms around my neck in a tight hug. “Don’t you ever do some dumb shit like that to me again! I can’t lose you, bitch!” she whisper-yelled into my neck.
“Ivy! She’s breakable. Be gentle,” Rowan commanded from the kitchen. She let out a small squeak and lessened the pressure around my body, but she didn’t move. When she pulled away, she had tears in her eyes as she looked me over.
“Well, your bruises have improved, so that’s good! I came to sit with you as soon as I was able to. I hung out with Hudson until Abby could come over with him, and then I came right in. But of course, I had to work, which is stupid. I called out for you, of course. Lucas wasn’t mad. He said to take your time; your shifts are still there.” She squeezed my hand and sniffled again. “Fuck, I missed you so much. That was the longest we’ve gone without each other since the day we met, did you know? I did,” she said, her tone hurried and full of anxiety.
“Ivy?” I questioned. She stopped talking and stared at me. “Please breathe. I’m okay. Promise.”
She wiped her eyes with her free hand quickly. “When I got there, you woke up and looked at me crying because you said you thought I wouldn’t care that you were gone, Aspen.” Then we were both crying. “The nurses told me not to take it seriously, you were hopped up on painkillers, but I know you. I know the thought crossed your mind, or you wouldn’t have said it, Aspen. I willneverleave you. Ever. You’re my best friend.”
I wrapped my arms tightly around her, ignoring the pain in my side. I genuinely couldn’t believe I ever thought for even a moment these two would just move on with their lives and forget about me.
“I’m an idiot,” I whispered to her.
I felt her nod, and I smiled. “Yes, you are,” she replied.
By the time we calmed down, Payton arrived with three pizzas in hand and a stack of rom-com DVDs for us to watch. Rowan gave me a kiss before he reminded the other two to keep an eye on me.
“Yeah, Ro, because I, the one with the nursing degree, need the reminder. Thanks, bro,” Payton grumbled.
Ivy and I laughed as Rowan rolled his eyes and walked out. Once he was gone, Ivy leaned up, pausing the movie.
“Did you ask how he knew where you were?” she whispered.
Payton went wide-eyed and stared at me. “Did you?”
I shook my head. I had thought about it once I’d woken up. I didn’t have my phone, and Sam didn’t have one. They hadn’t seen the truck we were in, so logically, he shouldn’t have had any idea.
“I bet he implanted you with some microscopic tracker. I read about a guy who did that once in one of my books. It was hot as hell,” Ivy said, smiling.
Payton and I just stared at her, and while Payton started cackling, I just thought back to the pain in my butt cheek after I’d moved in and started wondering if he would’ve…nope. Not going there. I didn’t even care, honestly. My cowboy had rescued me, and sometimes I was fine being ignorant to shit like that. This was one of those moments.
I leaned up, deciding not to say a word, and pressed play on our movie again.
“Oh my God, my brother is fucking nuts. Great,” Payton muttered with a laugh.
“I still want my own Carragan brother,” Ivy said nonchalantly.
“None of them would be good enough for you, Ivy,” Payton said. “Although maybe…no, he said no more matchmaking.” She sighed and grabbed another piece of pizza.
I chuckled and grabbed myself another slice, just happy to finally have girlfriends in my corner.
34
A THOROUGH STALKER
Rowan
I walkedinto my family barn and looked up at the current subject of our brotherly group chat. We’d been calling him a runt that we may have to put down soon. It wasn’t clever, but we did run a ranch, and we had animals that would get sick. It wasn’t unheard of.
After Aspen got a solid bullet in, Oliver had bandaged his leg up and thrown him in the bed of the truck. Once he’d survived the trip back to the ranch, Theo was able to use some halfway decent military first-aid on him, and here he was—hanging out. I chuckled at my own joke as I watched him sway back and forth.
My brothers were letting him down every couple of hours to eat and drink water. Just enough to keep him alive forthismoment, and then he went back up in chains. I didn’t want him to be comfortable. I wanted him to suffer, so suffer he did.
