I flinched at this reminder, and Killian didn’t miss it. Neither did Zane. He squeezed my neck.
He had somehow convinced Mom to leave my side by sending her to go and get me some clothes and then meet us at the Malibu house. Obviously she had Cade and Lucky as bodyguards slash escorts. They had arrived shortly after Mom and Zane.
She hadn’t been happy about leaving. She looked damn near murderous when Zane suggested it, but he had taken her aside, murmuring in her ear while rubbing her belly, and she’d relented.
I refused to leave until we got news on Duke. That meant my boys and Zane refused to leave.
Ditto with Killian.
This hurt. Killed. Having him here, right here, opening up old wounds with a mere gaze. It ripped me apart.
I couldn’t understand why he was here after four years. Here and burning me with a gaze that made it seem like those years hadn’t passed. Like it had only been a second since we were separated instead of a lifetime. And like heartbreak didn’t hang in the air, making the gap between us far bigger than just a few feet. It was a yawning chasm that I’d do anything to cross.
But I had other things to focus on, namely not falling apart and praying to every deity I knew of that Duke would make it through this.
“That is not the conversation we need to be having right now,” Zane said roughly, eyes on Sam. “We need to know what happened tonight. Everything.” His eyes moved to me and his tone softened.
I looked at him for a moment then stood, unable to be stationary anymore. “No, we do not need to talk about that. I need to find out how Duke is. Someone in this godforsaken hospital is going to tell me right now or I swear to God I’ll start breaking kneecaps.”
I resisted the urge to rub my throbbing head; the motion was bound to set the alpha males in the room into overdrive.
Sam cracked the barest hint of a smile at my threat, but there was no humor behind it. Duke was his friend too.
I eyed the door, intent on barging through it and finding myself a doctor who would tell me the fate of my friend. I was scared shitless at the thought of them telling me news I couldn’t stomach. But not knowing was worse. Waiting was worse.
Especially in this stifling room, under his gaze. Being tortured by his presence.
He seemed to read my mind, or my goal, because he stood in front of the door, barring my way.
I froze immediately. My body seemed to have its own survival instinct. Being any closer to him than necessary might kill me, hence my abrupt stop.
He caught this and his face turned blank, but his eyes shimmered. “Lexie,” he began, his husky voice addressing me for the first time. His eyes, his entire body had greeted me far before that, but hearing him say my name, I almost collapsed.
Luckily, the door opened and Killian was forced to move. Unluckily, this meant he was forced to move in my direction. I scuttled back the moment I registered his trajectory. His brows narrowed at this and his jaw hardened even more.
I probably would have considered this had the person entering the room not been a doctor glancing down at a chart.
“Who’s here for Richard Duke?” he asked, glancing up. He didn’t even flinch at the amount of badasses in the room, nor did he give any ounce of recognition over me or the boys. I guessed silver-haired ER doctors probably didn’t listen to rock in their spare time. He looked more like a Bach or Beethoven man.
I rushed forward.
“Tell me he’s okay,” I pleaded. “He’s okay, right?” I resisted the urge to clutch at his white coat.
It was a testament to how desperate I was that in my haste I’d also entered his space. He’d stepped even closer to me as I advanced, at the sound of hysteria in my voice. His heat at my back had my body responding immediately, despite the situation.
Any other moment, this would have gotten to me. Punctured me right to the bone. But not now when I was hoping upon hope that my friend wasn’t dead because of me.
“Mr. Duke had severe puncture wounds to his chest, and his lung collapsed in surgery. He also suffered substantial blood loss,” the doctor began.
And without even noticing it, my body sank back slightly, unable to take my own weight as he spoke. Strong hands came to my hips, steadying me, giving me strength. I was pulled back into a hard chest.
“But we were able to repair the damage and give him a transfusion. He’ll still be classed as critical and the next twenty-four hours will be crucial, but we’re confident he’ll make a full recovery in time.”
I blinked rapidly. “Full recovery?”
The doctor nodded briskly but kindly.
“Can I see him?” I choked out, needing to make sure with my own eyes. Needing to replace the last image I had of a bleeding and pale Duke being rushed into the hospital.
“Yes. I’ll send a nurse in to take you to him. He’ll only be able to have one visitor though, and not for long,” he said. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got other patients.”
And then, like he hadn’t just stilled my rapidly beating heart and stolen my breath from me in a big whoosh of relief, the doctor left.
Guess they dealt in death and life and good news. No biggie.
But it was then I let myself do what I’d been fighting off since the moment the lights turned off in my laundry room. I let go. Physically, mentally, all of it. My knees gave way from under me and I would have fallen to the floor had strong arms not caught me the moment I started to collapse. I didn’t think. Reason—namely my broken heart—didn’t even play a part in me clinging to him, burying my face in his familiar scent and letting those arms circle around me. I just held on for dear life.
“What do we know?” Bull barked.
“At approximately 10:00 p.m., the intruder gained entry through the laundry room. That’s after disabling a complex security system, cutting off the power, and stabbing Duke three times,” Keltan clipped, his face hard, emotionless. Killian knew better than that. One of his own was fighting for his life and someone nearly got killed. It was his security system that got disabled.
“He must have been watching the place, ‘cause he entered through the front door first, neutralized Duke, and then went back outside to enter through the side door of the laundry room where Lexie was. Tried to grab for her, she ran. There was a struggle. She managed to shake him off, lock him out of the house, and make it to Duke. Called 911 and refused to leave him till he got there.” Keltan paused. “Most likely, she’s the reason why he didn’t bleed out on the scene.” His eyes met Bull’s. “Your girl, she’s something else,” he said, obvious respect in his tone.
Bull nodded once. “Know that. Know she’s one of a kind. Which means I’m very fuckin’ eager to find out who tried to hurt her. And then once I find that out, I’ll make sure he doesn’t exist on the same planet as her.”
Keltan nodded his head. “Get that. Also going to pretend I didn’t just hear you planning a murder.”
Bull’s face didn’t change. “Don’t care what you pretend to hear or not. Just need to find him. I can do it without your help.”
Keltan regarded him. “I didn’t say I wasn’t going to help you find him,” he said. “I’ll be doing that. I’d just like plausible deniably on what happens to him after I hand him over to you.”
Bull nodded once.
Keltan stood. “Guy put one of my men in the hospital. Safe to say he’s going to be more than a little banged up if I’m the one to deliver him to you. That a problem?”
Bull shook his head.
Keltan grinned. “Good. Now I’ll get another one of my men on Lexie at all times, won’t leave her side.”
“That won’t be happening,” Killian cut in, breaking his silence since the three of them had entered the deserted chapel in the hospital.
Lexie had been allowed to see Duke and that was the only reason they were in here. Killian hadn’t been allowed to go with her, and that made his hands itch. She was safe in the hospital, he knew tha
t, but he hadn’t been able to shake the feeling of her body clinging to his. Even in her grief she was beautiful. She was the same. Fit perfectly in his arms. He’d hated that she’d fallen apart there, but he’d been fuckin’ elated that he was there to hold her together. Four fuckin’ years and he had her in his arms again. He wanted her there for a lifetime, but she’d jumped out of them the instant a nurse entered the room. Her eyes had shuttered and she’d regarded him with a pain that still hit him square in his chest. Then she was gone and Keltan had arrived, directing them to the chapel in the hospital in order to brief them on what the fuck was going on.
“My guys, they’re good,” Keltan informed him. “The best.”
Killian eyed him. “That why he almost got killed? Almost got Lexie fuckin’ killed? Why she was the one who had to save the man meant to be protecting her?”
Keltan stepped forward and had Killian against the wall before he could blink. Keltan was a big guy, ex-army, taller than him. But Killian reckoned the odds were even if it came to a fight. But he didn’t react. They were in a chapel after all. He’d already done enough to get his entry to the pearly gates denied, but he thought violence in a chapel might damn his soul indefinitely.
Though he’d already damned it the day he’d damaged the most tender heart in the world. One that had been given to him selflessly. One he’d crushed in his hands. No matter what his reasons were, that was a black mark on his soul that would have him descending the seven levels once the reaper took him.
“I’d advise you to shut your mouth, kid, sayin’ that shit about my men,” Keltan bit out, his accent more pronounced when tingled with fury.
“I’ll take your advice on board,” Killian replied. “Still not havin’ them on Lexie.”
“We’re the best in L.A. There’s no one else.”
“There’s me.”
Keltan let him go, stepping back. “You? You’re a MC member, not a bodyguard.”
“I’d die before I let one more centimeter of her body get bruised,” Killian declared. “I’m on her.”
Keltan gave him a long look, one of understanding at his words, at what they meant, at what Lexie meant to him. There was respect in there too. He nodded once. “Get it. Got one like that too.” He paused and glanced at Bull who had been watching the exchange with an impatience like he was waiting in line at the DMV and they’d been taking too long.
“Still put one of my guys on her,” he said.
“She’s not gonna like it,” Bull said finally.
“Doubt it,” Killian replied, straightening his cut.
“Yeah, well, it’s got to happen. This guy’s getting bold. After the letters, lurking at the house, the photo, then this…” Keltan trailed off.
Every molecule of air turned to ice as Keltan spoke.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Bull asked, his voice flat.
Keltan’s eyes flared in surprise. “You don’t know?”
Bull shook his head once, the only bit of his body that moved.
“Shit,” Keltan muttered under his breath. “Strictly not meant to talk about client’s shit, but I’m guessing I won’t be able to leave this room unless I do?”
Killian clenched his fists. “Not in one piece.”
Keltan nodded. “Lexie’s been having problems. Started with letters. First seemed like overzealous fan mail. Then got creepy. Disturbing.”
“She read these?” Bull bit out.
Keltan shook his head. “Assistant did. Then the rest of the band decided not to tell her.”
Fury licked at Killian’s throat.
“Not until she saw the person watching her from her backyard the day of the funeral,” Keltan continued.
Bull’s jaw hardened. “The day of the funeral?”
Keltan nodded. “Yeah, that’s when we got Duke on her. Upped it to around the clock after the photo.”
Killian’s blood turned to ice. “The photo?”
Keltan swallowed. “The one someone left on her Jeep. Of her sleeping.”
There was silence. A long one. Killian worked very fuckin’ hard not to do any damage to the furniture, considering it was God’s house. Though he felt like he could burn this fuckin’ chapel to the ground and not even blink.
He looked to Bull, whose face was blank. “You know about this?”
Bull regarded him. “You think she’d be in any fuckin’ situation like this if I’d known this before?” he said quietly, his eyes haunted.
Killian couldn’t do it. Couldn’t swallow his anger. So he moved, throwing the doors to the chapel open with one destination in mind.
Lexie.
They let me see Duke, only for a short time, and he wasn’t awake or anything. I almost collapsed the moment I stepped into the room. It was deathly silent, apart from the beeping of the various monitors strapped to Duke’s body. Those beeps were so loud in the quiet room, they made my teeth chatter. On autopilot, I stepped toward the edge of the bed, my shaking hand touching his hesitantly.
His strong body took up the entire hospital bed, and I wondered idly if they had to get a special bed for his hulky form. Many bulky body builders, stuntmen, and action stars had lain in beds such as these after hurting themselves.
I made sure he was in the best private room they had, and had Mark insist that I cover all of the bills.
Mark and Jenna had arrived not long after Zane and Mom. Mark had been all over this, making sure the press wasn’t tipped off yet and Jenna was already preparing a statement for the robbery that we were going to say this was.
A robbery gone wrong. But it wasn’t that. Duke wasn’t here because of a robbery. He was here because of me.
He wouldn’t be lying in this bed, a breathing tube down his throat, if it wasn’t for me.
A single tear trailed down my cheek.
“I’m so sorry, Duke,” I whispered, my voice drowned out by the machines.
I closed my eyes and found some semblance of strength, enough not to let any more tears fall, enough to stay upright. I squeezed his hand once more and leaned down to place a gentle kiss on his forehead.
“I’ll be back tomorrow, promise.”
On wooden legs, I walked out of the room.
The boys and Mark were waiting in that little room for me so they could smuggle me out of the hospital. No one had leaked anything to the press just yet, and thanks to my scrubs, I had anonymity. It was only a matter of time though before some orderly, some nurse, heck even a doctor decided to get an extra paycheck and call the tabloids.
Before I knew what was going on, a huge body rounded the corner, advancing on me. I instinctively backed into a wall as Killian stepped into my space, fury pulsing off him.
“There was a fuckin’ photo?” he hissed, his eyes foreign, dangerous.
“Wh-what?” I stuttered, my breath leaving me. His anger wasn’t what did it, though that was unnerving because I’d never seen it directed at me. It was the fact he was there, right there. His face was inches away and his bulky body almost brushed against my smaller one. I’d banished the memory of his body against mine in the waiting room. It would drag me into hell if I thought too much on that.
“The photo!” he roared. I jumped at the increase in his voice; it seemed to shake the walls. “The one that fuckin’ psycho took while you were sleeping. The one we should have known about the moment you saw it.” His chest was moving up and down rapidly and his ice blue eyes were wild.
I found my breath and anger of my own. “That’s none of your business!” I hissed at him.
He went still. “None of my business?”
I nodded rapidly, ignoring the pain at this, both in my head and my heart. “I don’t even know why you’re here. This has nothing to do with you.”
There was a pause. A long one.
“It has everything to do with me!” he roared, his hand impacting on the wall beside me.
I jumped at the barely restrained violence.
I didn’t recognize it. Didn’t recognize the person in front of me. That made my own anger increase tenfold. This wasn’t the Killian I knew and loved. He was gone and this stranger was trying to act like he had some right to be here.
Before we could yell at each other once more, Killian was ripped away from me.
“Get away from her.” Sam pushed him, hard, but he hardly moved. Both boys were like bulls, sizing each other up, ready to charge.
Noah stepped between them while Wyatt brought me into his arms.
“Not the place,” Noah bit out, his eyes going to the spectators who had already gathered.
Breathing heavily, Sam looked around. Some fury left his eyes. He pointed to Killian. “Stay the fuck away from her.”
Killian’s stare was glacial. “Not gonna happen.” With that promise of doom, he gave me one last look and turned on his heel and left.
I awoke in darkness. I didn’t remember going to sleep but I could remember the last thing that happened in total darkness, images of wait lurked in darkness hurtled into my groggy mind. I sat up abruptly and barely restrained my scream. My heart beat out of my chest.
“Lexie?” a deep voice asked from the corner, and all I could see was a shadow.
This time, I couldn’t restrain my scream. I let it out and then strangled it when reason and light illuminated the owner of the voice. I should have recognized it, considering I’d been living with him for four years, but I thought I deserved a pass given the state of my frayed nerves.
Noah rushed forward, his arms up, his face a mask of concern. “Whoa, babe. It’s just me. You’re safe. Promise.” He approached the side of the bed and sat down slowly, gaging my panic.
I blinked at him, trying to let my heart rate return to normal.
He reached out and squeezed my hand. “I didn’t want you to wake up alone. Are you okay?”
Before I could answer and lie and say I was okay, hoping to quell some of that concern on my best friend’s attractive face, the door crashed open.
Cue another girly and embarrassing scream from me and Noah launched across the bed, putting himself between me and the gun-wielding intruder.