“You scared me so much, Angel,” he admits.
“I know, I’m sorry,” I rasp, my voice breaking off into a cough, which racks my body and sends agony sparking through me, making me cry out. I can feel their anger at being unable to help, their sadness at my pain.
I open my watering eyes and blink it away as I relax into the bed, while the others bustle around. Blake returns and hands me a warm drink. I wrap my hands around it and blow, watching them as they strip. The usual desire is now just a spark of flames, overshadowed by everything else.
Leo climbs onto the bed and lies down on my left. He reaches out as if to embrace me before he winces. I offer him my hand, and he takes it with a small smile, kissing my knuckles. “You’re okay now, beautiful. He will never get you again…”
“Thank fuck,” Liam murmurs.
“And you will never do something so reckless again,” Blake admonishes. I’m surprised he even agreed to my plan to be honest, though I think none of us expected it to go that far.
I almost died.
“Agreed,” Kingston rumbles as he settles on my right side and presses his arm along mine as I cup the warm mug. They surround me with their love and strength, just being here with me. Blake drags a chair to the end of the bed and sits on it, his legs pressed to the mattress, and just watches me with those dark eyes. I can’t look away from his gaze.
“Drink,” he orders before he softly murmurs, “Please, Baby Girl. You heard what the doctor said.”
“Yeah, that she talks too much and needs to rest her voice,” Liam teases, making me smile as I take a sip of the fruity tea. It’s lukewarm and slides down my sore throat, almost coating it and relieving the ache.
I drink as much as I can before I hand the cup to Kingston, who puts it on the floor, and then I settle back and close my tired eyes. I must fall asleep almost instantly, the pain medication making me drowsy.
I wake suddenly with my heart racing, my hands sweaty, and a cry trapped in my damaged throat.
My eyes flutter open and search the dark room as fear surges through me. I feel hands on my body, and just when I’m about to break into a full-blown panic, I see him.
Blake.
My rock.
He’s still sitting in the chair, watching me, guarding me, like he knew I was going to need him. There’s a small lamp near him, and he turns it on so I can see without disturbing the others, letting me be sure the st—Oliver isn’t here. His dark eyes stay on mine, reminding me of the night after I was attacked at the club and they all slept around me. He watched me from a chair then, wanting to be sure I was okay. Blaming himself.
“You okay?” he asks, repeating the same words he did back then.
I nod, not trusting my voice, and he frowns as he searches my face. “Bad dreams?” he queries softly as Liam snores louder. I nod once again. “Baby Girl…are you okay?” he murmurs.
Kingston blows soft air across my arm as he sleeps. Leo’s lips are still pressed against my hand, even though he’s out. Damon is curled near my feet with his arm across my legs. His head is turned this way, and his hair is falling across his eyes. All my men are here. I look around at them all, and love explodes in my chest, replacing the fear.
“I am,” I whisper, my voice cracking and hoarse, but it’s true.
Oliver is gone, and I have everything I could ever need in this room and the one next door. He smiles, his lips tipping up like he knows my thoughts, and stands. Careful not to disturb the others, Blake climbs onto the bed. When he reaches me, he kisses me softly. “I love you so much, Gabrielle Menro. He’s gone, and we have the rest of our lives ahead of us. Look at us.” He pulls away to let me do just that. “Look at the family you have, the love, the laughter…the future. We have it all, baby, thanks to you. Today is a dark day, but tomorrow will be better, and then the day after that…and the one after that, until you forget the feel of his touch. Until the dark doesn’t seem as scary because we are by your side.”
Tears fill my eyes again, and he wipes them away, kissing my cheeks softly as I close them. “Promise?”
“I promise. Now try to sleep, I’m here. You are safe. You are loved,” he vows, and I am. I know it.
I feel it in every touch from the men around me.
He’s right—Oliver is gone, and I can’t let him win this final battle.
He was a big part of my past, but he doesn’t get to be part of my future.
My future is ours and ours alone.
And it starts now.
Together.
When I wake, I feel a warm male body pressed against my back. The sun is shining through the thin hotel curtains and pleasantly heating my leg that’s escaped from the covers. In this moment, my brain foggy from sleep, I can almost forget what happened yesterday.
Almost.
Then I stretch and wince as the bruise on the back of my head presses into the pillow, and I gasp at the pain in my side from my broken ribs. Curling up into a protective ball, I let out a small groan of pain as memories of last night assault my mind—flashes of a masked face, of being hunted, choked.
Suddenly, breathing is difficult and I’m gasping for air, tears pouring down my face as I scrabble desperately on the bed, clawing at the sheets covering me, needing to get them off. The person pressed against me startles awake with a curse and is kneeling at my side immediately, but I’m too deep in my panic to differentiate friend from foe.
“Shit. Gabby, it’s me,” the voice says, but I’m too busy pulling at the fabric tangled around me. The more I twist, trying to free myself, the worse I make it. My body is screaming out in pain, and I can hear these strange whimpering noises as I thrash.
“Guys!” the voice calls out, sounding panicked, and I hear the pounding of footsteps, which only makes me worse as I imagine my attacker coming at me again.
That whimpering noise gets louder.
“What the fuck happened?”
“I don’t know!” the first voice, the one closest to me, replies, his tone laced with panic. “I just woke up to her flailing around on the bed, pulling at the sheets. She’s going to hurt herself, but I don’t think she can hear me!”
Hands touch me, and I can’t hold back my scream, shying away from the contact, my eyes squeezing shut. I don’t know how many people are in the room, but all of a sudden, there are a lot of male voices all talking over each other. Then I realise the whining noise is coming from me. My lungs burn as my abused throat works to heave in air against the constriction it’s fighting against.
“Everyone out,” a deep voice demands. He doesn’t shout, but his voice seems to carry anyway, the room falling silent save for my panicked breaths.
“Fuck that!” The angry voice causes me to flinch, an automatic reaction from his fury.
“Blake, trust me,” the deep timbre commands, and after a pause, I realise they are following his instructions. The bed shifts as the person who was pressed against me goes to leave. “No, Liam, stay where you are. Talk to her.”
The male on the bed, Liam, pauses and shifts closer, but he’s careful not to touch me. “Angel, can you hear me?” He’s quiet, gentle, but the use of his nickname helps to break through my panic. Rolling towards him, I open my eyes, nodding my head as I claw at my throat. I’m unable to speak, unable to express my panic and distress. I feel like I’m being strangled. I feel like I can’t breathe.