Chapter twenty-seven
Silas
Ifdesperationwasa sound, it would be the one I made when her lips touched mine.
I had barely had time to catch her before she was throwing her arms around my neck, latching on to me, her legs around my waist as she held on for dear life.
The kiss was pure chaos, lips and teeth clashing in a violent release. I could taste her panic and pain, and my heart bled for the things she had been through.
Unable to do anything but hold her, my arms tight around her body, I poured all my feelings back into the kiss. Every moment I had spent worrying about her, every time I picked up the phone to call and didn’t follow through. Every night spent tossing and turning and kicking my own ass for letting her go back to New York.
All of it.
I gave Daphne Pennington every single part of my soul in that kiss.
And I just hoped to fuck she’d keep it.
After what felt like an eternity, Daphne seemed to come back to herself, freezing in my arms like she had just realized what she had done.
She pulled away, but I didn’t let her go far. Pressing her back into the wall, I held her in place as I stared into her eyes as my pulse continued to pound in my veins.
“You okay, Princess?” I asked quietly, and I watched as her eyes widened at the term of endearment.
“Yeah,” she breathed. “I really am.”
Not able to say anything more for fear of my entire heart falling out of my mouth, I simply nodded, my forehead against hers as I lowered my hands—one still holding my gun—from around her waist to under her butt, wanting to get a better grip on her so I didn’t have to put her down.
But as her weight settled into my hand, Daphne sucked in a pained breath, and I froze.
“What?” I asked, leaning back so that I could better inspect her for injuries. “What happened.”
“It’s nothing,” she replied, unlocking her legs from around me and lowering herself slowly to the floor.
She stepped away from me, and I hated it.
“That wasn’t nothing, Daph.”
“It’s just my, um...my butt,” she answered, and I loved the way her cheeks went pink in embarrassment.
Needing to touch her, I raised my free hand and ghosted my thumb over the warm skin on her cheeks, letting the feeling remind me that he was here, safe and alive.
“What about your butt, Daphne?”
But she wasn’t listening, having closed her eyes and leaned her face into my palm, nuzzling me like a kitten. I smiled at the cuteness of the gesture.
“Daphne,” I coaxed.
“Huh?”
“What happened to your butt?”
“Oh, I just snagged it on a nail,” she murmured, eyes still closed. She looked exhausted, the dark circles under her eyes making my teeth clench. I needed to get her home. “When I was trying to get away from—oh!” Jerking her head up, she looked around as though she had just remembered where she was and what was happening. “Those guys. They’re still here, Silas. We need to go. Now.”
“Hey,” I said soothingly, not wanting her to worry about anything.
Ever.
My heart roared in my chest to protect her, keep her safe and never again let her out of my sight, but I reined it in and told it to settle.
One thing at a time.
“Don’t worry about those guys. I took care of them both, okay?”
For a second, she just stared at me, her eyes wide and her face blank, as though she couldn’t believe what she was hearing, and I took the moment to really look at her.
She looked beautiful in a way I had never seen before. Her hair was a disaster and there was dirt on her face and neck. Her clothes, too, were a mess and I could see several tears and holes that I knew weren’t put there by design. She looked tired and thin, brave and fierce, and I had never loved her more than I did in that moment.
I knew she had been through hell, and I couldn’t begin to guess how awful the last two days had been for her, but here she was, fighting. She had been ready to kill me, knowing it was her only way out and as much as I admired her for that, I never wanted her to be in a position like that again.
Not if there was something I could do to prevent it.
“Both?” she murmured, her eyebrows scrunching adorably, and I could stop myself from leaning close again, pressing her against my chest just to feel her there.
God, I’d missed her.
“Silas,” she continued, her words muffled against my body. “There were four guys here.”
I released her immediately and spun around, raising my gun and covering her with my frame. I could feel the cold creeping into the space where she had just been touching me, but I ignored that in favor of scanning the building again, sliding easily back into defense mode.
“Daphne,” I said, my voice low and sharp. “Stay behind me, alright? We’re leaving, but I want you to stay right behind me the whole time.”
She didn’t respond, but I felt her press her hands against my back, and feeling her touching me calmed my racing pulse.
“This is what we’re gonna do, babe.” I spoke without looking at her, keeping my attention on the room like I had been trained to do. “We’re gonna leave this house, together, and head for the road. I left my pack in the woods about a half mile away, so we’ll grab it and then head back out to—” I stopped, my words cutting off at the sound of a heavy footstep on the stairs outside.
On instinct, I held up my fist, but after a second, I realized that Daphne would have no idea what the signal meant.
Chancing a glance back, I was both surprised and proud to see that Daphne didn’t look as terrified as I would have expected. In fact, she looked pissed off more than anything. I was momentarily stunned by the determined fire in her eyes, and when she met my gaze with a slow nod, I knew she and I were on the same page.
Turning back toward the door, I raised my gun and took a cautious step forward, trying to move as quietly as possible so that whoever was outside didn’t realize I was coming for them.
As my toes neared the threshold, I took one deep breath and then I leapt, throwing my body out the door and looking left and right to make sure there was no one there.
But what I should have done was look down.
The burning pain in my thigh was the first indication that I had fucked up.
Daphne’s scream was the second.
Kicking out on reflex, I landed my boot square in the already bloodied face of the long-haired asshole I had met behind the building earlier.
That kick cost me, however, because it meant that I put all my weight on the leg that greasy fuck had just stabbed with Daphne’s discarded knife. He tugged it out as he tumbled away, the blade going flying and landing in some of the overgrown grass at the base of the stairs.
“Fucking hell,” I groaned, my body slumping against the side of the building when the damaged leg gave out on me.
“Silas!”
“Stay inside, Daphne,” I snapped, not taking my eyes off my attacker. Daphne froze, but I could still see her in the doorway, her hands on her head as she darted her gaze from me to the stupid fuck on the ground. He was slowly climbing back to his feet, and I did the same, raising my gun with steady hands.
“Don’t move, asshole,” I shouted.