Ride Wild (Raven Riders 3)

His shoulders fell, which meant the news wasn’t good.

“Who else?” she asked again.

“They’re both okay,” he hedged. Both? Cora’s belly rolled as Slider finally told her. “Caine was discharged in the middle of the night with a single shot through his wrist.” Slider pressed his lips together for a long moment. “And Haven will be released within the next few hours. She took one in her shoulder, too.”

“Haven? Oh, God,” she gasped, her stomach dropping to the floor and tears immediately flooding her eyes. “She’s okay? You promise me?”

Slider eased onto the bed by her knee, and his hand went to her thigh. “I promise you. In fact, she’s going to come see you as soon as she can.”

Cora sighed, impatient to see her now. “And what about Davis?” She was almost afraid to ask.

He squeezed her thigh. “He’s gone, Cora. And so is the man who shot at the house. That guy ran the dogfighting ring, too, and that’s all over now. All of it.” It felt weird to celebrate such macabre news, but Cora was glad these men were gone. There were too many people in the world who thought it was okay to hurt, abuse, or exploit others, and Cora was happy to see a win for the good guys, for once. If that made her a bad person, she could live with that.

But what she couldn’t live with was waiting to see Haven. The two hours until she was finally discharged felt like a million. But then Haven was sitting there in the doorway, Dare pushing her in a wheelchair.

“Hi, Cora,” Dare said. “Brought you a visitor.”

“They won’t let me walk,” Haven said as Dare rolled her closer.

A little chuckle spilled out of Cora, and she groaned. “Don’t make me laugh.”

Haven took her hand, and her blue-eyed gaze ran over all Cora’s bandages. “I’m sorry. God, Cora. I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’m just glad you’re okay. I would never want to be without you,” Cora said.

“I feel the very same way. You’re like a sister to me. And we’re going to survive this just like we’ve survived everything else.” Haven gave her a watery smile.

But her best friend was right. “Yes, we will. We all will.” Her gaze went to Slider then. “And we’ll be stronger for it.”

He gave her a nod and a look full of so much love it had to have healed some part of her.

And that night, when it was just the two of them again, Slider made Cora even stronger by telling her just how much he wanted her. “I couldn’t live without you, Cora. Or, at least, I wouldn’t want to. Along with the boys, you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to my life. I know we have a lot going on right now, and you’ll need time to heal. And I’m going to give that to you, that and everything else you need. But I just want you to know. You’re my forever, Cora. And when you’re ready, I’m going to be asking you a question and hoping you’ll say yes.”

She exhaled a long breath that released every bit of the loneliness and abandonment she’d ever felt. “God, I love you, Slider, and I already know what my answer will be. So just know I’ll be waiting for you to ask.”

Chapter 26

Thanksgiving dinner at the Raven Riders’ clubhouse was bound to be a pretty huge affair in a regular year, but this year’s celebration was special.

Because every single one of them had something to be grateful for.

Cora sure knew she did. Nearly six weeks had passed since she’d been shot, and though she still had some pain, she was recovering even faster than the doctors expected, which was probably explained by the fact that Slider and the boys wouldn’t let her pick up a single thing around the house. Here she’d been hired to be their nanny, and they’d spent almost every day since taking care of her.

Not that she was complaining. Because the Evans men knew how to dispense some serious TLC. Especially the oldest Evans man. With his mouth and hands and cock. It had been a joyous day indeed when she first felt well enough again to enjoy each of those . . .

In the kitchen, Cora helped Haven, Alexa, and Bunny put everything they’d been cooking for the past two days into all the pretty serving bowls and platters they’d bought just for the occasion. The girls laughed and talked and joked as they always did, but it felt different now, deeper. Because all these crises they’d been through, all these challenges, had forged them into a sisterhood. And when Cora thought of all the ways she now belonged to the people around her, it almost made her want to cry with the sheer goodness of it.