“I know what you’re doing,” Rogan said as he shifted nearer to me, bringing my attention back to him. “And your stalling isn’t going to work. Now get out of the way, nerd boy. The grownups have things to do.”
A soft whine was immediately followed by a lick to my face, and tears started to leak down my cheeks.
King.
She was there.
When had she gotten there?
“I’m not stalling.” Hunt shrugged. “I’m trying to figure out the best way to take you both down seeing as I’m fresh out of guns.”
He was stalling.
Why was he stalling?
The dog licked my face again, and I wanted to wrap her up in my arms and protect her at the same time telling her to go back to wherever she was hiding before so the bad men didn’t hurt her.
“Goddamn.” Hunt put his hands up in the air and laced his fingers behind his head. “It’s about fuckin’ time.”
Then the door to Adam’s house was kicked open.
Hunt winced.
Rogan and Hilton tried to run.
Only, as they ran past me, I had enough energy to lift my foot up and trip them before they could get all the way by.
It hurt like the dickens.
But them not being able to escape was worth it.
They tried to stand up but they were tangled up in each other’s limbs.
Honestly, if they had one more person it would look like the Three Stooges as they tried to fight their way back to standing.
I giggled and pulled King close to me, then focused on breathing without taking too deep of a breath and hurting whatever was broken inside of me.
My eyes took in all the hot men swarming into Adam’s house, and I wondered if I’d ever be able to get a photo of them all together.
I had to admit, I did have their calendar.
But I feel like they would’ve sold a hell of a lot more of them if they’d done a photoshoot that had them all standing there, shirtless, together.
“Oh, fuck, baby.” Adam came to me.
I blinked, surprised to find him kneeling there in front of me.
“Where did you come from?” I croaked.
I reached for his hand, and he caught mine up in his palm before placing a kiss to my knuckles.
My bruised and battered, but not bleeding knuckles.
Damn, I had to admit, Hilton Barnes knew how to beat someone up.
Which was slightly terrifying.
“Your dad couldn’t get a hold of you to tell you that he delivered the restraining order against Rogan and that asshole,” he muttered, jerking his chin in the bodyguard’s direction. “So I came by since we were practically on our way. Thank fucking God that I did.”
The bodyguard who’d been body-slammed by Malachi. Malachi who was now digging his knee into the back of Hilton’s neck because he refused to stop struggling.
Sammy was cuffing Hilton’s hands behind his back while Rogan, apparently no longer able to talk a tough game, did his best to lie meekly on the floor and allow Bourne to cuff him.
I lifted up painfully to my elbow, and Adam stopped me before I could get all the way to my hands.
“No, don’t move,” he ordered. “The ambulance is coming.”
I shook my head. “I’m not getting into a fucking ambulance. My parents will freak.”
“You don’t have a choice,” he murmured as he helped me back down, this time placing me back where I was, but stuffing a soft shirt underneath my head to ward off the hard floor.
I allowed my head to roll slightly to the left and saw the canvas print of us.
“Did you see our picture?” I asked, pointing.
Adam shifted his gaze from me to the canvas and froze.
“I like it,” he murmured. “We’ll hang it up on the wall.”
I grinned. “I would’ve done that before you got home but I didn’t know where you hid all the nails.”
He twirled my hair around one of his fingers. “Does anything hurt?”
Everything hurt.
“I’m okay,” I lied.
He stared down into my eyes and smiled sadly at me. “You’re a shit liar.”
I couldn’t help the grin that overtook my face. “Maybe.”
“No, you really are,” he murmured as he got down onto the ground beside me. He placed his head in his hand and leaned his elbow onto the floor beside me, all the while he never took his eyes off of mine.
“I’m going to be okay,” I told him.
Before Adam could say anything to that statement, a loud commotion had me turning to look at the door where Hunt had been standing.
“Dude, don’t touch me,” Hunt pleaded. “I’ll do whatever you want me to do, just don’t fucking touch me.”
Dax, who was staring at Hunt as if he wanted to rip his head off, took a threatening step toward Hunt.
“Don’t hurt him,” I croaked, latching my hand onto Adam’s wrist. “He saved me. It’s Hunt.”
Then, I promptly passed out.