“It was beyond your control.” Her poor baby.
“It can’t ever happen again, Eden. I can’t take it.”
“I know, honey. I know. It won’t. I promise.”
“No more fast driving. No more strange bars. No more putting yourself at risk.”
“No more,” she promised him. “No more.”
He lay against her for a long time.
When he moved away, she reached for him, groaning as pain flooded her head.
“Jesus, easy, baby.”
“No.” She continued to try to rise. He held her down with a hand on her chest.
“You have a bad concussion. You need to stay still.”
“No.”
He leaned in, his mouth by her ear. “Little girl, listen to Daddy and stay still or when you’re better I’m going to spank your naughty bottom every night for a week.”
She sniffled but lay still. “Promise?”
He pulled back and gently kissed her lips. “You had me so scared, princess.” He ran a finger over her face, tracing it under each eye then down her cheek and over her lips.
“I thought you were bleeding out somewhere. I didn’t think anyone was going to find you. Are you sure you’re all right?” She studied him. That storm of emotion was still there, but it under control now.
“I’m fine. Kent got your call and traced it. He found me not long after you were taken. I had already gained consciousness. Soon after, he got the call from Bartolli telling him that he wanted to exchange you for Keira. We knew they couldn’t be far away. We also knew that Reyes was meeting with Bartolli. We called him, told him what was going on and then we went with him to the meet-up point. While Reyes went in to take care of Bartolli, we took care of the outside guards.”
He stood, his hands curving into fists. “I wanted to go in with him. I was fucking pissed that he went in alone while fucking Jed and Dom practically sat on me to stop me from following.”
“Pissed would be an understatement,” Reyes said as he walked into the hospital room.
“Reyes,” she said. “You’re all right.” Relief filled her.
His eyes were now warm as he stared down at her with a smile. “Thanks to your help. I was planning on just buying time until Zeke could hurry his ass up and get there, but you sped things along. When you slammed into Bartolli, I was able to get off a shot.”
“He’s dead?” she asked.
“He’s dead, baby girl,” Zeke told her.
“Reyes? You’re not in trouble?”
“Nah, no one is going to be upset that Bartolli has been taken out. We’ve made it so it looks like he was taken out by a rival family. Nothing will come back on me or your man here.”
Thank God. Zeke took hold of her hand again, squeezing gently. “He can’t hurt you anymore.”
“Or Keira.”
Reyes and Zeke shared a look.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Seems your brother’s man, Zander has gone a little rogue,” Reyes drawled. “He’s hidden Keira away and refuses to give her back.”
“Zander lives by his own rules,” she told Reyes. Secretly, she was pleased Zander wasn’t handing Keira over to Reyes. Not that she thought he would hurt her. But she just felt like Keira had her reasons for doing this. Maybe she was wrong. It didn’t much matter anymore. Eden wasn’t harboring any anger towards the other woman. There was no point in looking back when she had so much to look forward to.