“Sean, Eoin,” Cillian said, jerking his head toward the hall. “You got her?” Cillian asked, looking at Jass.
“Always.”
And it was right then that I knew the decision was made.
Cillian trusted Jass with me.
Which meant he wasn’t going to stand by his previous threats.
He was going to allow Jass and I to see each other.
Not that his disapproval would have stopped me. I was too far gone for that. But his approval made everything easier.
“You guys go ahead and take the bed,” Nyx said. “I crash on this couch all the time even when I don’t need to,” she added when I started to object.
Alone in Nyx’s deep burgundy bedroom, nestled in her antique canopy bed, Jass turned on his side to curl into me since I couldn’t curl into him.
“I’ve never been that fucking scared in my life,” Jass said as I was fading in and out of consciousness, finding myself so incredibly tired, but not wanting to miss a minute of the snuggles Jass was offering me.
“Me either,” I admitted.
“I thought I lost you. Barely had a chance to have you, and was going to lose you.”
My heart squeezed at that admission, knowing it wasn’t something that came easily to a man like Jass, a guy who had never really had a chance to have any softness in his life. His entire youth and adulthood had been hard and tough. There was no room for softer feelings in a lifestyle like that.
So it meant a lot that he was not only willing to feel that toward me, but that he felt comfortable sharing with me that he felt it.
“I kept imagining that you were going to come save me,” I admitted. “I didn’t think it was possible, given the situation, but that was all I kept thinking as my ribs and shoulder were screaming and I was trying to get free. That you might just come running down and save me from having to save myself.”
“I’ll always come for you,” he promised, his arm around my belly giving me a reassuring squeeze.
“Well, hopefully that is the last time,” I said, letting out a little laugh that my ribs made me instantly regret.
“Yeah, you shaved five years off my life this time,” Jass agreed. “And, for the record, that is five years that I planned on fucking you every chance I could get, so it’s a big loss for the both of us,” he told me.
There was no stopping the smile that tugged at my lips.
“It sort of sounds like you’re talking about forever,” I said, glancing over at him to find his intense gaze on me.
“I think I am,” he agreed. “You know, if your brothers don’t kill me first.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Judge - 3 days
We sort of lucked out on the Murphy brother front.
While they didn’t share any of it with us, it was clear that they’d found some shit in Patrick’s apartment that had them scrambling.
Along with lusting after and abusing their little sister, I suspected that the bastard also compromised the Murphy Family business in some way.
And it had to have been big because when I told Cillian I could bring Delaney back to my clubhouse to keep her safe while she recovered, he’d jumped on it.
Even Conor didn’t say anything.
I’d barely gotten her inside the clubhouse when I saw four of her brothers’ cars flying out of town. Likely leaving just Rian to hold down The Bog while they handled whatever it was that was going on.
“I’m just saying, how much could it really cost to repair the freight elevator?” Delaney asked as she moved into the kitchen, her face red, her hairline a little sweaty from coming down the stairs with her ribs still hurting her.
“Add it to the list,” Slash rumbled at her.
Delaney offered him a tentative smile as she went toward the coffee machine.
She’d confided in me that Slash scared her. Especially because he didn’t talk much, and when he did, he almost growled all his words.
I’d assured her that he was a good guy underneath it all. I’d even floated my suspicions about Slash and Nyx having some strange arrangement going on. And after her initial denial, she started to come around to the idea. Which made her try a little harder to not be intimidated by Slash.
“I was just joking,” she assured him. “I’m just achy and bitchy,” she added.
“Nah, babe,” Slash said, shrugging. “It’s a good idea. All these drunk fucks going up and down the stairs is a hospital visit waiting to happen. Take your fucking pills, will you?” he added, giving her a raised brow.
“Did you tell him?” she accused, shooting small eyes at me.
“You’re sweating bullets,” Slash said, rolling his eyes at her. “Taking a pill when you can barely hold yourself up isn’t going to turn you into your uncle,” he added, and I watched as Dell winced at that.