“Got a couple beers in Finn tonight. It got his tight lips opening a bit. He had the damndest thing to say about you hurting our sweet Gemma here. When I saw her car here, I figured I would check in to see if she was okay.”
“She was okay.”
“She was likely about to get fucked over by a guy who likes the idea of relationships better than being in them,” Bellamy corrected. “And I think she got fucked enough today. You can take your hurt ego to bed. I am settling her in.”
With that, I was jostled a bit as Bellamy got to his feet, cradling me to his chest, carrying me to my room.
“I know you’re up,” he told me after placing me down in the bed.
My eyes fluttered open, finding him sitting there off the side of the bed.
“I’m a grown woman, Bell,” I told him, voice groggy. “You don’t get to make my decisions for me.”
“No,” he agreed, nodding.
“You don’t strike me as the overprotective sort either.”
“I’m not,” he agreed with a low chuckle. “But you’re something unique, Gemmy. Been around the world. Met a fuckton of people. You’re something special. And I don’t want to stand by and watch him dick you over because he doesn’t know what he wants.”
“He told me that his house feels different without me there. He said it was less homey,” I added, feeling a bit of warm spread across my chest.
“Well, shit,” he said, snorting, likely knowing what I did. That Lincoln didn’t get hung up on exes. He just moved on. He didn’t pine. He didn’t miss them. But he’d pined for me. He’d missed me. “So I am just a cockblock, huh?”
“Pretty much,” I agreed, reaching out to pat his knee. “Don’t worry. I won’t hold it against you.”
“Of course you won’t. No one can stay mad at someone as devilishly handsome as me. It’s just a law of nature. Get some sleep, sweets. We can talk more in the morning.”
And with that, I curled up under the covers, drifting off to sleep with a couple heartwarming thoughts.
I was surrounded by people who wanted nothing but the best for me.
And Lincoln was finally done fighting what was growing between us.
Even with men on the loose wanting to hurt me, the impending discussion with Quin, my family learning the truth, all the worry in the world I could have been focusing on, I slept like a baby for the first time in ages.
SEVEN
Lincoln
“What do you mean she’s still sleeping?” Jules asked, fully decked out in her usual work attire, including five-inch heels and perfect makeup despite it being barely after six in the morning. “Gemma never sleeps in.”
“She’s been through a lot, Jules. She’s probably beat from all the adrenaline,” Quin reasoned. “We’re not in a rush,” he added. “Her sleeping in gives me more time to get some fucking answers out of Lincoln here,” he added, looking a little perversely pleased at the idea. “Starting with what the hell possessed him to keep shit like this from the rest of us.”
I knew this was coming.
A part of me had been hoping from the beginning that Gemma had just been paranoid, that nothing was actually going on. Because I knew the shit I would be in if it turned out her worries had merit.
“It’s not his fault,” Gemma’s voice–a little rougher from sleep–called out, making us turn to find her standing there in the entrance to the hallway.
Her red hair was a mess around her shoulders, her silky pajamas rumpled, her eyes a bit swollen and unfocused still.
Every part of me wanted to get up, grab her, drag her back into that room, and finish what we had started the night before.
Before Bellamy decided to actually take an interest in something other than himself for a change.
He hadn’t even gotten to spend the time with Gemma that the rest of us had, so it was all the more surprising that he felt the need to step in. Which, well, made sense in a way. Gemma was just someone that others wanted to protect, to allow to keep being her sweet, airy self, untouched by all the dark, ugly, cynicism of the world.
“Oh, God. Look at your eye,” Jules said, face paling.
“I’m fine,” she insisted. “It doesn’t really even hurt.”
I had busted an eye socket in the past, so I knew that was bullshit. It hurt to blink. But she didn’t want anyone worrying about her.
“I get that you don’t want Lincoln to get in trouble, babe,” Quin cut in, “but he fucking knows better than to take risks like this.”
“He wasn’t taking a risk because I wasn’t sure if there was even a threat at first.”
“How did he even find out there was?” Jules asked, brows furrowing. “I mean… why would you go to Lincoln? No offense,” she added. “But that just seems random.”