Lowering the gun I just fired, I rush over to Aiden, yelling his name over and over and over.
“I’m okay,” comes his voice, and I’ve never been so happy and relieved and scared at the same time.
He sits up and rubs his hand across his throat. The knife cut him on the side of the neck, only about an inch long and not deep from what I can tell. Throwing my arms around him, I sob into his neck, not caring if I’m hurting myself or him, just needing to hold him, to make sure he’s okay. He wraps his arms around me and holds me close, and I can feel his elevated heart rate, beating in unison with mine.
Mason and Julian are there as well, making sure we’re okay, telling us that help is coming, that’ll we’ll all get to go home.
“Where the fuck did he go?” Julian asks, looking around the wooded area.
I sit back and turn to where Harvey fell, but he’s no longer there. I did shoot him in the side of the stomach, so he wasn’t dead when he dropped. We all look up when we hear the SUV peel away before we can do anything about it.
“Are the cops really on their way?” Aiden asks.
“Yes, we called them when we saw him run you off the road,” Mason confirms.
Aiden turns back to me, taking the gun from my shaking hands and wiping it down on the part of his shirt that’s not covered in blood.
“Listen to me, Thea,” he orders, low enough that only I can hear. “I want you to get out of here. Go home, get cleaned up and go to the hospital if you have to. Tell them you fell down the stairs or something. But you were never here, got it?”
What? Why is he telling me to leave him right now? “What the hell, Aiden? Why would I do that?”
He finishes wiping off the gun and grabs it with his hands, smudging his blood all over it in the process.
“I shot him in self-defense. Why are you wiping my prints off?” I ask.
He aims the gun in the opposite direction of us and fires once at nothing.
“What are you doing?!” I demand, seriously concerned. Are his injuries worse than I thought? How hard did he hit his head?
“Gun residue.” He gestures to his hand then drops the gun. “Just in case.” He looks me in the eye, talking clear and straight so that I understand. “You didn’t shoot anyone. I did. You were at home where you fell down the stairs. Right, Julian? You were with her?”
Julian shoots Aiden a curious look but nods slowly, not knowing why Aiden is sticking to this story but dedicating himself to it anyway. “Saw the whole thing. You know how clumsy she is.”
I can’t believe this right now! Why are they doing this?
Aiden puts the gun down and helps me stand up, wrapping his arms around me in a tight hug.
“I just got you back,” he whispers lowly in my ear. “This is going to be on the news, and I’m not risking Tony seeing you and trying to take you away from me.”
My heart beats heavy in my chest, a pit forming in my stomach.
“I want you far away from this, okay? It’s my mess, let me deal with it. I love you,” he says, his eyes raw and staring straight into my soul.
I nod at him, tears clouding my vision. “I love you too.”
He kisses me. It’s rough but soft, and scared but confident all at once, but it makes me feel like I’m lighter than air, like I can do anything and be anyone, and it wouldn’t matter because Aiden loves me.
“Go,” he commands when we pull apart.
Mason hands Julian his wrench, then plops down in all the blood and starts rolling around.
“What are you doing?!” I ask him, horrified that he would do such a thing.
“It’s obvious that Aiden wasn’t in that car alone. I’m already all busted up from our fight yesterday, anyway.”
He looks at Aiden and nods, and Aiden nods back at him.
“Come on, Amelia.” Julian grabs my hand and leads me up the hill toward his truck.