"I stabbed him," she said a moment later, voice trembling.
"He'll live. Not for long, but you didn't kill anyone."
"I wanted to," she admitted, pressing her face into my neck.
"Good. He deserves that."
"Betty?" she asked. "Joss?" she added, voice getting tighter.
"Betty is at Teddy's," I told her. "I don't know about Joss. He's hit, but he was talking when I was at the bakery."
"He just... he just ran in, slammed the door, shot Joss, then came for me."
"It's okay. You don't have to talk about it," I reassured her.
But she wanted to get it out. "I went to run, but I felt something under my foot. Something sharp and metal. I knew I wasn't going to get away from him. So I just grabbed that, and hid it until I knew I could use it."
"Good. You did good, babe. It's all over," I added, squeezing her tighter. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
"He hit me with a bat," Shy declared, voice a mix of pissed off and almost offended. "Joss says I have a concussion."
"He's probably right."
"My head hurts," she whimpered. "It didn't feel so bad there for a little while, but it is bad again."
"The adrenaline helped you keep going past the pain. Now that you're safe, it is back. It might be back for a while. But I got some pills you can take to make it go away. I'm just going to pick you up," I told her.
"I can walk," she insisted.
"I'm sure you can, babe. But give me this. It's been a long fucking night. I want to hold you."
"Okay," she agreed, snuggling in as I got to my feet, carrying her back toward the end of the block, finding the guys standing there. One look told me all I needed to know. They hadn't gotten him.
"That motherfucker has the best luck," Huck declared. "Ran right up to a bus stop as it was about to pull off. There was nothing we could do. Che needed to get Joss to the hospital. He was starting to get pale and quiet."
"Oh, no," Shy said, stiffening in my arms.
"Nah, he'll be fine," Huck said, shrugging.
"You can't know that."
"He wasn't hit anywhere too bad. He just needs to get the bullet out, and get some blood in. He'll be fine. We will hear about him later," he added. "Let's get off the street. And get you somewhere safe," he said, nodding toward me.
Then just like that, we were making our ways to the cars, then on our way back to Teddy's.
"Babe?" I called as we climbed back out of the car. She hadn't said a word on the ride back, just curled tightly into me. I didn't want to press it in front of the guys, to embarrass her if she was upset. But they walked off ahead and Huck was hanging back to talk to the security that Teddy had called in for the penthouse, so we had a minute. "You're scaring me a bit here," I admitted.
"Head," she whimpered out, voice small.
"Yeah. Let's get something for that," I agreed, bringing her into the loft, and asking Teddy if he had something, or if we needed to send Seeley off to find some pills.
I'd just gotten Shy onto the couch and wrapped her in a blanket when Belle appeared in the hallway, eyes huge, looking very, very lost.
I guess, in their relationship, Shy—being the older sister—had always been the one with the answers, the one to comfort, the one to really soothe over hurts. Belle seemed unsure of what she was supposed to do or say.
"Is she..."
"She's alright. Got knocked in the head," I told her. "Concussion, seems like. But she's okay. Stabbed Anton in the thigh," I added, getting Belle's head to jerk up, her gaze holding mine.
"Good."
"We're not out of the woods with him yet," I warned her. "But he lost all his men tonight."
"Good," she repeated, taking a few tentative steps forward.
As soon as she did, Shy's arms moved out from under the blanket, reaching out for her sister. And Belle flew at her.
I wasn't sure who was crying the hardest right then, but I figured they both needed the outlet. So I moved away, let them have as much privacy as they could in the living room as I joined everyone else in the kitchen.
"What's the word on Joss?" Teddy asked.
"In surgery, but it looks good. We can probably visit tomorrow."
"Is Che good to stay there as a guard?" Huck asked. "We can send one of the single guys if need be."
"He said he would hang until the rest of us got some sleep," Remy said.
"Okay. Good. That's one thing. Any word on Betty? Anyone have any idea what we should be doing with her?" Huck asked.
"From what Belle could get out of her, she wasn't assaulted in any way. Just scared," Teddy informed everyone. "Apparently, she was so scared she wet herself once and one of them threw her into the bathroom and she hit her head. But that was the worst of it."