“You’re okay,” he says, shoving the piece of black painted metal into his waistband and covering it with his shirt. “But we have to go.”
“You— You—” I can’t get the words out. You saved my life.
He kneels down and offers me a hand. “Come on, princess. Let’s run.”
Chapter 9
Daley
Rian gently cleans the crusted blood from my nose and neck. I accept the damp, warm towel from him as he splashes water on his face. It runs red into my sink, and when he’s finished, he looks like a person again.
Not the bloody demon that saved me from those monsters.
“How did you find me?” The question’s been bothering me ever since we caught my Uber and took it back to my place. The driver gave Rian one look and must’ve decided it wasn’t worth the effort to turn us away. And I couldn’t blame him, Rian looked absolutely terrifying.
“Wasn’t hard.” He dries his face with a towel. “Spotted Daniel in a bar nearby, and he told me where you were. I chewed the fucker out for not doing his damn job. I showed up in time to spot those two Turkish bastards tailing you toward the subway. Good thinking, not going down.”
“Didn’t do me much good.”
“True, but it was smart. Next time, just run.” He hangs the towel over the shower bar and leans back against the wall with a sigh. “I knew they’d fucking try for you. I just hoped it wouldn’t be on my night off.”
“Why were you looking for me, anyway?”
“I had a bad feeling.” He peers at me through heavy-lidded eyes and doesn’t elaborate. His stare sends a tingle of something between my legs and up into my stomach, something warm and sultry. “Looks like I was right.”
I chew my lip and grimace. It’s swollen and bloody from getting my face slammed into the ground. He sighs and leaves the bathroom before returning with some ice in a towel. I accept it and let him lead me into the living room, where I curl up on the couch and put the ice on my lip and nose.
“You should eat something.”
“I don’t want to eat anything. I don’t think I can right now.” I’m afraid I’ll throw it all up. I feel sick and numb, and I’m pretty sure I’m in shock.
I watched Rian kill two guys right in front of me. He beat them to death with a metal pipe like it was nothing. I grew up in the clans surrounded by violent men doing violent things, but I’ve never seen anything like that before. It was brutal, terrifying, and intense.
And if he hadn’t done it, I’d be dead.
He lowers himself into the easy chair next to me and sighs as he leans back. He closes his eyes, and I study his lips, the lines around his eyes, before he looks over at me curiously.
“This is the part where I tell you we should go back to Delco.”
I let out a sharp laugh. “Really? You’re doing that right now?”
He sounds exhausted. “No better time. You think those are the last guys they’ll send?”
I shiver and look at my hands. I had a knife to my throat twenty minutes ago and nearly got murdered brutally and painfully. Those assholes were going to slice me open and let me bleed out right there in public, and there was nothing I could do about it. I’ve never felt so damn helpless before, except when first Shane, then Megan died.
I remember standing over Shane’s closed casket staring at the wood and thinking, my brother is inside of that box, and feeling the magnitude of what that meant so acutely I thought my knees might give out from under me. Megan was there to keep me upright. Megan was there to get me through it.
Nobody was there when Megan died.
“This is it, isn’t it? This is how the family pulls me back.” I close my eyes and struggle against the tears. God, I’ve been crying so much lately. I hate myself for it. I should be stronger than this. But it’s like all the layers I built up over the years, all the defenses I thought I had in place, they’re all shredded and stripped and burned to cinders.
“It always goes this way. You think you’re out, but somebody comes back to drag you in kicking and screaming. I don’t want to be the one to do that to you.”
“But here you are, doing it.”
“This isn’t how I hoped this would go, but I don’t think we can keep pretending like you’re safe here in the city.”
He’s quiet again. I look at him, and he looks back, and an unspoken something happens between us. A memory, from all those years ago, from before I hated him so much. From back when I had very different feelings every time Rian looked at me.