Invincible(12)

I followed the man who had my picture, knew my name, and knew that my car was destroyed.

I wasn’t sure if I was being saved… or if I was being set up.





6.


(Wes)



What the f*ck was I thinking?

I had no business trying to find Rose. And now I had a gunshot wound to the shoulder as my thanks. Not to mention Rose in the passenger seat with me as I sped away from the restaurant apartment set up. I should have known better, for sure. It was a different part of town and the entire place smelled of family stuff. That meant if Aton wanted Rose dead, she was part of a different family and if there was a problem, it went deeper than anything I could do.

In other words, I was now going to be a target. And I had no good reason for it either.

My mind raced.

I turned my head once to look at Rose and I realized something.

She was alive.

She hadn’t gotten into her car.

Yet.

I gritted my teeth as I drove, knowing I had no choice but to take her back to my apartment. Shit. Whoever had been trying to kill her would be coming again. And if it was Aton’s guys and they saw me…

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to say right now,” Rose said in a low voice, almost a whisper.

“Did your car blow up?” I asked.

“Why would you ask that?”

“I don’t have time for banter. Tell me right now.”

“I guess. Yes. Sure. Maybe.”

“Pick a f*cking answer, sweetie,” I said.

I took a hard right and the tires squealed on the car. My heart and adrenaline were going too fast for me to slow down or calm down. Usually when I got this fired up I was facing someone who expected me to beat the shit out of them. The difference now… I was sitting next a drop dead beautiful woman who was knee deep in something really dirty.

“My brother told me to stay in the apartment,” Rose said. “He said someone was going to kill me. He said something about my car being wired, okay? I didn’t see the car. I obviously wasn’t in the car… and how do you know all this?”

“That doesn't matter right now. What matters is that we get somewhere safe, right now.”

“Where is that?” Rose asked.

I turned my head. Goddamn, she’s beautiful. Just naturally beautiful. “Don’t worry about that.”

I stared straight ahead. My shoulder throbbed in pain. My f*cking leather jacket was going to have a damn hole in it.

The entire thing kept rolling through my mind all night. I woke up three times, turning on the light to look at Rose’s picture. It got the damn best of me and now it was getting the worst of me.

“You can just drop me off wherever you want,” Rose said.

“What?”

“You shouldn’t be involved.”

“Too late, sweetie. I got shot. I found your picture…” In your car. When I helped set it up to blow up.

“Where did you find it?”

I made another sharp turn. I didn’t respond.

When we finally got to my apartment, I grabbed Rose’s bag out of the car and hurried her into the apartment. I opened the door and knew the place wasn’t exactly company ready. But f*ck it, I wasn’t meant to have company over right now either.

At least my room was cleaned up thanks to Tommy and Aton’s other goon.

Fucking Tommy.

I thought about him under the hood, setting up wires and explosives.

“This is my place,” I said. “I don’t know if we’re actually safe here. But it’s better than being out on the street.”

“I guess.”

I dropped Rose’s bag and walked toward the table. I took off my leather jacket and dropped it on the table. I made a line for the bathroom and took off my shirt.

My shoulder felt worse than it actually looked. There was a good chunk of skin cut, oozing blood, but there wasn’t a bullet lodged inside me. I probably needed stitches, but my career choice didn’t come with a health plan. There was living and there was dying. That was it.

I grabbed a towel and touched my shoulder, wincing. It damn stung like hot fire. I wetted the towel and dabbed the wound. One thing about being a fighter I always had bandages hanging around. I opened the bathroom sink cabinet and grabbed bandages, tape, and some antibacterial spray that was going to hurt like f*ck.

I put everything on the sink and looked at my reflection.

You damn fool, Wes. You goddamn fool.

I grabbed the antibacterial spray and bit the cap off. I spit it into the trashcan.

“Nice shot.”

I turned and saw Rose standing in the doorway.

Christ, she was naturally beautiful. She didn’t need blood red lipstick, hairspray, or anything fancy to wear. Standing right there with her hair let down, no makeup on, and in a t-shirt and jeans, she was driving me damn mad.

I saved her and I had no clue why. I had no reason why. Now we were both in trouble.

“What?” I asked.

“Let me help,” she whispered. “I know what to do.”

“You have experience with bullet wounds?”

“Actually, I do. And knife wounds. And fighting wounds.”

I raised an eyebrow. Who in the hell are you, sweetie?

I dropped my hand from my shoulder and stood there, leaning against the sink. Rose stepped into the bathroom and touched my arm. I felt my dick ache in my jeans. Had I really been reduced to this? One picture of a beautiful woman and I suddenly become some kind of vigilante savior. Worse yet, Aton wanted Rose’s car to explode. He wanted her dead. But she wasn’t dead. She was alive, in my bathroom, and she was opening a bandage to put on my shoulder.