Throttled (Wild Riders #1)(64)
“I was trying to protect you,” I told him when our lips parted. He locked his arms around my waist, not letting me get too far away. “I can’t stand the thought of someone trying to hurt you either.” My eyes were starting to feel a little misty again. “I love you and standing up to him was the only way I felt like I could do anything. I can’t stop you from getting hurt at your job. I can’t stop accidents from happening, but I sure as hell can confront anyone responsible for causing one.”
“I get it,” he sighed as he kissed my forehead. “But, I want to be the man that protects you. That takes care of you. I want to be the guy that I couldn’t be seven years ago.”
“You are that guy.” I pressed up on my toes to rest my forehead against his. Holding my stare for a moment he sighed and let his eyes fall shut. “Reid, you’re exactly the guy I need you to be.” It was the first quiet moment that we’d shared all day, and I think that we both needed it. Reid’s phone chimed from his pocket breaking up our moment.
“I should check that,” he said with hesitation. “It might be about Brett.” We let go of each other so that he could check the text. “It’s Georgia. She said he’s waking up.”
“We should go in then.” I wiped the tears from my eyes and tucked my arm through his.
“I know that my job can be stressful, especially for spouses,” he said with pause. “I mean—” He’d just referred to me as a spouse, which was about as far into the future as we could have possibly talked. Not that I was opposed to that conversation, but we’d just gotten each other back. Everything still felt so new.
“I know what you meant,” I said, smiling.
“I’m not trying to jump the gun here or anything,” he chuckled. “But, I will marry you one day, Shutterbug.”
“Good to know,” I replied, feeling completely overcome with admiration for the man walking by my side. As much as I wanted to continue the conversation about the hypothetical marriage he was proposing, I knew that we had much more pressing issues. “So, what are we going to do about Beau? Should we call the police?” I asked as we boarded the elevator to head up to Brett’s room.
“You let me worry about that,” he said, leaning over to kiss me once more in the last private moment we would probably share that night. “I’ve got a pretty good feeling about karma biting him right in the ass.”
By the time Brett was out of recovery and we were able to see him, it was past ten so neither Nora nor I minded when Brett insisted that we go home for the night. I felt terrible leaving him, but according to him he planned on asking the nurse for a double dose of pain meds and sleeping until his leg was healed. The surgeon had talked to him briefly, but was saving the full conversation about rebuilding his knee until he was fully conscious and able to make a clear-headed decision. Getting back on a dirt bike and back in freestyle champion form was going to be an uphill battle.
“Please go home,” he’d said when he saw Nora struggling to keep her eyes open and me barely able to hold a conversation. The day had been emotionally draining, to say the least, but seeing Brett awake had made me feel a little bit better, and I knew that Nora was glad to be there with me even if she wasn’t saying much.
Georgia had left a little while earlier, but promised to stop by the next day. Brett hadn’t said much about what they talked about, but it looked like Georgia was shaken up when she left. That seemed to be the only thing that he was excited about, not to mention his mom and dad were going to fly in the next morning. Between Georgia and his mother I was sure he’d be well taken care of.
“I’ll stop back by in the morning,” I told him. “I’m real sorry this happened to you,” I apologized for what seemed like the hundredth time.
“It wasn’t your fault, RT.” He gave me a groggy, medically altered smile. “Probably a good thing it was me, anyway. You’re probably too much of a * to handle this kind of pain.”
“That’s real easy to say when you’re speed clicking that morphine, Sally,” I’d laughed.
Nora leaned over and kissed his cheek before we left, barely saying two words. I could see the guilt she was carrying. It was the same as mine. Brett was hurt because of Beau, and Beau was acting like a jackass because of Nora and me. Even if Brett seemed to not be placing blame, I think we were both pointing the finger at ourselves.
I’d meant it when I said I was going to make it my mission to ruin Beau. The second my guys figured out exactly what went wrong with that bike, it would be over for Gregurich. I had a pretty good idea of exactly what I wanted to do. I’d been thinking about it since before the accident actually, but I wanted to talk to Nora first.
I was pissed that she went to his shop by herself, but this whole team mentality thing she’d mentioned—about us being in this together and protecting each other, was pretty f*cking fantastic. God, I loved her. I didn’t think it was possible to love her more, but then I heard her telling Gregurich off and if I hadn’t been so consumed with the desire to beat his head against the wall I probably would have bent her over that desk and showed her just how sexy it was that she had my back.
“We’re home, baby,” I said, waking her gently. She’d fallen asleep on the short drive back to my place. Because we were both exhausted and Georgia took her car home, I’d driven us in her car from the hospital.