Warrior (First to Fight #1)(39)

His hands cup my chin and bring my eyes to his. “We’ve both made mistakes. When I saw the news, I thought you were dead. I thought I’d lost you. Him. Before I’d given either of you a chance. That’s a weight I’ll always have to bear. I don’t want to make that same mistake again, Olivia.”

A lone tear trails down my cheek. “I-I don’t know what to say.”

Ben wipes the line of salt away with his thumb. “There’s nothing to say. Let’s just focus on getting the both of you home and safe. We can worry about everything else later.”

We both jerk away—with a hiss of pain on my part—when a knock comes at the door. I leave Ben in the bathroom as I hobble back into my hospital room. Sofie stands in the doorway, her rounded eyes locked on Ben in the doorway. She turns to me and mouths “Oh my God” although I ignore her.

“You didn’t have to come down. I told you on the phone I was okay.”

She waves a hand. “Since when do I listen to you? Besides, I had to make sure my best friend had a ride home.”

“I got her, Sof,” Ben says as he comes behind me.

Sofie purses her lips. “We’ll see about that. Jack has Cole downstairs when you’re ready.”

“Thanks, Sof,” I tell her. She nods, her eyes still assessing Ben. I give her a stern look and she shrugs her shoulders and leaves, mumbling something that sounds like ‘Bout f*cking time on her way out the door.

Though the second I’m alone with Ben again, I wish she hadn’t left. Now that the truth about Cole is out there, I don’t quite know what to do with myself. Where do we go from here? Do we pick up where we left off? Do we raise our son as friends? My body says one thing, but my brain reminds me that I have a son now. A son with health issues who leaves very little time to deal with my tumultuous decade-long roller-coaster of a relationship with his equally complex father. I remind myself that I had been seeing Chad some lately, however, Chad is simple. And I know that Ben would be anything but simple.

“Um, I’m finished here. I’ve got some paperwork to do for release. Maybe if you wanted to come by sometime—not that you have to or anything, I just thought—”

“I’ve already talked about it with Jack. I’m going to take you guys home and check out your house. Logan’s got a couple of his off duty guys coming by every couple hours just in case.”

I blink rapidly at him. “You don’t have to do that. Jack told me they were taking care of it. I’d hate to put Logan out, too. Plus, we had that security system installed after the breakin.”

“It’s already taken care of. You just focus on taking it easy. Do you have everything here?”

The past week has sapped me of absolutely all energy, so all I can do is nod. Once I settle in at home and can wrap my mind around what has happened, I’ll deal with Ben.

I send him a tentative glance as we leave my hospital room. From the determined set about his eyes I have a feeling he isn’t going to be so easily swayed.




I nearly stumble over the pair of duffle bags heaped in front of my front door. Considering I’m recovering from a gunshot wound that almost killed me, it would have been sad if I returned the same day I was released from the hospital with new injuries.

“I’ll get those.” Ben moves around me, Cole in tow, and grabs up the bags, depositing them a safe distance away from the front door. Since my release from the hospital, those are the first words he’s managed to speak to me that didn’t have to do with my recovery.

I look at the bags, then at him, then back to the bags. “Uh, is there a reason why they’re here? Those aren’t mine.”

“Nope, they’re mine.”

“Oh!” I say. “Did Jack leave them for you or something?”

“No, they’re for while I’m staying here.”

I blink, certain the blood loss affected my hearing. “Come again?”

“You didn’t think I would let you stay here alone, did you?”

“Let me?” I echo. Apparently, I’m having a great deal of trouble with comprehension. Maybe that blow to the head did more damage than the doctors realized.

“Hold that thought,” Ben says as he bounds up the stairs with a fussy baby.

While he’s gone, I hobble into the living room and beeline straight for my couch. I’d requested my rattiest, comfiest yoga pants and my dad’s old USMC shirt for my ride home with the sole intent of making a nest on the couch and never leaving. It is safer here, I reason. No one had shot at me here. Yet. At the very least, the new security system I had installed will give me a warning.

Sure, someone had broken into the sanctity of my home, but I still wasn’t quite convinced that both incidents were related. It could just be the shittiest run of luck in this decade. Not that I wasn’t taking either threat seriously. The first chance I have, I’ll make it my personal mission to learn the ins and outs of the new security system. Again.

I also decide it’s time for me to take Jack’s offer to keep one of his guns on hand. My father had always been about gun safety, so when Jack and I were old enough we’d learned how to handle them properly. I have a healthy respect for weapons but up until now, I’d never seen the need to keep one in my own home.

The fact that I feel the need to arm myself frankly pisses me off. Even more so, the memory of Cole’s frightened screams motivates me like no other.