Then Brass closed his eyes. His chest rose and fell one last time before he was gone.
Eagle’s arm snaked around my shoulders and he pulled me to him, kissing my forehead. He produced a knife from one of his pockets and cut away the zip ties. I rubbed at my wrists and rolled my shoulders.
“We need to get you to the hospital, Naomi,” Eagle said, his expression concerned.
“Is that the fucking vehicle they brought you in?” Link asked, pointing at the black van parked on the street.
I nodded, still unable to speak. The tears wouldn’t stop. In all the evil Brass had done, he’d still managed to save my brother. It could be Link lying on the ground rather than Brass, and I couldn’t stop thinking about that. Couldn’t stop thinking that Link had been right, and there was something worth saving in Brass all along. It seemed so damn unfair it had taken his death for Brass to figure that out.
Link marched over to the van and disappeared inside for a beat. When he reemerged, he was holding two cuts with Seattle’s Serpent patches on the back, swearing for all he was worth. He tossed the cuts on the ground between Joe and the other guy, dug his phone out of his pocket and made a call.
“Texas,” Link growled into his phone. “We got a fucking problem.”
Eagle
LINK WAS STILL on the phone when he tossed me the keys to his bike. Nodding toward Naomi, he angled the phone away from his mouth and said, “Get her to the hospital. Keep me in the loop.”
Palming the keys, I kept Naomi tucked under my arm as we made our way to her brother’s bike. Before I climbed on, I turned to face her. Her face was bruised, her eyes were red and swollen, and they looked different… off. Lost.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
She couldn’t hold my gaze. “I don’t know,” she said, looking at the ground.
“Did he… did that motherfucker… touch you?” I could barely get the words out.
She shook her head. “Nothing sexual. They injected something into me and Joe… beat me up pretty good. I’m… I’m worried about the baby.” She looked up at me, and her eyes were bright with unshed tears. “I’m sorry. I tried to protect—”
“Stop. You did everything you could. I should have been there. I should have followed you, but I was just so damn stunned I couldn’t move. It’s been a long time since I’ve allowed myself to even dream about a life and a family. I thought that shit all died in Iraq. But then you showed up two years ago and made me remember what it was like to be alive. I don’t want to fuckin’ die again. No matter what happens with the baby, I meant what I said. I’m in this for the long haul.”
A tear slid down her cheek, so I gently wiped it away, carefully avoiding the bruise.
“Thank you for coming,” she said.
“Sweetheart, nothing could have kept me away. I really want to kiss you right now, but that cut on your lip looks painful and I don’t want to—”
Her mouth landed on mine before I could finish. The taste of her blood and tears about did me in, and I had to pull away before I lost myself in her. Before I lost myself in fear of all the shit that could have happened to her. We stared at each other for a beat and I saw the same fear in her eyes, along with worry. My tough-ass woman was barely holding it together.
I plucked Link’s helmet off the back of his bike and extended it toward her. “I know you don’t usually ride bitch, but you shouldn’t be driving right now. What do you say you let me take you to go get checked out?”
She accepted the helmet and slid it on, wincing when it went over the back of her head. Anger pulsed inside me, making me want to go kick Joe’s corpse right off the pier. I’d wanted to kill the son-of-a-bitch, but Naomi hadneededto. I wouldn’t have dreamed of taking that duty from her.
“I suppose I could ride bitch to a Marine,” she said with a ghost of the smile that had first drawn me to her.
I climbed onto the bike and she settled in behind me. Instead of taking her to a hospital that would take forever, I drove us to a local urgent care clinic.
“Where are we?” Naomi asked, handing me her helmet as she dismounted.
“A coworker of mine is married to one of the doctors here. I didn’t know what kind of shape you’d be in, so I called him, and he said she’s working tonight. She’ll get you right in and we won’t have to worry about the cops showing up to fire domestic abuse questions at us.”
“Thank you,” Naomi said, her eyes once again brimming with emotion. “Sorry, pregnancy hormones suck ass.”
Chuckling, I grabbed her hand and we entered the clinic together. There was a vending machine right inside the door, and Naomi’s eyes went wide as she groped her side and then swore.
“What?” I asked.
“I have no idea where my purse is.”
“You hungry?” I asked.
