“I’m good, but they aren’t.”
“There were two?” I ask, but I already knew there were. Zoey’s mind wasn’t playing tricks on her. We all knew it, but I had hoped there was a chance because it could’ve been less traumatizing in the long run.
“Yep. Mark and his brother. Sick, twisted fuckers,” Oliver says as he pulls off his boots and sets them to the side near the door.
Before he can stand fully upright, I fling myself at him, wrapping my arms around his shoulders. “Thank you,” I breathe into the cold skin at his neck. “Thank you.”
He’s quick to snake his arms around my body, holding me so tight I think nothing in the world could ever hurt me. “They’re going to be eating out of straws for a long time, sweetheart. I didn’t want to leave them alive, but I also knew I didn’t want to go to prison right now.”
“Right now?”
“Well, never. That’s Liam’s thing, not mine. But the need for me to stop them from breathing and doing that shit to another woman was so strong, I almost let it overtake me.”
“I don’t want you in prison either,” I tell him. “Asmuch as I want that bastard dead, I don’t want it to be at the expense of your life.”
“We’re on the same page with that one.”
I peer up at him, wondering how I got so lucky to find him. “Thank you,” I say again, because once isn’t enough. I don’t know if there is enough time left in my short life to say it as much as he deserves.
His fingers find my chin as he cradles my face between his thumb and index finger. “No one hurts my girl or the ones she loves.”
My insides hum at the statement. No one besides my family has ever had my back like that. Not a single man I ever dated gave a rat’s ass about what happened to the people around me, and I hadn’t been sure I’d ever find someone who did.
“What’s yours is mine, and that makes their happiness and hurt mine too,” he says.
I could love this man. I am falling for him—and falling hard. Who says things like that? No one I’ve ever known until Oliver entered my world. Not because he beat up two people tonight because of what they did to my sister, but because he cares enough about my happiness and the safety of those I love that he’ll do anything to protect us and destroy anyone who does us harm.
8
OLIVER
“I’m back, fucker,”Liam says as he walks into the garage with a pep to his step. “I needed that.”
I stare at him from behind my desk, wishing his trip had been a few days longer. “You look refreshed.”
It’s been nice without him here. Quieter. I love my brother even though he can be a complete shithead, but the amount of time his mouth is moving is way too much for me. It’s not like he has anything important to say either. He talks to talk, and it’s usually about bullshit.
“Vegas will do that to a man,” he says, dropping down into his desk chair and stretching his arms wide. “The city’s changed so much, but it’s better than ever.”
“I assume you won. You’re in way too good of a mood to have lost your ass.”
“You know it.” He grabs a stack of papers on hisdesk and starts to riffle through them. “Did I miss anything?”
I shake my head and grunt.
“Three days wasn’t long enough.”
“Suppose not,” I grumble, knowing it was too short for me. I could’ve gone a few more days with as much peace and quiet as I could get at the garage.
“And what about the pretty girl?”
My eyes narrow on him. “What about her?”
“Did you see her again?”
“Yeah.”
He raises an eyebrow as his fingers move through his beard like he’s deep in contemplation. “Expound.”
