“He was already at the gym. I didn’t know he’d gone alone,” he said, leveling Cooper with a look he hoped conveyed that he needed to shut the fuck up. Emma was already high-strung about Emmett’s safety. It wouldn’t take much to push her too far, and full-patch or not, no one would stop her from trampling Cooper. No one would stophim.
Cooper threw up his hands, but thankfully kept his trap shut. He turned his gaze on Emma, finding her scowling at Cooper, her jaw ticking.
“I’ll watch him day and night if that’s what it takes,” he told her.
He wasn’t offering for her sake. Barely even for Emmett’s. Seeing that SUV racing toward an oblivious Emmett was the longest moment of his life. Perhaps even the scariest. It was out of pure self-preservation because whatever the hell his brain had decided to feel, clearly, he needed to ensure Emmett’s safety to stop feeling it.
“Donotlet him get hurt,” Emma said, her words clipped.
“I won’t.”
It wasn’t usually a promise he made because he knew better than most that shit happened, but Emmett? No one was ever getting their fucking hands on him. Not while he was around.
Kaz ended Church with a few short words about safety, and Wilder motioned for Emma to wait. While the others filed out of the room, he went around the table to pull out the chair next to hers and sat down.
“How is he? Really?”
Emma eyed him with something unreadable swirling around in those otherworldly golden eyes of hers.
“Sore, but he’ll live. At least it was you and not that SUV.”
“I’m not so sure he agrees with that sentiment,” he said, a smile teasing his lips. “He was muttering about me practically being an SUV on the way home.”
Emma poked him in the muscles of his upper arm and said, “I don’t blame him.”
He didn’t either.
He put his hands on the table to push himself up, but fingers wrapping around his left wrist kept him seated. He already knew from Emma’s sigh that he was about to get an earful.
“You didn’t even clean it, did you?”
He pressed his lips together and followed Emma’s gaze to his bloodied knuckles. It stung a bit, but it was nothing compared to how he felt on the inside. He was used to pain at this point. Sometimes he even craved it.
“Wasn’t exactly my priority,” he mumbled.
“Idiot,” Emma said under her breath, shaking her head and giving him a displeased look.
“Let’s go get this cleaned up,” she said and stood, tugging him up with her. He went willingly, not daring to risk incurring her wrath. She was terrifyingly accurate with those knives of hers. He sure as hell wasn’t about to mention that he would only bebreaking his knuckles all over again once he got a hold of the assholes who tried to run Emmett over.
He followed Emma into the living room, his heart skipping a beat when he caught a flash of dirty blond hair. Emmett was sitting on the couch, Miles next to him, while Ezra sat in front of them on the coffee table. Kian was pacing while he talked through whatever food he was stuffing his mouth with.
Clearly, Emmett was doing well enough to be out of bed, but… What did it say about him that he wanted Emmett to stay in his room? In his bed? He was losing his mind. It was the only explanation he could come up with. It was the only thing that made sense.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Emmett
SLEEP HELPED clear his head, and while his body was sore, it wasn’t as bad as yesterday. Emma had made him stay in bed the whole day, and he’d hated every second of it, but he’d done it because he hated that concerned frown on her forehead more. She also threatened to tell his brother what happened if he got up, so in the end, it was an easy decision.
He slowly sat up in bed and glanced across the room. Ezra was asleep, blanket tucked between his legs and his ass hanging out. He shook his head, a smile spreading on his lips. He didn’t bother being quiet as he moved around the room. Ezra had always slept like the dead, and this morning was no different.
He grabbed some clothes and his toiletry bag, then headed to the shared bathroom. He showered quickly, careful of the bruises marring his skin. Knowing Wilder had caught him with a hand on the back of his head, keeping both his brain and his CIs safe, made his stomach twist itself into knots. Most wouldn’t have even thought about it, but Wilder had run across the road, seeing that car coming at them, and had not only thrown him out of the car’s path, but nearly broken his hand to protect his head.
He hadn’t seen Wilder much, confined to his room as he’d been after Emma chased him upstairs, and he was grateful for it. His mind wasn’t hazy anymore, and he remembered the words they’d shared. He remembered grabbing Wilder’s hand and Wilder letting him. He remembered what it felt like to bepressed against Wilder’s chest as he carried him, how good he smelled. He needed to forget all of it.
He washed his face one last time before stepping out of the shower, grabbing a towel to dry off with. No matter how hard he tried not to think about Wilder as he dressed, his brain wasn’t on board. One part of him was very excited about Wilder watching him at the gym because it meant they got to spend time together. The other part, though? Dread. Pure fucking dread.
He reached for his receivers, hesitating for a moment. Would it be better to block out the world?
