“Nothing about you scares me anymore.” I lifted my head to look at him. “You just saved my life.”
He pressed his forehead to mine. “You wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for me, and I will not tolerate threats against your safety.”
What about threats againsthis? What had this risk cost him? Another tear fell while my throat dried up. He’d committed a second act of fratricidal treason for me. He kept risking his life,marring his soul, forme. He’d been protecting me from the very beginning—training me, arming me, hiding me in his clothes.
Killing for me.
I buried myself in him, let his heat soak through my skin like sunlight, and suddenly I was warm and safe…enfolded in the arms of a murderer.
The familiar smoky incense clung to him, but more powerful than that was the tang of gunpowder and blood. That only made me clutch harder, because it was proof that he placed himself in lethal situations every day and the odds were stacked high against his survival.
He winced when I squeezed, and I released him. “Did you get hurt?”
Silence.
I swiped at my tears. “Let me see it.”
With a small hesitation, he lifted his shirt and showed me a knife wound stretching from his collarbone to the center of his chest, weeping blood. “One of yours. He went for my throat.”
I touched the healthy skin surrounding it. “I assume he’s dead now?”
More silence.
“Let me help you,” I said. He wavered, but I tugged on his hand, forcing him to lie on the bed. While I grabbed the medical supplies he kept in the master bath, I called out, “So what happened?”
“Uncle Theo thought tonight would be the best time to raid the armory I told him about.”
I filled a bowl with water from the sink, then headed back his way. “Did he succeed?”
“They took losses.”
My eyes widened as I reentered the bedroom. “Heavy ones?”
“Not as heavy as us.” He winced when I wiped a rag near the wound to clean away the blood. “They got John White.”
My hands stilled on his chest. “One of the other Blood Colonels?”
He nodded, and glee spilled into my bloodstream. “Wow,” he said, clocking my reaction. “Who knew you were so bloodthirsty?”
I scowled at him. “You all murder innocent people on live TV. John White favors a hammer, Lucas. Ahammer.”
His eyes fell shut, and a slow breath left his lungs. “I know.”
I reverted my attention to his wound. “I’m turning on the lamp.”
He didn’t argue.
Bathed in light, the wound looked worse than it was. I set about cleaning it with the antiseptics in his first-aid kit. “Do you have anything to numb it? It needs a few sutures.”
“It will be fine.” His hand stopped mine, and I met his eyes, fervent in a way I’d never seen. “You’re okay?”
I set my palm over his heart. “I’m okay. I was just scared. I thought I might be trapped here, and I couldn’t escape.”
His eyes scorched as he sat up and took my face in his hands. “I will always come back.”
Longing blazed through my chest.
“I won’t allow harm to come to you, Sophia.”
