My footsteps faltered.
That familial affection shit? I never seemed to get used to seeing it.
The door whipped open again. Then there was the preview of what Gracie was going to look like in another twenty years. Her mom pulled Gracie away from Duke, hugging her hard before leading her into the clubhouse.
Alone, Duke’s gaze slid to me.
He sucked in a deep breath.
Then made a beeline for me.
I found myself bracing.
For what? Impact?
As soon as he was in front of me, he offered his hand. As soon as I gave him mine, he pulled me in for a quick, hard, one-arm hug.
“I owe you,” he said as he pulled back.
“No, you don’t.”
“You saved my little girl tonight. I owe you.”
If he knew the kind of thoughts I’d been having about his ‘little girl’ all night, he might not feel the same way.
“It’s nothing.”
“It’s everything. She’s everything.”
Some part of me couldn’t argue with that.
“I was just at the right place at the right time.”
“From what I heard from Luca, you cleared a dozen yards in a blink to get to her,” Duke said. I guess I should have expected that Luca had gotten in touch before I even could, though I’d been sure to shoot off a quick text to Fallon before the cops came running up.
Shooting at Matteo’s place. Gracie’s here. She’s fine.
I was sure there were a dozen or more unread messages for me to look through later.
“Then you used your body to completely cover her.”
Yep.
I’d done that.
While thinking about yanking off her romper and eating her out. So maybe I wasn’t the hero he wanted to make me out to be.
“Anyone else would’ve done the same.”
“Do you always have such a hard time accepting gratitude?”
“Dunno. This is a first,” I admitted, getting a huff of a laugh out of Duke.
“I mean it, Perish. I owe you. But we better get in there. I’m sure Fallon and Reign have a thousand questions. I have a few too.”
I gave him a nod and fell into step beside him.
As expected, the clubhouse was packed.
