I stared upward, praying for strength, but also held back the urge to laugh. “Boy.”
Fallon chuckled, but I didn’t miss the way he turned to glance back at the body again. It was something I’d have to talk to him about later. Taking your first life was never easy, and I couldn’t let it weigh on him like it had on me, way back when. I wouldn’t let it destroy him the way it had me, not on my watch.
4
FALLON
Pain litup my nerve endings and adrenaline buzzed in my veins. Being in a good fight always got me going. There was only one big problem—my chest hurt on the right side like someone had stuck a hot poker in and stirred it around, and I leaned farther into Aspen’s comforting embrace. I’d had plenty of fractured and cracked ribs, and I was in for a fucked few weeks with the way this one was hurting. I couldn’t catch a break... or rather, I’d caught more than my fair share of them recently. My right arm had been the one to get busted the last time I broke a bone.
“My right side is cursed,” I said and laughed.
“What’s that?” Aspen glanced down at me as he walked me toward the Expedition in the empty lot. We’d been plodding along for a while and the trip seemed to be taking forever, considering the SUV was closer now. Aspen hadn’t taken back his coat, and we weren’t talking about how he wasn’t in a big hurry to let me go and make me walk on my own two feet like a man. I cradled my right side as I wheezed in another breath. No, instead of shoving me off, he held me like I was important to him. I stumbled, and he kept me from pitching forward. After everything that had just happened I trusted him to help me make it home.
“Hurts,” I said, glancing down at my chest.
He leaned closer to study my face. “You never say shit hurts. I saw you with half your face swollen like a balloon and you laughed about it.” He scowled.
“Well, this does.” I shrugged. “Some shit just hurts. Ribs hurt. I know they say not to wrap them anymore, but I like wrapping them. Will you help me?”
He grunted but carefully continued to search my face in between glancing ahead of us.
“What?”
“You don’t look right.” His fingers dug into my shoulder where he had a hold on me.
I shrugged. I probably didn’t. The last half hour had been fucked—I’d shot someone. My mind scrambled like a bug under a bright light, and I veered away from that thought entirely. I didn’t want to remember those seconds where I’d grabbed for a gun that wasn’t mine while buck naked, almost lost the fight, won at the last second, and shot the owner. A mean left hook to his pointy chin had been the only thing that saved me. He had sharp blue eyes, and I’d probably see them in my head forever.
He’d been so shocked when I’d shot him.
No, I didn’t want to think about how the gun had recoiled in my hand, or the way his body had rocked back like I’d landed a punch before he crumpled to the cement floor.
I shuddered, and Aspen shushed me under his breath.
We reached Cillian’s black Expedition and Aspen opened the passenger-side door for me. I glanced at him. “I’m not Vail. You’re overdoing it.” I tried for a laugh but only coughed in pain, which nearly sent me to the ground.
“Shut up. You said it hurts. I’m helping you or else.” His tone was so ominous I chuckled and almost passed out.
When I recovered, I nodded and winced as I tried to step into the Expedition, and to my horror, I felt tears burn in my eyes, begging to roll down my face in a river. Sweat slicked my forehead and cheeks and stuck my shirt to my back. My heart pounded strangely in my ears.
“Hurts too much,” I whispered. “Can’t.”
I’d never seen Aspen scared, but his face smoothed in a peculiar way that made me think he was worried. “Put your left arm around my shoulders.”
“Fuck, you are not picking me up.” I glared.
“You do it or I’ll put you in the hatch like a suitcase.” He narrowed his eyes.
“Are you asking to see me in the rear?” I asked, batting my eyelashes at him.
His lips pursed, and I swore I almost saw them tic, like maybe for once I’d won a little smile, but he wasn’t letting me have it. How rude. The pain thudded harder in my chest and I sucked in a wheezy breath.
“Yeah, okay. Done fucking around.” He hit the key fob and the hatch lifted.
“You wouldn’t dare,” I muttered. “Also, how come you get the extra key? Cillian told me there wasn’t a spare set when I asked. What a liar.”
He rushed me and scooped me up, and everything on the right side of my chest hurt. I cocked my fist, and he stopped me from hitting him with one long stare.
I tucked my hand at my side. “I’ll behave.”
