“Aye, damn it. Sure, Doc.” I tossed my hands in the air. “Ye know, I have had concussions before.”
“That makes this even more important,” he said, words snippy. “Nice to meet ye, but I’ll be off, lads.” He offered his hand to me, despite my glaring, then Aspen. Before he left, he dug meds out of an orange duffel he’d brought in and left them on the table along with a note of instructions, then saw himself out the front door.
As fast as Doc Suwak had arrived, he was gone.
I stared at Aspen in the afternoon sunlight. The bandage on his skin was stark and made me feel queasy in a way that I was certain had nothing to do with the blow to my head. I simply hated seeing him hurt, and it wasn’t as if I ever had liked it, but it was worse now. I rubbed the back of his hand.
“Why don’t ye go have a rest?” If I could get Aspen to lie down, maybe I could go track Joaquin on my own and cut off something important he liked. Warmth swam through my stomach. I loved that idea. Maybe I’d take an ear. A finger. Keep him guessing.
“Why?” Aspen asked, drawing out the word and eyeing me with suspicion. He didn’t seem very impressed with me.
I glanced away as guilt began to slither through my middle, curling up in my stomach and sitting there, heavy as a rock. I’d let Aspen get hurt and I wanted to make up for it, but he damned well would be angry if I went anywhere alone. I let out an irritated sigh. I was glad things were going the right way with Aspen—having him angry with me was not something I ever wanted to repeat—but it made my life more difficult in some ways.
“Ye know what I want to do.” I met his gaze.
“Two of us together didn’t get him.” He glared and his jaw ticked. Aspen had known me long enough that he had me all figured out. True anger began to scrabble around in my chest.
“Ye’re hurt! It shouldn’t’ve happened.” I pointed at the bandage, then slammed my fist on the table. “I fecked up. Again!”
Aspen scrubbed his hands over his face and chuckled. “Joaquin stabbed me with my own knife. I would say running on fumes is getting to us both. Normally I wouldn’t have let it happen. That isn’t me.”
Standing up from my chair, I bent and brushed my lips over Aspen’s. He hummed and slid his hand around to the nape of my neck, holding me still as he deepened the kiss. I stood there until my back protested after the fall I’d taken, then carefully straightened. “Go have a rest.”
Aspen shook his head, and I couldn’t help but feel bad about how bloodshot his eyes were. I didn’t want him beat up and tired—unless we were finishing off our enemy, then going home to have a celebration fuck and sleep for five days.
“Aspen. Let me do what ye know I want to do.”
His fingers tightened on the back of my neck. “I’m not leaving this room without you.”
“Why?” I snapped.
“You want to act like I don’t care about you? Is this what we’re doing again?”
“Och! What the feck?” I stomped over to stare out a window at the small patch of yard at the back of the house. This was bullshite. I slid my hand under my suit jacket and rested it on my gun.
“We should call Vail,” Aspen said quietly.
I shrugged and licked my lips. “He’s safe for now. How much do ye trust Sloan?”
There was a long beat of silence. “Why?” He scraped back his chair and stood.
“Regardless of how ye want to spin it, I fecked up.Again.I don’t think Sloan would take this out on Vail. He won’t shoot Fallon or the Maher’s would be on him. Rowen, he needs.” I was trying to convince myself more than Aspen that my paranoid fears weren’t founded, but I couldn’t help but worry. I’d seen what the boss did to men who fecked him over. Normally the people who met horrific ends were those who’d chosen to do the wrong things and left Sloan in a lurch or betrayed him.... But every once in a while, someone simply got in the way of one of his bad moods.
Aspen walked over to stand beside me with his hands in his pockets. “You’re letting this job get to you. Would Killough shoot us? Maybe. I can think of some reasons he would do it.”
I glanced at his face and got stuck staring at his eyes; they were warm and caring and exactly what would make me go out of my mind right now.
Aspen shrugged as if we’d had an entire conversation and wrapped his uninjured arm around me. “I doubt it will happen, but if we were disloyal or caused problems on purpose by being dumbasses? Yes, he would kill us. He likes Vail. Even in those circumstances, Vail would be safe.” He gave me a squeeze. “I wouldn’t have told him and Lor to stay in the mansion if I believed anything else.”
I leaned my forehead against his solid shoulder. “I don’t want to be having these thoughts. This is such shite. I want Sloan to walk into his office, next time we see him, saygood job, boyos, then feck off to go stuff Conall’s peach of an arse with his cock. I hate this.” I spun away to punch the wall. The impact was hard, and I groaned, shaking out my hand because the wall was fine, but my fingers hurt like a bitch.
“Hm. Must’ve hit a stud,” Aspen said, and I could tell he wanted to laugh at me by the way the corners of his eyes crinkled.
“Feck me, that hurt.” I shook out my hand and panted as the pain danced around my bones.
Aspen turned me to face him and covered my mouth with his. How could I ignore such a fine invitation? I leaned against him, and we kissed with the sun peeking through the window to warm the sides of our faces. He slid his hand up my jaw, and I fell into the sensation, not sure anyone had ever done anything quite like this to me. Hell, I never would’ve let them.
“I’m worried, same as you. Vail is safe with Conall. Sloan knows this isn’t easy and we’ll keep at it till we’ve seen it through.” He brushed a kiss to my cheek.
