DECOY
“She could’ve killed you.”
I glanced up from the shiny floor of the hospital waiting room. Moon-blue eyes greeted me, but their usual calm was laced with fire, Folk’s entire body rigid with tension. “Um... but she didn’t?”
Weak. But my bleeding head fucking hurt and it was the best I could do. Also, I had no clue how he’d got here so fast when my arse had been parked on this chair for all of six seconds.
Interpreting my bemusement, Folk stepped closer and crouched in front of me, lowering his voice so the fed sitting on the other side of the room wouldn’t hear him. “Teddy had a spy cam in her doorbell. He got an alert when it kicked off and I got a live view of you throwing yourself in front of a fuckingcar.”
He swore. In a world where my other brothers regularly turned the air blue, it had become noticeable to me that Folk didn’t.
He’s angry. And holy hell, it looked good on him.
So good, it took me a second to transpose everything he’d said.
Teddy. Spy cam.
Teddy was code for Alexei. And the spy cam... well. I should’ve been shocked, but I wasn’t. Just mortified that my domestic clusterfucks had once again become everyone else’s problem. “Shit. I’m sorry.”
“For what? Almost getting killed? Or doing it on purpose?”
I met Folk’s tempestuous gaze. “You caught that, eh?”
“I saw everything. I saw the carhityou, and—” Folk pressed his fist to his mouth, and I got the feeling he kind of wanted to punch me. “You didn’t get up,” he continued, even quieter this time. Rougher. “I thought you were dead, and then she reversed. If those coppers hadn’t—”
I put my finger to his lips. He didn’t have to finish that sentence. I was already aware that Lauren had lost her mind enough to consider driving over me twice. That the fuckingfedshad saved me.
“I’m sorry.” I reached for Folk’s hand and pried open his fist.
He curled his fingers around mine and took a slow breath before his gaze sharpened again. “Where are you hurt?”
“Just my head.”
“And?”
I started to shrug. Thought better of it. “My shoulder’s pretty sore, but they popped it back in at the scene.”
Folk stood to examine the gash on my head. “Scalp wounds bleed a lot.”
“Yeah, they told me.”
“Were you knocked out?”
“I don’t think so.”
Folk made a low sound that went straight to my cock, and it shouldn’t have. As hot as this pissed-off version of Folk was, I didn’t want him to feel whatever was making him vibrate with stress.
I tugged him into the seat beside me. “She got arrested. I told the copper who came with me that she’d been threatening to kill me for months.” The words tasted bitter, the reality that the awful truth hadn’t been enough. That I’d had tolieto save my kid from her own mother. “I’m waiting for Jeanette to call me back about an emergency restraining order.”
Folk was silent for a long moment. Then he squeezed my hand. “A passive death is still death.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means she’s been trying to kill you since you met, so don’t feel bad about what happens next.”
“What if nothing happens? She hit me with a brick when we were together and the police cautionedme.”
Folk absorbed the words I’d never said to anyone, not even Saint. But whatever he had to say in return was swallowed up by a nurse calling my name, and the copper watching us made it clear that Folk had to stay where he was.
