Bax gestures to the bandage on my arm and explains, “The bullet grazed Rayne before it buried itself into your arm. Paramedics patched you up while you were out of it, only after Rayne insisted that you were treated first. Neither wound is serious, but yours is probably going to hurt a little longer than his.”
I groan, feeling my arm ache at the mention of it.
“You fainted into Rayne pretty soon after you realized you took a bullet to the arm. Not before you called yourself and Rayne twins, though. Good little tension breaker, Sunshine,”Bax reminds me, and I slap a hand over my face before laughing into my palm.
“That’s embarrassing,” I grumble through my chuckles.
“No more embarrassing than Caid screaming like one of those fainting goats when he came running out of the apartment lobby and saw you on the floor,” Bax counters.
I frown and peek at Baxter through my fingers, laughing at the absurdity. “No, he didn’t.”
“Okay, no, he didn’t,” Bax confirms. “But it would have been real funny if he did.”
That makes me laugh loudly, and it’s the worst mistake I’ve made since I woke up, the pain that rattles through my arm drawing out a pitiful groan. “Ow.”
“Yeah, maybe don’t do that for a little while,” Bax suggests, leaning in to press a smiling kiss to my forehead.
I melt under him before glancing at the bedroom door, asking, “Where’s everybody else?”
“There’s an interrogation happening in the living room, but there aren’t any police officers involved,” he cryptically announces, lips twitching.
I raise an eyebrow. “What does that even mean?”
Bax chuckles lowly before taking pity on me, explaining, “Your girls showed up shortly after we got you into bed. Apparently, they got worried when you didn’t call them when you said you would. They’re a group of women who are certain you had to be dead to miss a single phone call, so they rushed over. I’m not convinced they didn’t see the videos circulating the internet right now of the whole incident, but they glared at me and I decided to hide in here with you until you woke up.”
“Aww.” I pull a face, those adorable assholes making my heart all mushy and gooey, the cuties overshadowing the amusement I feel at having my burly, dangerous-looking man hide from three tiny women.
“It’s not so aww right now. They’ve been giving the guys the third degree. The only one who hasn’t cracked under the pressure is Rayne, and I think it’s pissing them off,” Bax admits, snickering when I snort loudly.
Nodding, I tell him, “If that man is going to share anything about himself, it’ll be to me. They’re shit out of luck.”
“Then how about we go save the others before they discover their security numbers and PIN codes to their bank accounts? Pretty sure AJ threatened to fight him,” Bax declares.
“Rayne?” I ask, wondering why the hell she’d fight him.
Bax shakes his head. “No, Toby. But I think she’d swing on anybody right now, so I wouldn’t rule Rayne out completely.”
Honestly? That’s so valid. I’ve known AJ almost my entire life, and she’s the kind of woman who would throw several punches for those she loves. She’s as feisty and scrappy as she is lovey and sweet. My little enigma of a best friend. She’s a complex mixture of actions and emotions, and I love every bit of her.
Bax goes quiet after that, and neither of us actually makes a move to get out of bed, leaving Rayne to fend for himself. When I look over at him, his expression has changed into something softer, something sweeter. There’s a vulnerability there now that wasn’t moments before, and my heart stalls as his fingers brush carefully against mine where my hand rests on my comforter-covered belly.
Quietly, so quiet I strain to hear him, he confesses, “I genuinely thought we lost you for a second there, Sunshine.”
The honesty cracks my heart in two, and I whisper his name like a prayer. “Bax.”
“I love you, Maddie,” he breathes suddenly, the confession knocking the wind out of me and mending that crack, the rhythm my heart beats doubling suddenly enough that my head feels light and fuzzy.
It’s a simple declaration, blurted like he couldn’t hold it any longer, and my throat tightens almost painfully at the warmth and certainty that bleed from those three words.
Swallowing three times, I wrangle my voice box into working properly so I can tell him, “I love you, too.”
The look on his face is enough to devastate me. It’s like I’ve gifted him something precious that he doesn’t feel worthy of, and he leans down to cup my face and press a long, lingering kiss to my mouth. He only pulls away long enough to mutter, “You scared the fuck out of me. Don’t do that again, Sunshine.”
“Sorry,” I whisper, my lips brushing his.
“You should be.”
I scoff, and I see his smile even as he hovers close enough that his breath cascades over my lips. “I got shot. I think I deserve a free pass just this once. Cut me some slack.”
