Page 100
Never would he let her go again.
Reality seeped in slowly—her hands now pushing at his shoulders, the voices around them, Lorcan sobbing, the sirens getting closer.
Pulling back, he gazed down at her beautiful, too-pale features.
Addison struggled up from beneath him, dragging down her blood-soaked clothes. “How’s my brother?”
The bastard was alive, groaning as he clutched at his wound, the women gathered around him on the other side.
As she crawled over to Kyle, Oliver’s mind replayed the last few minutes like a series of snapshots. The gun. The shot. Addison between Kyle and the bullet. Kyle covering her with his body, taking the round that could have killed her.
He’d saved his sister’s life.
“That fucking hurts,” Kyle muttered as she reached him.
Addison brushed the hair away from his face. “Good.”
Kyle winced and clutched his side tighter. “What are you doing here, Addy?”
“What am I doing here?” Addy’s voice rose as she pulled her hand away. “Your wife wants custody of Netta, and I need you to sign over temporary guardianship to Mom and Dad. Imagine my surprise when in looking for you, I found out you’re some playboy swindler, a bigamist, a thief, and an attempted murderer. You’re going to pay back every cent you stole from these women. Every cent. It won’t fix the lives you’ve shattered, but it’ll be a first step. And you’re going to return the money you took from me.”
“I don’t have that kind of money to give out right now.”
“Then you’ll get a real job and work for it. But you’re going to prison first, Kyle. I’ll see to it myself. I’m done cleaning up after you.”
Rising, she walked to Oliver just as uniformed officers ran in, followed by medical staff.
Pulling her into his side, he pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “He’ll be okay.”
She watched the paramedics surround Kyle while the gardaí lifted Lorcan to his feet. “He better be. He’s got a lot of prison time ahead of him.”
Chapter 52
What felt like a century later, with Kyle whisked to the hospital and the women dispersed after lengthy questioning, Addison and Oliver returned to their hotel, still covered in Kyle’s blood.
Oliver stepped into the shower with her, sliding his lips along her shoulder before reaching for the shampoo. He washed her expertly, thoroughly, until the blood that had stained her skin just hours earlier was nothing but a nightmare.
Closing his arms around her, he pulled her tight against his chest as water rained over them. “I thought I’d lost you.”
Turning in his hold, she snuggled closer. “It was really scary. I should be getting used to it by now. That was the second time someone mad at Kyle took a shot at me.”
He wasn’t ready to find humor in any of it. “Kyle saved you. I hate the guy, but I’ll always be grateful to him for that. I was too far away from you. If he hadn’t moved fast—”
When she wiggled, he loosened his grip. Pulling back a little, she attempted to peer up at him through the shower spray. “It doesn’t negate what he’s done.”
“No. But if it weren’t for him—” He couldn’t finish the sentence. The very thought of what could have happened made him cold and clammy and close to puking.
Instead, he drew her tighter against him and swayed with her in the steaming shower. She was okay. That was all that mattered.
And yet she needed to know.
Clearing his dry throat, he tried again. “The thought of losing you—”
“I’m fine,” she assured him, planting a kiss just above his heart. “I’m actually pretty perfect. But can we get out of here? I’m ready for a nice”—another kiss to his chest—“soft”—one to his jaw—“bed. And you.”
He didn’t have to be told twice, turning off the water and drying her with one of the hotel towels. Addy didn’t help at all—taking any opportunity to kiss and nibble along his chest, his neck, to close her teeth over his sensitive earlobe.
The woman loved touching and being touched. For a man who’d gone so long without human contact, it had been jarring at first. He’d never survive without it now.
