Two days ago when I woke up in the hospital, which apparently wasn’t when I actually woke up, seeing as after Davis had literally breathed life back into me, I woke up then. But I didn’t remember any of that. I also didn’t remember the paramedics coming and transporting me to the hospital. Nor do I remember the three hours I slept.
Reese remembered. Davis remembered. Jack and Rhode did, too.
Back to my point. Two days ago when I woke and saw the panic and fear in the faces of all my friends, I made the decision not to argue. Not to complain about the pain. Not to complain when Reese insisted—yes, insisted—to the point the doctor backed down and ordered an MRI of my throat and neck. That held up my release for four hours. When the MRI came back and the doctor announced I was good and there was nothing damaged, Reese had insisted on a second opinion. This led to Wilson taking him on a walk.
While Reese and Wilson were gone, Jack had a talk with me. Incidentally, he waited until Davis had gone to find coffee and had asked Brooklyn and Letty to step outside. Then Jack laid it out. He told me about Davis giving me CPR, how all of them, including Reese, thought I was dead and the only reason I was alive was because Davis hadn’t quit.
Again, Davis had breathed life back into me.
So, I was not going to complain about anything.
I had a second chance at life, I wasn’t going to waste any of it.
Moving on from that, Jack explained that while I was lying on the floor dead or dying, whichever way you want to look at it, Reese was beating the life out of Sam Barker. He told me that when the authorities arrived, Sam was still alive but barely. He asked me to be patient with Reese and let him be what Jack said would most likely be suffocatingly overprotective. Then Jack admitted that all the guys, including himself, would likely be suffocatingly overprotective. But it was only because the scene they’d walked into and the amount of time it had taken for me to breathe on my own had scared the shit out of them. Then he kissed my forehead.
Two days later, Sam was still in the hospital, but he was alive, and all of the guys were acting crazy.
I didn’t complain.
The first night, Reese took me back to the cabin and he carried me up the stairs. Wilson slept on the couch, Davis on the floor, and Jack had stayed awake all night in one of the Takeback SUVs. Rhode went home but only because he needed to be with his wife. Who he’d clung to the entire time we were at the hospital.
Now here we were at dinner time on the second day, and everyone was piled into Reese’s cabin. Which was not a cabin built for entertaining. There was room enough for two people to live comfortably. I loved it here, but if the guys were going to make a habit of hanging around we needed to move ASAP. Brooklyn had to bring over folding chairs just so everyone could sit. And no one would hear of me sitting in a folding chair. So I was tucked into the corner of the comfy couch, Letty was next to me, Brooklyn next to her. Reese in the leather chair to my left, Rhode in the matching leather chair to Brooklyn’s right. And River, Wilson, Davis, and Jack in folding chairs. Four, big, oversized men in folding chairs holding plates in front of them, eating the lasagna Brooklyn had made and brought over. They looked ridiculously uncomfortable.
I didn’t say a thing.
All of them had beers, including me, Brooklyn, and Letty. Reese was drinking apple juice. When my beer got low, someone got up and got me another one.
I didn’t say a word—except thank you, of course.
They were all doing their best not to stare at the bruising on my face and neck even though I knew it was impossible not to notice. Still, they tried.
I kept quiet.
When Brooklyn lied and told me that the Welshes wanted some time with Remy and that was why he didn’t come with her and Rhode, I gave her that and didn’t call her out on it. She was a good mom; Remy didn’t need to see me beat to shit. But I also knew she didn’t want Remy to look at me and ask questions she thought would hurt me. So, really, she was just a great friend and I adored her.
“What’s new with Asher and Cole?” River asked.
“Application is in,” Wilson answered. “So now they’re just waiting.”
I glanced over at Reese and queried, “Application? I thought they were undercover?”
“Asher is. Cole’s there as backup.” Reese smiled for some reason.
It wasn’t a big one like I’d imagined as I was being strangled, but it was there.
“He has to apply to go undercover?”
“No, he had to apply to be a member of the sex club he’s going undercover in,” Jack supplied.
“Asher is going undercover in a sex club? Seriously?”
“Yep.”
I was getting ready to make a joke until I remembered what the guys did and who they worked with and how the large majority of their cases had to do with human trafficking and suddenly the joke died, and my stomach tightened.
“He’s going undercover to make sure the club’s on the up and up,” Wilson explained.
That made me feel a little better but not much.
But when Wilson went on, I felt the tension that had become so normal I could almost forget how heavy it was, lift away.
“Talked to Brasco on the way over here. He’s thinking you should have your money back within thirty days. All the accounts have been frozen. Winegarner and a dozen other detectives from other states are all getting their reports polished up and meeting with prosecutors. Idaho’s got them first since they’re here and the prosecutor doesn’t feel like extraditing them to another state before they get their chance.”
My gaze went to River, and he was smiling.
“Thank you. All of you, for everything you did.”
I got grunts, but no other acknowledgments.
I didn’t complain.
“I checked in on Jamie today. She and Kat were kicking ass behind the counter,” Letty told me. “I don’t know if you left Kat your secret recipes, but I swear the cinnamon rolls were almost as good as yours.”
The only, tiny squabble Reese and I had gotten in was when I insisted on calling Jaime. First, I wanted her to know I was all right. Then I needed to make sure she knew where I kept my recipe cards. I no longer needed them, so they were tucked away in my office.
I might’ve almost been strangled to death but I still had a business to run.
“She’s good,” I agreed. “She’s been practicing decorating.”
Letty scrunched her nose and I laughed. Then I abruptly stopped when my broken ribs made themselves known.
“That bad?” I asked.
“Eh. They were okay. But not Treats Bakery quality.”
Oh, well. I wasn’t going to complain about that either.
Davis got up and I watched him walk into the kitchen.
The time was nigh. I needed to talk to him but hadn’t had a chance to get him alone all night. I scooted to the edge of the couch and Reese moved, too.
“I’m fine,” I whispered.
“I’ll get it,” he countered.
I glanced toward the kitchen then back to Reese.
“Honey, I’m fine.”
Reese nodded but stood to help me out of the couch.
I had just rounded the corner when Davis turned and took me in.
“You shouldn’t be up.”
Yes, suffocatingly overprotective.
My voice still sounded croaky and my throat hurt if I talked too much but I had something to say to Davis, so he’d have to deal with my scratchy voice, and I’d get over the pain.
“Thank you for saving my life.”
Davis’s eyes dropped to my midsection then went to the wall behind me.
“I hate that no one will look at me,” I whispered.
“What?”
“I know it looks bad. It’s totally gross—”
“Sweetheart, we’re not avoiding looking at you because it looks bad. We can’t look at what the asshole did to you without wishing Reese would’ve finished the job. We can’t look at those marks around your neck without thinking about how close we came to losing you—and Reese. Make no mistake, Sadie; if you would’ve died, we would’ve lost Reese, too. None of us can look at that pretty face of yours and miss that fucker’s handprint on it. We’ve been hit in the face before. We all know how hard he had to hit you to leave that mark.”
“Thank you for saving Reese’s life, too.”
I was getting winded, and I knew Davis heard it when he looked at my ribs again.
So, I had to finish.
“You know what I think about every time I feel the pain in my ribs? Grateful. When it hurts to breathe, I think about how hard you worked to save my life. Every rib you broke giving me CPR means I get to be here. I’d take the broken ribs and the breath in my body over the alternative.”
Davis’s eyes locked with mine, but he didn’t say anything.
“Jack told me what happened. He told me everyone thought I was gone but you wouldn’t quit.” I had to pause to take a breath. “Thank you for breathing for me when I couldn’t.”
I saw the flash in his eyes before they started to shine. I figured he wouldn’t appreciate me watching him struggle with whatever he was struggling with, so I turned to leave.
“I’d say you’re welcome, but really, it was my honor,” he said to my back.
I nodded and gingerly made my way back to the living room.
Five minutes later, Davis returned.
And an hour after that, everyone left.
And I finally made the dreaded phone call to my parents. Five minutes into the conversation, Reese heard me struggling to breathe so he took the phone. Ten minutes later Reese disconnected and told me my dad was arranging flights and would be in Idaho as soon as they could.
Of course, they were on their way to me, they loved me.
Reese was in the bathroom getting ready for bed.
Something he hadn’t done since I’d moved in. He’d go in there to brush his teeth, do his business, but he undressed and changed in the bedroom. I did the same. I didn’t know if this change was because he didn’t want to see me naked or he thought I didn’t want him to see. What I knew was I was ending it right now, before it festered.
That was why when he came out of the bathroom, I was standing by the bed naked as the day I was born.
This was hard for me. I was bruised from my throat to my belly button and my face didn’t look that great. So as you could imagine I wasn’t feeling sexy or pretty. I felt like I’d been run over, backed over, then run over again.
But this was important.
Reese came to a juddering stop as soon as he opened the door. He diverted his attention, his jaw clenched, his fists balled, and his body did this weird twitch.
“I need you to look at me,” I whispered.
Immediately his gaze came to mine. Straight to my eyes. Nowhere else.
“No, I need you to look. At. Me. All of me.”
His eyes dropped to my throat and after a millisecond came back to mine.
“This is when I need you to love me regardless of how hard it is for you to see. I need you to look at what Sam left around my neck, then look at what Davis gave us. The bruises Davis left behind, those are for us, Reese. Next to your love, those bruises are the best gift I’ve ever received.”
Reese’s eyes started roaming my body. Neck, torso, neck, the side of my face, then back to my torso.
CPR was not like the movies. It was violent and required strength to manually force oxygen into someone’s lungs. Ribs broke. Sternums cracked. Considering how long Davis had worked on me, coupled with how easily I bruised, it could’ve looked worse.
Reese slowly closed the distance between us. When he got in front of me, he dropped to his knees, carefully rested his cheek on my stomach, and even more gently wrapped his arms around my hips.
My hands lifted to his shoulders.
The normal noises of the house faded away—the dishwasher, the fridge, the hum of the humidifier to keep all the wood in the cabin from drying out. All of my concentration was on Reese, the feel of his breath fanning over my stomach with every exhale. The sound of his lungs filling with each inhale. The tremor in his hands as they lightly rested on my hips. And finally, the tears I felt on my skin.
The show.
I was safe. I was alive. We were moving on.
The silence stretched for a long time. Reese giving me what I needed. Taking his time to take what he needed.
He slowly lifted his cheek off my stomach, shifted, and brushed his lips across my belly—from hip to hip. Then he went higher and lightly pressed kisses up my torso. I felt him shuffle to his feet, careful not to jostle me, and he continued to kiss the bruises on my ribs, between my breasts, higher still until he got to my throat.
Over and over, kiss after kiss, he worked his way over my neck and back again. Sometimes he paused and his tongue peeked out, licking my flesh. In some places, he grazed his teeth. Some kisses were barely there. It was sensual but not sexy. It wasn’t about sex or lust. It was profoundly beautiful.
When he was done with my throat, he kissed my jaw, moved to my cheek, kissed me there, and trailed up to my temple.
“Your strength amazes me,” he whispered. “I am in awe of you.”
I wanted to remind him that I’d woken up last night with a nightmare that had me sobbing in his arms. But I refrained. If he thought that was strength, I wasn’t going to argue.
But he needed to know why when I was scared and in pain, I could be strong.
“It’s because I have you. It’s because right before I blacked out my last thought was that I was loved. While I couldn’t breathe, I was thinking about you smiling at me. How lucky I was to have a man like you love me. I found strength in that. Last night I woke up scared, but in your arms, I found strength. On my own, I’m stubborn and determined. But when I stand at your side, that’s when I find real strength. The kind that makes me feel like I can do anything.”
There was more I wanted to say but couldn’t. My throat was on fire and getting scratchier. I wanted to wrap my arms around him, but I couldn’t lift my arms without the muscles in my sides pulling and putting pressure on my ribs. So all I could do was stand there with my arms dangling at my sides.
Reese dropped a kiss to my forehead and stepped away. He didn’t have to go far to find the new button-up pajama shirt Brooklyn had bought me. Reese helped me into the shirt, left me to button it, and went to the dresser to get me a pair of panties. Once he helped me step into those, he pulled the covers back and got in, shoved a pillow behind his back, and leaned against the headboard.
“Crawl in, baby,” he directed and opened his legs. “Your back against my chest.”
I wasn’t sure if this would work but did as he asked. Reese added a pillow on his chest, and I found it was the perfect angle. Once I was settled, he reached over, shut off the light, and I was totally cocooned. His thighs pressed against mine. His arms around me. One of his hands held mine, the other went under my shirt and rested on my stomach.
“Sleep, baby.”
That was what I did. I slept like a baby the whole night through.