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Slipping around him, she snatched my wrist to yank me closer and hissed. I’d forgotten that my hands looked like I’d been cosplaying a mummy.
“What the hell, Mari?” Her voice broke as she ran her hands softly over the gauze. It made me feel like shit. I hated scaring her.
“It’s not as bad as it looks. I promise, Shara.”
The glare said she didn’t believe me, and I didn’t blame her. I looked awful. “Where else are you hurt?”
Knowing if I didn’t show her, she’d strip me down right there, I reached for the hem of my shirt. Dominic hummed in disagreement while Nate stalked closer to help me lift it.
“You’re going to fuck up your shoulders if you do it,” he murmured. They hadn’t been dislocated, but it was a near thing. The pain made it easy to avoid thinking about the pads of Nate’s fingers running over my skin again, though.
Shara circled me, taking in the myriad of bruises and small scrapes. My chest was wrapped to the point of overdone, but I needed the stabilization for my ribs to heal. Bonus points, it hid the stab wound on my stomach from sight. If she caught wind of that, she’d never leave me alone again, and I needed my space.
“See? I’m fine, Shara.”
“No, you aren’t. What the fuck is wrong with you?” Tears glossed her eyes, and she looked away from me with an incredulous sniff.
“Watch it,” Dominic growled. Irritation prickled at me, but before I could shut him down, Nate did.
“You keep putting your foot in your mouth, and Mari’s going to put hers in your ass.”
“Shut up, fuckboy.”
“No, you giant baby. Shara is Mari’s sister. She’s family.” He didn’t elaborate, and it meant everything to me that he understood.
Shara and I had lost something integral to ourselves when Antoni died. In order to survive, we’d clung to each other. We were more than family now. It earned her a little leeway in how she treated me. Dominic didn’t have siblings, so he didn’t understand that we could fight but he wasn’t allowed to do the same. That was against the rules. It made me curious how Nate knew them. He didn’t have siblings either.
“I’m sorry I scared you,” I whispered, wrapping Shara in my arms. She shuddered before her head fell softly to my shoulder. The castor oil and cocoa butter scent of her washed over me, finally telling me that I was home. I was safe. It did more for me than a hundred guards on a hospital door ever could.
“You should be, you harpy.”
I smiled at her sniping and twisted our hug to keep her tucked against me even though it fucking hurt, because that’s what you did for family. “What’re you doing here, anyway?”
“I brought them.” Cameron walked into the room and took a single look at me before smirking. “You look like shit, cousin.”
“She looks perfect, you asshole.” Aislynn stepped out from behind my cousin, looking far more comfortable with him than she had before when she smacked him upside the head. He growled at her as she wrapped her arms around me in the faintest hug imaginable. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Ditto,” Shara muttered irritably.
The smile hurt my face, but I didn’t care. “Try to sound more sincere next time, yeah?”
Shara grumbled but didn’t reply, so I turned back to Ash.
“Cameron’s been temporarily staying at my place since the restaurant,” she explained. “When you…went away, he brought Shara and me here.”
She threw a solid glare at Cameron, who ignored it and her very pointed statement. The fact that my cousin had broken in to his future wife’s house really didn’t surprise me, and neither did Ash’s response. She’d been suffocated by her father her whole life and preferred her space. No wonder she looked fit to kill Cameron already.
Her smile was sickly sweet when she said, “I’m returning him, by the way.”
“Like fuck you are.” Cameron’s eyes narrowed as he twisted to look his fiancée in the eyes.
“Five bucks they don’t make it to the wedding,” Greyson murmured when they started bickering.
“Ten they don’t make it to the engagement,” Shara countered.
“Fifty she guts him in his sleep,” Nate whispered behind us. He’d long since put my shirt down, but he’d stayed close enough for me to feel his heat at my back. I shouldn’t have liked it like I did.
“Yeah, she is.” I laughed, trying to disguise it as a cough when my cousin and Aislynn both glared at me. Trying to defuse the situation, I nodded to the stairs. “I need a shower, and then I’ll meet everyone in the dining room.”
