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Biting her plump bottom lip, she slid her hand into mine, and the wave of relief and rightness that filled me staggered me for a moment. I’d have to analyze that shit later because we had to get out of there.
I ignored the nurses who demanded to know where we were going. I also avoided the elevator since they could be stopped by security. Instead, I punched at the stairwell's door handle and began our descent.
“How are you feeling?”
“Okay.” The truth was, I still felt a little light-headed, but the need to protect Fallon from the Bèar Clan had taken over. This woman who had saved my life. This woman who, for whatever reason, wasn’t scared of me.
“You have to tell me if you don’t, okay? That’s my only request.”
I almost laughed. Nobody made requests of me. Sometimes, they begged. Most times they screamed until I cut their tongues out and they couldn’t do that anymore. But I’d never had someone make a fucking request.
“Orin, I’m serious. You’re not out of the woods yet.”
I grunted. If Fallon wanted to play Florence Nightingale with me, I’d be down.
At the bottom of the stairs, we stepped into the lobby. The nurses upstairs had alerted security already, but the single guard waiting for us was standing in front of the elevator bank instead of covering the stairs. We easily slipped through the lobby and out the door.
Twisting my head around, I saw the Rover in question. I had no idea who was behind the wheel, but in the end, it didn’t matter. The gun that protruded from the passenger side was real enough. I let go of Fallon’s hand and yelled hoarsely, “Run!”
It took her half a second to realize what was going on. She bolted to the car and got the engine started. I began walking as fast as I could toward her, in time to see the Rover lurch forward in our direction. The muzzle of the suppressed gun flashed with each shot, the bullets hitting the cars surrounding me. I took cover as we came up beside one another and I got a look at the shooter. It was some little gobshite I didn’t recognize, but who was probably looking for his ticket into the clan. This was a fucking initiation.
When he no longer had a clear shot at me, he turned the gun’s muzzle in Fallon’s direction, and an inhuman bellow broke free of my throat. The bulletthwackedinto the rear window, shattering the glass. The bastard in the car sped off out of the hospital parking lot with a squeal of tires. For one heart-rending second, time slowed. If Fallon had been hit …
Rage filled my blood, the monster of my revenge knocking at the door of the cage inside me.
Yanking open the passenger door, I stooped to look inside. The bullet had lodged in the dashboard, mere inches away. “Are you okay?” I barked.
Her wide eyes were fixed on the hole, her chest rising and falling with labored breaths. “I’m fine.” Her blue eyes shifted to my face. “What about you? Are you fine? Did you get injured?”
“No.” The look of concern on her face threatened to put a fissure in the wall I’d built around my heart, but I refused to let it. I got in the car. “Come on. We need to go.”
“Where? Back to your cabin?”
As much as I wanted to return to my only sanctuary, I shook my head. “No. It’s time we returned to the compound. I’ve tried losing the Bèar on my own, but they’ve found us every time. We need to be with the clan.”
Fallon put the car in drive and eased out of the hospital parking lot. She started heading northeast while I kept an eye out for any dark Rovers with blacked-out windows. When it was clear the bastard hadn’t doubled back to follow us, it confirmed what I’d suspected, and I finally let myself relax a little.
My gaze flickered back to Fallon like it always seemed to do when I allowed it, and I found her expression pinched, her shoulders tight, and her hands wrapped so tightly around the wheel that her knuckles were white. I wanted to erase the lines of stress bracketing her mouth, but she was in my world now—a world where getting shot at wasn’t a foreign concept.
“What?” she asked. At my raised brows, she added, “You’re staring.”
I rubbed at my stubbled jaw. “I just wish I hadn’t dragged you into this.”
“You would’ve preferred to die on my front doorstep instead?”
“You know what I mean.”
She looked over at me for a moment before returning her attention to the road. “I thought I knew the kind of life my brother lived. I thought I understood there was danger, but he was generally safe in his day-to-day life in Galway.”
“He is,” I replied, wanting to soothe her fears. “In Galway, we’re safe. It’s when we leave Galway that the real danger becomes present.”
“But you leave Galway all the time, right?”
I nodded. “I do.”
She nibbled her bottom lip, and although it shouldn’t have been possible, the sight of it made my dick hard. I shifted in my seat. “And this is the level of danger and stress you live with daily?”
“Most times, I have a job to do. I go somewhere, do it, then return to Galway if I’m needed. Sometimes when Finnan doesn’t have so many enemies or thorns in his side, I go to my cabin to get away from the violence.”
