Chapter 17 Frankie
FRANKIE
The waiting was torture. Worse than any orgasm denial, especially since there was no guaranteed pleasure at the end of it. It was more likely to end in pain.
I’d been pacing Devin’s apartment for so long the weathered floorboards may as well have worn down to grooves in the pattern of my footsteps.
Every time my phone lit up, I jumped, even though I didn’t even have Alex’s number, and the only two men who would be able to update me in this world were in the room with me.
Panic wasn’t logical. Neither was, well, whatever this ache was in my chest at the thought of Alex not being okay. He had to be okay, right?
When Jonathan and Devin had showed up at the penthouse, half-carrying me out to a car immediately without telling me exactly where we were going despite my protests, I knew something horrible was happening.
I’d surprised myself first by immediately asking, “Where’s Alex?”
Somehow, the presence of two of the men didn’t feel quite right without the third, and I didn’t want to examine exactly what that meant for our larger group dynamic.
The guys’ silence in response told me more than I wanted it to. Even now, Jonathan sat on the edge of the couch, elbows on his knees, staring so hard at the blank TV screen I could practically see some violent show of his mind’s making reflected in the blackness.
Devin leaned against the kitchen counter, arms crossed tight across his chest, trying to shoot me an occasional smirk that didn’t reach his eyes.
But it told me nothing, too—nothing of any real value besides that Alex was in danger and they were just as worried as I was. It was all so unexpected, considering they’d seemingly known the man for years, whereas I could easily count how many days I’d known the three of them.
We’d forged such a strong connection already.
Great sex could do that to a girl.
There was nothing sexy about it when Alex finally burst through the door of Devin’s modest apartment, though. He still looked like his gorgeous, statuesque self, but he was whiter than the normal elegant pale he wore. Instead, he looked sick. Bloodless.
Then I could see that he was bleeding from his side.
That his elegant hands, the ones that touched me with such expertise, were covered in blood, too.
My brain stuttered at the sight of his dark shirt soaked at the side, one hand pressed there, jaw clenched tight. His eyes found mine immediately, like they’d been searching for me the whole way here.
Still, he was here. Relief hit me like a truck.
“Alex,” I whispered, stepping toward him before I even realized I’d moved.
Jonathan shut the door behind him while Devin guided Alex to the couch. Alex lowered himself with a hiss, but his gaze stayed pinned on me.
“I’m fine,” he said to the room.
I dropped to my knees beside him. “Where else are you hurt?”
“Just here. Just a graze.” His voice was rough, low.
“Then let me see.” My hands hovered before daring to slip under his fingers, replacing the pressure he held on the wound as best I could. His skin was hot. Sticky.
The heat pulsed into my palms.
Alex stiffened but didn’t pull away. He watched me the whole time, like I was anchoring him somehow.
Or maybe he was amazed to see me again. Had he been so afraid he wouldn’t make it out alive?
Devin brought the first-aid kit. Jonathan hovered behind the couch, jaw set, eyes scanning Alex with an assessing, protective energy.
I peeled back the fabric of Alex’s shirt, which was ruined, soaked a dark red. He was right that the wound wasn’t deep, thank god, but it had bled a lot. More than I expected from such a shallow wound.
“You should’ve gone to a doctor,” I murmured, wiping away the blood, even though I had no idea what I was talking about.
Of course, the idea of doctors was unpleasant, too, but after the medical system had helped my mom keep trucking, had helped her keep some quality of life even as she lost the ability to walk.
I trusted doctors more than my own amateur nursing abilities.
“Didn’t want a doctor.” His eyes flicked to mine. “Wanted to get here. To you.”
The words punched straight through my chest. Clumsily, I worked on patching him up. He didn’t flinch, not once, though I was sure it hurt.
But every time my hands touched his skin, he exhaled like something inside him was coming undone.
It was too intimate. Too raw. And I didn’t care that it was way, way too soon to feel any semblance of this for him. For all of them.
When I finally taped the bandage down, Alex caught my wrist lightly, his fingers curling around it.
“Thank you,” he said quietly.
I swallowed. “Don’t scare me like that again.”
His eyes softened, almost imperceptible to someone who was less fixated on his every move, but it undid me completely.
God, that gorgeous blue like a winter lake at twilight. It was cool water and sparkling ice and everything lovely about the darkest months of the year.
Before I could say anything else, Devin cleared his throat. “We need to talk strategy.”
Right. The rest of the world still existed. I stood as Jonathan moved around the couch.
“They know too much now,” Jonathan said. “Whoever tipped the Antonovs off, they were aiming to hit us where it hurts.”
“That means Frankie,” Devin added, meeting my gaze. “You’re not safe here.”
My stomach dropped. “So what, I’m supposed to hide in this apartment or the penthouse forever?”
“No.” Jonathan exchanged a look with Alex, who was sitting upright now, quieter than usual. “We think you need to get out of town.”
“No.” The word shot out immediately. “I can’t just leave. I…I’ve been taking time off, but I do have a job. A life. My mom—”
“That’s handled,” Devin said gently.
My pulse stuttered. “What do you mean?”
“I called in a favor. Your mom’s being looked after. Two of our best guys are watching her house tonight.” He gave me a small smile. “She’s safe, Frankie. I promise.”
I didn’t realize how much tension I’d been holding until it cracked down the center. Relief rushed in. “Thank you,” I whispered.
Devin nodded, his roughly handsome face softer than I’d ever seen him.
Jonathan stepped closer. “Angel, none of us want you to disappear from your life. But for now, the smart move is getting distance. And…maybe this is an opportunity.”
I blinked. “An opportunity?”
He smiled—a little teasing, a little warm. “For the vacation of your dreams.”
I stared at him, dumbfounded. “What?”
“We need to get you out of town, but that doesn’t mean we have to go to some remote, dull location where you can stay cooped up in a safehouse.
We have the resources to take you anywhere, Frankie. Anywhere you want.” He gestured, his hands open as if to encompass the whole world. “No limits, angel. Pick a place, and we’ll get you there.”
I looked to Devin and Alex too, disbelieving it even as their faces reflected the same sure determination as Jonathan’s.
The three of them looked at me like they were ready to move the whole world just to make me safe.
It made my heart trip over itself, wanting to escape my chest, to get as close to their hidden, secretly soft hearts in turn.
I laughed, a shaky little sound. “You’re serious.”
“Dead serious,” Jonathan said.
A place floated into my mind immediately.
The one I’d dreamed about as a kid, the one I’d always promised myself I’d get to someday, when life wasn’t so complicated.
When things were simpler. When money wasn’t such a problem. I’d thought of it even as I’d been auctioned off to a crowd. Once Mom was secure, our house ours completely…
It felt ridiculous to even say it out loud.
Extravagant. Impossible.
But so were the three men standing in front of me.
“…Paris?” I offered, almost wincing. “I mean, not that you’d actually—”
“Yes,” Devin said instantly.
“Paris works,” Jonathan agreed.
Alex’s lips curved, just barely, but enough that it warmed something deep inside me. “If that’s where you want to go, then that’s where we go.”
I stared at them. “You’re all insane.” It came out on a breathless laugh.
“Probably.” Jonathan shrugged.
A bigger laugh bubbled out of me, then. Real, bright, shocked. “Okay. Then Paris it is. Wow.” I paused, a thought occurring to me, and I asked them like a child eager for dessert, “Wait. Does this mean we go to Shakespeare & Company while we’re there?”
The guys all smiled in sync. The way they seemed to do everything. Devin chuckled. “You’re adorable.”
It was sweeter than anything we’d said to each other so far.
Jonathan brushed a hand over my shoulder. “We’ll take you anywhere you want.”
Alex, still bandaged, still pale but undeniably alive, looked straight at me. “Wherever you want. So…Parisian bookstore it is.”
My heart felt like it might burst. For the first time since I checked the mailbox, I felt safe enough to breathe.