46. Chapter 46
Chapter 46
VIVIAN
A fter I take Slade upstairs on the guise of checking on Roman, Slade checks the rest of the rooms up there. When he turns on the hallway light, I squint, the bright light hurting my eyes and making my head throb.
“You okay, Vivian?” Slade asks me softly.
“My head,” I explain, reaching up and finding a lump where I had been hit by the intruder.
Slade comes forward and looks at my head. “Fucker hit you hard,” he murmurs. “You probably have a slight concussion. Let’s get you some ice,” he says and turns to head down the stairs.
“Slade,” I call to him, stopping him and asking quietly, “what is Declan going to do to that man?”
“He’s just going to talk to him and try to figure out why he was in the house, and why he attacked you.”
“How?” I ask. I know, I truly already know what he is going to do. Hell, he had told me. I’ll do whatever I have to in order to protect the ones I love . But I don’t think I really got what he was capable of until I saw him take that guy down tonight. The way he hit him, the anger in him.
“Vivian, Declan is a great guy. He seems like he is closed off, but really, he is the most caring person you will ever find. And he takes care of those he cares about. Dec does what he needs to do to keep those he loves safe.” When Slade finishes his speech, he goes downstairs, and I hear him getting ice. I sit in the chair in the hallway, just wanting to stay closer to Roman. And as far away from the basement as possible.
A few minutes later, Declan appears in the hallway instead of Slade, holding a bag of ice. His shirt is gone.
“What happened to your shirt?” I ask him, wondering if I am hallucinating from the possible concussion I have. Maybe my subconscious is showing me the things that make me so very happy.
“It got dirty. Show me where it hurts,” he says, and when I do, he places the baggy of ice on it.
I breathe easier with him next to me. I feel a peace and safety with him there. But should I? If he could easily hurt that man, couldn’t he just as easily hurt me?
No. The answer comes from, well, I don’t know where, but I know it’s true. Declan will never hurt me. But it doesn’t make what he did less scary.
“Let’s get you home, Viv,” he says. “Axel is going to stay up here with Roman tonight.”
I nod, and when I stand, I wrap my arms around him. He did bad things. I can smell the coppery scent of blood on him, and I feel a lump in his jacket, which is probably his gun. But he is my safe place. He has done nothing but prove to me how much he is willing to do for me, and he takes care of me. He has never lied to me, and I bet if I were to ask him now, he would tell me what he had done, everything, in detail. But I don’t really want to know.
So instead I say, “Let’s go home,” and allow him to guide me there.