Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
PAXTON
Not a clue what my girl is saying as she paces back and forth, Italian words spilling from her lips and aimed right at me. Pretty sure she’s cursing me, and I’m enjoying the ever-loving fuck out of it. I love that I draw this type of fiery reaction from her.
I’m tempted to learn the language, but that might take away the fun of it.
“Please, Mr. Monroe,” the doctor pleads with me. His Italian accent is heavy.
“What?” I ask, having all but forgotten he was here. I have a doctor of my own I could have called, but Naomi insisted on me seeing one that worked for her father decades ago. I guess he retired down here.
“She is demanding I check you over or else.” He looks both amused and worried at the same time if that’s possible.
Another rapid fire of Italian leaves her lips as she marches over toward me. “We agreed; I was checked, and now it’s your turn.” Right, that had been the agreement.
I wanted her shoulder checked. I’d watched the footage for myself and seen the way Naomi had flung Mac down to the next floor. I’m surprised she didn’t dislocate her shoulder in the process.
It was one of the most impressive things I have ever witnessed. It wasn’t only the action. It was the level of trust the two girls shared, Mac pretty much running off the side of a cliff, trusting that Naomi had it. That’s fucking trust.
Then you have Naomi, willing to sacrifice herself. Doesn’t feel emotion, my fucking ass. Oh, it’s there, simmering, and I can’t wait for it to be unleashed all over me.
She stares, waiting for me to respond. Shit. The doctor needs me to take off my shirt, and I’m not sure it’s time to reveal more of my secrets.
My back aches, but nothing is broken. All that was in the dumpsters was drywall and insulation. I didn’t care if knives filled the dumpster as long as Naomi was safe.
I barely made it in time to reach out and grab hold of her as she fell past Mac and me. It helped slow the fall, and I was able to make sure I took the brunt of it, keeping her pressed to my chest. It did knock the hell out of me.
It’s been a few years since I’ve seen stars dancing in my eyes from contact. Pretty sure it was my father that had done it.
I’d been working on pure adrenaline when I raced back over to the building, my mind racing with possibilities.
I knew Mac had to be the reason Naomi took off that way.
It wasn’t until I hit the bottom stairs that I saw the men coming down them and knew they were searching for Mac and she was hiding.
If the stairs were blocked by gunmen, there was only one way down, and I instantly knew how Naomi and her flexible, springy body would manage it.
I had not anticipated that she would injure her shoulder. Would she have lived through the fall? Likely, but not with certainty, and that was one bet I’d never take.
“I can’t believe you did that.” Her blue eyes bore into me. We have more work to do if she doesn’t know all the things I would and will do to protect her. “Did you need a head scan? Can you no longer speak?”
“I’m good.” I grunt and wince. Naomi takes a syringe from the doctor.
“Hey.” I pull back, but when I see something I have never witnessed before flash in her eyes, I relent, letting her sink the needle into me.
If it makes her feel better, I’ll let her.
“The hell was that?” I ask, feeling the effects of it almost instantly.
“I’m guessing that’s not a tetanus shot. ”
“It’s to relax you,” the doctor says. At least I think that’s what he says, but I don’t really give a shit. Not when Naomi’s fingers are undoing all the buttons of my shirt and then helping me out of it.
I lean back against the headboard and grab the back of my neck and rub, the pain that I had there melting away too.
“What is—” The two words come out in a breath. Naomi’s hand comes to my side; her fingers, like whispers, run up the tattoo I have there. It’s her name and in the very same place as the scar she carries from that day.
She jerks back, and I can tell her mind is racing. I wish I could get mine to, but my whole body feels heavy.
“Naomi,” I call out to her. Her spine straightens, her features schooling back into place.
“Check him over,” she orders the doctor again, moving to the end of the bed. At least she’s not pacing; now her eyes are boring into me once again.
There are a million and one things that need to be handled right now, but she’s here. Hasn’t left my side. Not sure I’d let her, but whatever they shot me with might hinder me in that.
The doc feels around for a couple of minutes. “I don’t think anything is broken, but he could have a concussion.”
“All right.” Naomi nods.
“I take it you know the drill for that?” he asks her, and she nods. “You’re both extremely lucky,” he says, grabbing his bag before heading out of the bedroom. I’d had us all come back to one of my houses here. It was the most secure at the moment.
“That wasn’t luck,” I mutter. That was very much skill. Both of us together, and we’d come out pretty unscathed. We make a good team.
“The tattoo.” Her eyes flick to it.
“This old thing?” I smirk.
“I’ll cut it off of you,” she hisses.
“Is that so?”
“You think I won’t?” I should say I hope not, but maybe it’s the drugs, or maybe it’s that I’m tired of pretending. Likely both.
“No.” She goes utterly still when I blatantly call her out. “Come here,” I tell her, patting the spot next to me. She doesn’t move, hell, not sure she’s breathing. “It will help me feel better.”
“Pax.” Her shoulders drop.
“I think it might make you feel better too.” I lift my arm, and my girl gives. She crawls onto the bed and to my side. I wrap my arm around her and tug her close. “Rest it on my chest,” I encourage, and she does.
Naomi’s head comes to lie on my chest, her arm sliding around my stomach, her fingers brushing against the tattoo.
“It was you,” she whispers after a few minutes, remembering.
“When it comes to you, it better always be me.” I swear I feel her smile against me, but all I can see is her dark hair that is in a long, tight braid. I play with the end.
“You followed me.” Not sure if it’s an accusation or question, but it doesn’t matter.
“I think I might have the follow Naomi around kink.”
“I better be the only one you have kinks over.”
“I promise you, it’s only you.” Naomi gently shifts, rolling over to face me, careful not to move me, but with these meds I don’t think I’d feel much. I run my fingers up and down her bare arm, her skin always so damn soft. She’s back in a sports bra and those stretchy pants that mold to her.
“I should accuse you of having sent those men to try and save me to find good graces with my father.”
“But you’re not going to?” Her teeth sink into her bottom lip.
“Starting to see that you really only care about me.”
“And because I care about you, by default I have to have some care for the people around you.”
“Tell me—” Naomi rests her hand on my chest, staring up at me, her head now in my lap.
“It hadn’t been about you at first. I really was only aware of your name and that one day you’d like to take over for your father.
My own father was scared of the Marino name, which fascinated me because he wasn’t scared of much.
I found out their loose deal and knew it would only be a matter of time until he fucked it up. ”
“We knew that too.”
“As I’m sure you have put together, I plan very far ahead.”
A small laugh pops free from her, and fuck me, I swear that sound alone could make my aches and pains go away.
“You’re always a few steps ahead of me.” The corner of one side of her mouth pulls up. A week ago that would have pissed her off; now she’s impressed.
“I knew in time it would be you I’d deal with, and I needed all the intel I could get on you.” I smirk, thinking back. “You did not make it easy.”
“Really?” Her eyes light up for me.
“Yeah, really, but I got it after a while.”
“Whatever,” she huffs.
“The plan was to get information on you so I could understand you. Then when things came to a head with my father, I’d be ready, but things changed.”
“What? You saw me and became utterly obsessed.” She jokes, but I’m not sure she really is. “That’s what Nix would say.” Oh, and it’s what she wants me to say.
“Then Nix would be correct.” Naomi sits up. “Don’t.” I can’t let her go. Not right now.
“Not going anywhere.” She shifts to straddling my thighs, my legs kicked out in front of me on the bed. “For so long I wondered who you were. I don’t think I would have lived that day without you. We tried to find you, but you were a ghost.”
“You gave them a run for their money.” Her fingers go back to the tattoo I’d inked onto my skin all those years ago.
It was a reminder of what happened and that it would change both of our lives.
She had left a permanent mark on my soul that day.
From that moment on, I knew without a doubt she was meant to be mine.
That I would do whatever I needed to have her.
To be her protector when she needed it most.
“It was my first kill.” I smile at that. I know it’s not a normal reaction for many, but it makes sense for us.
“It was my favorite kill.” The one she’d asked about when I’d told her my father was my second favorite. Her brows rise in understanding. “All of your firsts belong to me and always will.”
“Don’t get all cocky.”
“You bring it out of me.” Naomi leans in and presses her mouth to mine.
“We need to head back to the Marino estate.”
I nod, my body heavy. It will be safest there.
“We’re not parting ways.” I want to get that clear right now.
“I know, we’re getting married. Then we’ll have our honeymoon.” A wicked smirk pulls on her lips.
“What better way to celebrate our union than destroying our enemies?” I say, knowing what she has in mind. Glee flashes in her eyes.
Does she realize that slowly she’s relaxing around me, showing me those emotions she always keeps hidden behind a frosty demeanor?
My sunshine is burning right through.