Chapter 46
Kian
“You look like shit, bro,” I say with a halfhearted smile.
Beckett blinks slowly and moves his hand that’s not hooked up to IVs, lifting his middle finger. He’s high as a kite and barely awake, but he’s still Beckett.
“Is Lacey okay?” Jordyn asks from where she’s sitting on Cash’s lap.
The entire family is here, including Cassian and Caleb, who almost looks worse than Beckett as he leans back in a chair next to the bed.
“She’s good. Luciano’s with her,” I say quietly, taking the only available seat on the other side of Beckett.
“New phone.” Cassian holds out a brand-new one to me. “I found yours at the graveyard. It was broken, but I was able to pull the data from it, so you still have all your numbers and photos.”
I give him a nod and slide it into my pocket.
“The security guard had surgery to remove the bullet from his arm. We met with him already. He’s now a security employee of Savage Entertainment,” Cash says after a while.
“He’ll be on pain leave for the next six months, though.
Triple what he was making before, and his mother’s house has been paid off. ”
In other words, we bought his silence and are paying him a shit ton of money to take six months off to heal. That’s fair. The guy did nothing wrong. He was doing his job, and he’s obviously good at it, considering his aim was better than Beckett’s.
“What can I do to help with Beckett? Do we need to find a live-in nurse or something when he comes home? How soon can we put him on a plane?” I ask no one in particular.
Caleb looks up at me, his eyes coming into focus, like he was in a whole other world. “I’ll stay with him when we go back to Vegas. The surgeon wants him here for another twenty-four hours before one of them flies home with us to monitor him on the plane.”
Studying him, I offer a weak smile. He’s exhausted. We all are. It doesn’t matter right now. None of us is going to sleep until we know for damn sure that Beckett is stable.
Hours pass, and we come and go from the room to find coffee or take a call. At one point, Quinn falls asleep in Xander’s arms. When I look over at him, he’s staring at her with so much adoration, it makes my chest ache. That’s how I feel about Ace.
She’s everything.
My everything.
And she’s going to be part of this family.
Preferably as soon as possible, because the only man’s last name I want her to have is mine.
As I walk out of the room to check on Ace, I run into Caleb in the hall.
“Are you good?” I ask.
Staying stoic as always, Caleb dips his chin. “I’m good. Is Lacey going to be okay?”
“She’s going to be fine. I’m glad she has Luciano.” As much as I fucking hate to admit it.
“He doesn’t seem bad,” Caleb says.
I lean against the wall of the private hallway. Wherever we are in the hospital, the only people I’ve seen other than my family are those taking care of Beckett. I’d bet Luciano made sure of that.
“He’s not. I just don’t like sharing what’s mine.” I shrug. “I love her, though. She deserves as much love as possible after the lonely life she lived.”
Caleb smirks. “Well, I think she’ll never feel lonely again in this family. Go home to her. Beckett would want you to. Especially after what she went through.”
He’s right. If my little brother were lucid enough to speak, he’d tell me to get the fuck out of here and go to her.
“If anything changes, you’ll call me right away?” I ask, even though I already know he will.
Caleb nods once, and at the same time, we head in opposite directions.
I need to see my girl.
Luciano opens the front door when I walk up to it. He looks like he’s shaved, showered, and changed into a freshly pressed suit since I left. “She’s been asleep for about two hours. I need to leave for a while.”
Raising an eyebrow, I study him. “We’ve been awake for over twenty-four hours. Wherever you’re going can’t wait until you get some sleep?”
With his hair slicked back and his face freshly shaved, Luciano looks every part the dangerous mobster. It’s kind of fucking comical how he looks like one of those mafia guys from the movies.
“I’m not much of a sleeper. I need to meet with my men for a briefing and to make sure everything is cleaned up. I’ll only be gone a few hours. Make yourself at home.”
Then he’s gone, headed down a hall I’m pretty sure leads to the garage.
Taking the stairs two at a time, I get to the second landing and head into the guest bedroom, where my angel is fast asleep.
I sit in one of the nearby armchairs and watch her, allowing myself to relax. She’s here. She’s safe. My brother is fine. Everything is going to be all right.
Ace sleeps for a long while. Eventually, I get up and undress to my underwear before I climb into bed next to her. When she immediately curls up into me, I wrap one arm around her soft waist and press a kiss on the back of her head.
“I’ve missed you,” she whispers in that honey-sweet sleepy voice of hers.
My dick aches against her ass. I’ll never get tired of this woman. It’s not just her body. Or that she’s smart and beautiful. Or that she dances like a goddess. It’s everything. Her smell. Her strength. Her heart. She’s the entire package. The best card in the deck.
“I fucking missed you,” I murmur into her ear as I roll over, pinning her front to the mattress as I dig my fingers into the waistband of her sweats. When I yank them down, she moans, and it goes right to my cock.
Christ.
“You’re such a tease, angel,” I growl as I push down my underwear and shove my hard dick into her in one deep thrust. “Daddy’s tease.”
Nodding, she grips the bedding and hums quietly as I pull out and then push in again.
We stay as quiet as we can, though I’m sure all these rooms are soundproof in Luciano’s house.
“Oh, God,” she whimpers. “Daddy, please.”
Using my forearm to hold myself up, I reach under her with my free hand and slide my fingers between her legs, pressing them against her clit, but not moving them.
“You need to come for me, angel? Is that what you want?”
Ace trembles beneath me, her orgasm is barely contained as I pump into her, over and over in deep thrusts.
“Please, yes,” she whimpers.
As soon as I circle her clit, I lean down and whisper, “Come for me,” into her ear.
Her pussy clenches around me, pulling me with her as we explode together as one.
Luciano hugs Ace one more time before I lead her toward the stairs of our private jet. “I’ll see you soon.”
She smiles and nods, and as I pass him, I give him a smug smile. “Not too soon, though.”
His expression darkens, but I can tell there’s no heat behind it. I’m not sure whether Luciano and I will ever be friends, but we both carry mutual respect for each other. I can’t say I’m looking forward to having him and his men at our holiday gatherings, but the more the merrier, I fucking guess.
It wasn’t that long ago that my brothers and I were four lonely men who were going through the motions of life. Beckett still has some shit to go through, but I’d say we’re thriving as a family.
“Savage,” Luciano calls out before I’m out of hearing range.
I glance back at him, and he catches up to me. “Once you get Lacey settled, we’ll work on taking down Dreq. I have men working on looking for him.”
Nodding, I offer my hand. “I’ll be by your side when we end that motherfucker.”
He reaches out, and we shake on it before I follow Ace up the steps onto the plane, where Beckett is already settled in with one of the doctors by his side.
Beckett grins at Ace. “Hey, beautiful.”
“Enjoying the morphine?” she asks him in an overly sweet voice, like he’s a five-year-old who just ate glue and she’s not sure how to react.
I push her past him, making her giggle as I glare at my brother. “I will fucking shoot you in the other shoulder.”
Cash and Xander burst out laughing, while Beckett grins up at me, totally high off his ass.
“Asshole,” I mutter, rolling my eyes, and go to sit where Ace is curling herself into the plush leather seat.
As soon as I lower myself next to her, she leans over, snuggling into me, and suddenly, I don’t remember why I was irritated with my brother a moment ago.
She wants me. Not anyone else.
And fuck, I want to take care of her. To give her the life she deserves. Which means we’re going to have to talk about setting some firm rules and boundaries because, while I understand why she went after her mom, that shit can’t happen again.
The entire flight home, while Ace sleeps, I think about all the shit that could have gone wrong.
All the ways she could have been hurt or killed.
Thank fuck we had two experienced bodyguards on her who did what they had to do to stay on her tail at all times.
She has no idea that there were a dozen men posted around her mother’s property by the time Luciano and I arrived.
“I want you to stay with me when we get back to Vegas,” I tell her as soon as she stirs against me.
She stills and then pulls back to look up at me, her eyes sleepy and unfocused. “Like for the night, or…?”
“You know I don’t mean for the night, angel. I don’t want you to live down the fucking street. You should be in my bed every night, where I can watch over you and make sure you’re eating enough and sleeping enough and being a good girl.”