Page 15 of Bound by Adoration

“On it,” he responded and clicked off the phone.

“Who was that?” Nyx asked, her eyes intense on mine.

“Ax.”

“We can’t go there,” she said, moving away, putting her fingernail in her mouth as she started pacing the living room floor. “He’ll be targeted. Indie will be targeted. They’ll destroy her bakery.” She stopped dead, panic filling her eyes. “Indie.”

My head shook as I made my way over to her. “Swear it’ll be fine. In order to get these fuckers handled, I’ll need the help of my brothers. They won’t say a word about where you are. Trust me.”

It hit me hard in that moment. I desperately wanted her to trust me, just as much as she did Screech and fuck … Liam. Inside, I craved to be her hero. This odd man out shit didn’t work for me. How could they be closer to her than me? I had never been the guy to compare cock size because no one would measure up. This shit, this actually letting someone in and caring about them… It cut deep to feel like I wasn’t in her inner circle.

Yes, I wanted this. So fucking much.

She didn’t answer right away, and the strike to my gut felt like a knife searing part of me away. Fuck, it sucked. She didn’t trust me. She didn’t think I could keep her safe.

Me. Of all people. She didn’t trust.

She didn’t feel the connection between us, did she?

She closed her eyes, sucked in a breath, and opened them once she released it.

My entire body felt on fire, waiting to hear her response. As if this would change my life for the rest of it. As if she could tear my heart out and leave it bleeding on the floor.

No, I wasn’t accustomed to this feeling at all. Fucking hated it.

With each second that ticked, it felt like an eternity.

I couldn’t breathe, then she spoke.

“I trust you, but at the first sign anything is coming down on any of you or your family, I’m ghost again. But we need to go now because sitting here is just giving them more time to pinpoint me and show up.”

The relief of those words hit me hard. The spark of trust she was giving me was everything. Yes, I needed this from her more than she knew, but now nothing would stop me. Nothing. She thought I was intense before, but her trust confirmed what I’d been saying all along. She was mine.

“Let’s go. I’ve got you.” Then I looked at the room. “You two move.”

Fuck, this was going to be a challenge, but I loved this woman, and I’d do whatever necessary for her. It was all about her.

It would always be about her.

6

LIAM

The truck bounced on the road, hitting a pothole directly on. “Fuck,” I growled as we moved with it. My focus needed to be more on the damn road and not what was blaring in front of me.

“Man, those just jump out of thin air,” Screech said, holding onto the passenger side door. Yes, I was stuck with Screech, while Nyx rode on the back of Raid’s bike right in front of us.

Fucker always got what he wanted, and seeing her wrapped around him pissed me off in a way that was deep in the heart. He always won. Every fucking thing he touched, he got.

It was like the past was hitting me all over again, and keeping those painful thoughts and feelings at bay was getting harder.

Next to me I heard a groan as the truck bounced slightly, nothing like the pothole we’d hit before, so it surprised me. I looked over at Screech who had pain all over his face. “You alright?” I asked.

“Yeah. I’m good.” He lied flat out because his hunched body was telling me differently.

“Don’t fuckin’ lie. We’re havin’ to put a lot of trust in each other for Nyx’s sake. So don’t start shit off bad,” I said, looking back to the road, seeing clean pavement ahead and Nyx’s back staring at me.

“I’ll be good. Bein’ tall has its own pains. It’s somethin’ I deal with. It’s just my normal, and riding in a truck where my head hits the roof and gets smacked every time you bounce this thing doesn’t help.” Pain could be heard in his tone.

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