Page 53 of Bound by Adoration

“I wanna read it too.” Truthfully, I didn’t want to read it because I knew it would break my heart. But I needed to so I could keep Nyx safe. If she was that low to even consider it, I’d do everything in my power for her to never feel that way again.

“It’s on her phone. She doesn’t have a password, so you’re good there.”

“She doesn’t have a password?” Passwords were the key to life these days. There were passwords on every damn thing imaginable. Her not having one seemed odd. I wondered if she turned it off just so we’d be able to find it.

“Not the time. Look, I knew this shit was weighin’ on her. How could it not? But to take herself out because she thought it would be the right thing for us … no. Just fuckin’ no, Liam. I know she’s taken care of herself over these years and thinks she needs to do that now. We need to show her that she’s not alone. That she has us by her fuckin’ side every step of the way. That her not bein’ part of our lives would devastate us.”

“Agree. She’s always been a fighter. It’s not something I’d ever thought she’d do.” Ever. Not even on the list of things thinkable when it came to Nyx.

Raid swiped his hand over his face, the muscles in his arm flexing, and I had to choke back a groan. The man needed to come down on the sex meter, dammit. “Me either. Fuck. I’ve never been so scared in my life when I read that.”

I cleared my throat and tried to stop staring at the man’s body, but hell it was hard. “You scared the shit out of me wakin’ up like that. That’s for sure.”

“You know what this means, right?” Raid asked me.

“That we can’t leave her alone.” Wasn’t that a given?

“That and we need to settle our shit, Liam. We can’t be at each other and keep Nyx happy at the same time.”

I chuckled hearing him even suggest this. “So how do you propose we settle our shit?” This was going to be interesting, and I wondered what the hell his “plan” for that would be. Because while I had my role to play in all of it, he had a larger one.

His gaze met mine intently. “You heard me last night. I’m not revisitin’ all that shit again. Already said I’m sorry for the shit I put you through, and I fuckin’ meant it, Liam. I handled everything wrong, and I know never to do it again.”

“So you’re done bein’ pissed at me then?” I asked him.

“I’ll always be pissed at you,” he replied, shocking me. Then he chuckled, reminding me of a time when all we did together was razz each other and laugh. I missed those days. I missed the friendship more than anything. Losing that, losing him, left a huge void in my life.

“Great. Can’t wait to live a life with you on my ass all the time,” I replied, rolling my eyes.

“Like you don’t like me on your ass. Please.”

“Like I’d let you near my ass again,” I fired back before thinking. The banter couldn’t be like this? Could it?

He sighed deep. “It looks like we’re all three in this together. You do plan on stayin’ here and not goin’ back to Atlanta. Right?”

I’d been thinking a lot about that and there was nothing for me there anymore. Hell, there wasn’t anything there the moment that Nyx left. Since then, I’d just been keeping an eye on what they found, protecting her and trying to live a life.

A life I didn’t like.

This here. This was what I wanted. Minus the assholes trying to hurt our woman. I wanted to be with Nyx, and if I were to fully admit it, I wanted to be here with Raid too.

“I’m here. Not goin’ anywhere.”

A smirk came to his lips. “Figured as much. Means you need to get into the fold with the club.”

This shocked me. Never was it discussed that I’d be part of the club, and I’d never even thought about joining. “You want me to prospect for the club?”

“Absofuckinglutely. Need you in the know of everything going on around us so we can keep our family safe.”

Family? Holy shit. He considered us family? He was full of surprises.

“You do realize what my profession is?” I asked him.

He chuckled. “Yeah. It’ll be good havin’ someone we can trust on the force. We’ll have to take out Thompson, but it’ll happen sooner rather than later.”

“You’re not afraid of everyone finding out about this deal we got goin’ on?”

“Fuck no. My family, the club, they love me. They love Nyx. They’ll love you too. We’re now a package deal.”

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