Page 85 of Lawless in Leather

There hadn’t been an explosion.

Just a bang and a flash and a shower of sparks. And then pure reaction.

Dumb.

He leaned forward. Touched the mouse. Watched again. Watched Raina again. Stared at her, aching with the need to touch her.

Every move she made was clearly her. Strong and wild and free. Not someone who needed protection. Someone who couldn’t be caged up. But someone who could keep up with him.

So much like Ally it scared him.

But different, too. Somehow he knew that. Raina didn’t have that dark streak Ally’d had. There was nothing at the core of her, nibbling away at her, rotting her from the inside out.

He’d tried to fix Ally, to tame her. To keep her safe and in the end, he’d been defeated by Ally herself. Who didn’t need him as much as she needed to try to run from whatever had been eating at her. Whether that was something the army had done to her or something from before he’d even known her.

He’d never know now.

There was no way to know.

But it wasn’t too late to know Raina.

To let her in and let her be strong.

Which meant living with the fear of losing her.

He hit PLAY again. Watched her trying to fly across a tiny stage in a darkened club and completely enthrall a room full of people.

To try to stop her from being who she was would just make her smaller. Hurt her.

And then he’d lose her anyway.

So if he could get her to give him a second chance, he had to decide which Raina he wanted. The one on the screen, brilliant and bold and untamed, or a lesser version.

He could lose her, yes. That was the risk that anyone took if they let themselves be in love. But before then he could have her. Have all of her. If he let her be.

Leaning back in the chair, he played the video one last time, pausing it on the first moment she was revealed. On the smile on her face and the wicked light in her eyes.

She wouldn’t take him back if she couldn’t believe that he wouldn’t freak out again. So he needed to do what Lucas had said and remove the cause of his symptom. Find the creep who was trying to mess with her and make sure he got thrown into some cell for as long as possible. Give her back her peace so that she could be who she was in this video. And even if she didn’t take him back, then Lucas was right, he could still give her that.

He just had to figure out how to catch the bastard.

The phone call woke Raina at about three a.m. She reached for it while she tried to make her brain function. “Hello?”

“Raina, it’s Mal.”

“Mal?” She peered at the clock on the phone. “It’s the middle of night.”

“You need to come to the hospital.”

Her heart started to thump so hard she thought she might be having a heart attack. “Why? Is someone hurt?”

“Our feathered friend decided to make a move,” Mal said. “Luckily, he underestimated Marly’s abilities.”

“Marly? What?” She bolted upright in bed. “Damn it, Mal, is Marly hurt?”

“Just come.” He reeled off the name of the hospital. “Ned’s on his way to come and get you. He’ll be at Brady’s place in fifteen minutes. He’ll call you when he gets there.”

He hung up before she could ask him anything else. Like how the hell he knew where she was staying and where the hell he’d been for the last two weeks and what the hell sort of first-contact-after-a-fight phone call did he think that had just been?

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