Page 127 of Love Him Like Water

“Make sure you grab the phones,” I told Cinna, getting a nod from her. “You, with me,” I said to Cage, who fell into step behind Lore as we moved into the garage. “Okay, you can open,” I said, but felt her pull to a stop. “What is it?” I asked, finding her gaze on the car crashed into the garage door.

“I did that,” she admitted. “I locked myself in. Which pissed them off,” she said with a ghost of a smile on her lips. Proud of herself. As she should be. “And the driver was close enough that I thought the fob might let me turn it back on. So I did… and did that.”

“That’s what happened to your face?” I asked. “The airbag?”

“Yeah,” she said, nodding. “Think I might have a little whiplash from it,” she admitted, reaching up to rub the back of her neck.

“We’re gonna take care of you,” I assured her, pulling her close to press a quick kiss to her lips. “Fucking proud of you, mouse,” I said, watching the pleasure spread across her face. “Now, let’s get the fuck out of here.”

Cage drove us home in silence, lucking out on a parking spot near the apartment, and followed us up to take Elian’s space outside of the door. But this time, I had men stationed outside of the building as well. No one was getting in here again.

There was a lot of fucking work to do.

Bodies to dispose of.

Leads to track down.

Other men to take out for their disloyalty.

But right now, none of that was as important as taking Lore upstairs, turning on the shower, stripping us both, then climbing in, and cleaning off the grime that was all over her from being on the ground in that building.

She clung to me for a long time, just needing to borrow some strength.

“Renzo?”

“Yeah?”

“What are you going to tell my family about this?” she asked, angling her head back, giving me a brow raise.

“The truth,” I said, shrugging.

First, because it was her family. They deserved to know what happened.

Second, they were allies now, and depending on how big this coup went, I might want some backup.

“But not tonight,” I said as I pulled her out of the shower, drying her off.

“Not tonight,” she agreed, following me to bed, and curling up on my chest.

I waited for her to sink into me before asking her about her head, about any dizziness or nausea or anything that might suggest I had to get her to see someone.

But aside from a headache, she said she was fine.

Fucking miracle, given the situation.

If I’d been any later… if I hadn’t shown up with Dav and Cinna strapped to the hilt…

It could have been so much worse.

This was twice I’d failed to protect my woman in the short time we’d been together.

And it was going to be the motherfucking last.

I held her while she drifted off to sleep.

Then slid out from under her, heading downstairs, and getting to work on making sure it never fucking happened again.

“Lore? Is everything alright?” Nico’s voice met my ear as I used her phone to find his number and call.

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