Page 58 of Love Him Like Water

Yes, she felt like the apartment wasn’t hers.

Yes, she needed permission to settle in.

Not only had she been uprooted into a new life and apartment, but she was meek and nervous about everything.

She needed invitations and reassurances.

“Did you get a description of him?” Rico asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Yeah,” I said, rattling it off.

“Just a fuckhead who likes hurting women, or a desperate addict looking to score?”

Clearly, both.

But it made a difference for where we looked first.

I was still telling them where I wanted them each to look when there was a loud knock on the door, making us stiffen.

Elian walked over, looking out the peephole, then reached to open the door.

And there was Cinna.

“What the fuck do you mean your wife was attacked?” she said, zeroing in on me.

Rico or Elian must have sent out a text to the capos.

Which was good.

The more eyes on the street for this bastard, the better.

Cinna must have been nearby when she got it.

I was surprised by her anger.

I would never say it was right, but I’d seen this woman pull herself up off the ground, bloody and bruised, spitting out a tooth, favoring bruised ribs from a fight with a man, then snarled at me to stay back so she could finish it herself.

She was as hard as they came.

But, maybe, life had forced that upon her.

Then she saw someone like Lore, who had been protected, whose life had allowed her to stay soft and sweet, and didn’t want her to have to become hard.

Big sister energy type shit.

“She’s okay,” I said, feeling the waves of rage and concern flowing off of Cinna from several feet away. “She was hit in the face. Split lip, bruise. Scraped hands from catching her fall. I cleaned her up. She’s sleeping now.”

“Sleeping,” Cinna said, brows drawing together, dubious. “Did you drug her?”

“I gave her a pain pill. She had a headache.”

“Do you know who it is?” she asked, arms crossing, still pissed about something, but I didn’t have time to suss that shit out.

“We have a description. Not someone in any of the crews around here from what I can tell.”

“The fuck are you still doing here then?” she asked.

Good question.

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