Page 26 of Shadow Touched

Ignoring the burning pain ricochetingthrough his head, he pressed on. Following the sound of the men hehunted. The gunfight at the grandstand slowly died, leaving onlythe stragglers trying to make it out of the cornfield. He pursued,killing all he came across, until he couldn’t hear any morerustling through the stalks. Brim slowly made his way out of thecorn. He touched the graze on his temple and realized blood pouredfrom the wound, soaking his shirt. Now that the adrenaline wasfading, pain set in. Wanting to sit down, he walked through Kix’smen to the outdoor patio furniture. Most of it had been shot up andoverturned, but he picked up a chair to sit down in it. A momentlater, Leia cried out his name.

“Brim!”

He looked up and saw Leia running towardhim. He braced himself and a moment later she threw herself intohis arms.

“I was so worried,” she mumbled into hischest. She hugged him tightly until he winced. She pulled away, hereyes widening. “Oh, my God, you’re bleeding.”

“It’s just a scratch.”

“But there’s blood everywhere!”

“Leia,” he said calmly. “I’m fine.”

He pushed her head down onto his chest,holding her tightly as people swarmed around them. For a moment, itwas like they were suspended in time. Their heartbeats beatingtogether in unison.

“The shadows are gone,” she whispered.“That’s how I knew we won. They disappeared.”

“I know you were scared,” he said. “I don’twant you to worry about trading one life for another.”

“I wasn’t worried.”

“Good, because you did a good thing here,Leia. You saved our friends. You saved the kids. You savedPiper.”

“I saved you. Again.”

“Aren’t you a clever girl for remindingme.”

“I’ve never had friends before.”

“Well, now you have a boatload of them. Wereyou worried about me?” he asked softly.

“Absolutely not.”

He grinned and kissed her lightly on themouth. “Come on. Let’s help in the cleanup.”

The rest of the afternoon and evening wasspent cleaning up the carnage. Brim made sure that Leia was farremoved from seeing the blood, guts, and dead bodies by shooing herinside the grandstand to help Piper and Martha clean up the house.The club brothers knew how to make dead people disappear. In amatter of hours, it was almost like nothing had happened at all.Even the trucks they had come barreling in had been dismantled.Then he accompanied Kix and the others to finish off the Neo-Nazis,riding back to their turf to hammer in the message you don’t fuckwith The White Death MC.

They got back late that night, and insteadof heading toward his mother’s, he found Leia asleep in her room.He took a quick shower, took a pain pill, and slid into bed. Leiaroused when he pulled her into his arms.

“You’re naked,” she whispered.

“I’m exhausted,” he murmured, kissing thetop of her head. “Go to sleep.”

She snuggled into his arms, and he followedher into dreamland shortly after.

Chapter Ten

Leia blinked against the sunlight streamingin the window. She went to stretch and bumped into a hard, malebody. Her heart skipped a beat, and she turned her head to see Brimpassed out beside her, his muscular tattooed chest rising andfalling evenly in sleep. The moment allowed her to admire hismasculine physique and she pursed her lips as she slowly,carefully, lifted the sheet.

She blinked, as impressed with his southernborder as she was with his northern.

Dropping the sheet like it scalded her, Leiaquickly rose from the bed and smoothed down the t-shirt she wore.Tiptoeing toward the door, she opened it and saw her clothes neatlyfolded on the floor. She bent and picked them up, catching thescent of laundry detergent and realized Piper must have washedeverything. Leia hurried to the bathroom to shower and change.

Twenty minutes later, she headed downstairs.Martha stood at the stove, cooking breakfast, and Piper sat at theisland with her twins in separate highchairs, feeding them.

“Thank you for this,” Leia said, gesturingto her clothes.

“It’s the least I could do,” Piper said witha smile. “What you did for us … that’s what family does, and you’renow part of this family.”

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