Page 99 of Vengeful Guard

Gray stares over at the girls, tightening his jaw. “Paige saw everything. She held pressure on the wound.” He curses. “I never wanted her to go through anything like that, not ever.”

My heart shatters because he’s right, but my obsession with her got the best of me, and I failed the people who matter most in the world to me.

“So, what do we do now?” Declan asks. “We can’t go after Murphy while Da is fighting for his life.”

“We wait.” Gray stops and looks at us. “We wait and keep all of Da’s men here, protecting him. If I know Niall, he’ll want to finish the job.”

Declan shudders. “You're right. Right now, we have to protect ourselves with everything we’ve got. Retaliation can come later.”

Gray’s eyes have the fires of doom burning in them. “But there will be retaliation.”

I nod. “I’m here for whatever you need.”

Am I?

I want to be out there killing every last of Murphy’s men, including the monster himself. More than ready for this damned war to be over, I’m more than willing to do whatever the family needs me to do.

But there’s something else I feel in my bones I need to be doing. Someone I need to be protecting. My eyes fly to Paige for a second.

Even though I failed, I need to be the one protecting her. I don’t think I could handle not knowing where she was at all times. And I can’t bear the thought of anyone else looking after her. “I’ll take care of Paige. You don’t have to worry about her.”

“I know. I trust you with my life. Even more, I trust you with hers. But I can’t help worrying about her.” Declan rubs a hand across his face. “This is the second time Murphy has come for her specifically. She was already in a bad place, and now this…”

“I’ll keep her safe.” There’s no way this fecker will take her or get close to her again. Not on my watch. “I’ll never let her out of my sight.”

That’s the problem, though, isn’t it?

I had let her out of my sight back at the restaurant because of the damn boner she gave me without even trying. I missed five men lurking around the restaurant. I was distracted by Paige, distracted by how good she feels in my hands, how good her mouth tastes.

Because of me, she was almost taken, could’ve been killed in the crossfire.

Declan and Gray continue to talk about the next steps, both agreeing that it’s too soon to go after Niall, that the focus for now needs to be on protecting the family and Patrick recovering.

The family needs to regroup from this huge blow, and things are still out in the open as we wait for news on Patrick. As we wait to see if we’re preparing for a fight to avenge an injury or to avenge a death.

God, I hope Patrick makes it through. For me, yes, because the guilt is eating me up, but also because of Paige.

I have no idea if she can take any more blows without breaking for good.

26

KAEL

The doctor comes out, his face too closed to be good news. “Smith family?”

At the alias used by Patrick, all the Burkes stand up as one. A united front.

The doctor tries to look at them all, but eventually settles on Gray as his main target for delivering the news. “Mr. Smith is out of surgery.”

The family surrounds him.

“He had extreme damage in the top lobe of his left lung, and the bullet nicked his heart. We were able to fix most of it.”

Gray frowns. “What does that mean, is he going to be okay?”

“The prognosis is reserved at the moment. That means, it’s not over yet. There’s a big fight ahead, and we need Mr. Smith to do his part, since we have already done ours and will continue to do anything we can to make sure he has the best fighting chance.”

Declan looks at Gray, then at the doctor. “When will we know for sure? How long until he’s safe?”

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