Page 49 of Come to Head

Discussing murder as if it’s the weather all while my best friend is in the hospital.

I needed to focus on Yara. On making sure she was okay.

Everything else could wait. I would process it all in my own time.

Emilio chuckled. “Thought so. Now we need to stop to change, but then let’s get you to your friend.”

Chapter 28

Maddox

His Ellie

It had taken two weeks. Two weeks to finally convince Ellie to come home and sleep in her own bed. That she didn’t need to be at Yara’s side. That each of them would take a post in her stead.

The first up, much to his chagrin, was Oliver.

Oliver had drawn the literal short straw, had Maddox made them all short with the knowledge Oliver would demand to draw first?

It was a possibility.

But Maddox was aware he wasn’t going to be able to play fair in this world. Not with three men vying for Ellie’s attention. He had accepted the other two men into her life, hell he found it hot as fuck seeing them with her.

In fact, he had watched through Emilio’s camera feed as Oliver had his way with their sleeping girl. Maddox told himself it was to make sure Oliver didn’t go too far, and maybe that was partially the truth. But when she had woken up? When Oliver had slammed into her?

Maddox had tugged his own dick out at that point, thrusting into his hand, until he came.

Ellie tossed in her sleep bringing him back to the present. He wasn’t going to wake her up, this was the first time she had slept in weeks. She needed it.

They were back in Emilio’s house, in theirhome. While Maddox didn’t want to admit it, he knew that they would be relocating to Florida. It made the most sense. Ellie’s company was easily managed remotely, and they had a crew of employees in New York to do the grunt work necessary to welcome potential new clients.

But Emilio was needed here. He was still cleaning up the mess that Christian and Stephen had caused in their wake. Both men were dead, but they left behind legacies.

They had all but run the Landons from town. Unfortunately, the Yorks were a different matter. While they didn’t have any blood relatives left in town, it had only taken a few days for one to arrive.

Simon York. Maddox hadn’t met him, but from what he had heard, he seemed a much better man than his predecessor. Only time would tell.

A quick agreement and understanding was formed. Christian had acted on his own volition without his family’s backing, so it wasn’t hard to put a new treaty in place. Simon agreed and the town was back to its falsity of peace.

The three families, now down to two.

“Maddox,” Ellie murmured sleepily, taking his full attention.

For a moment he thought she might still be asleep, but then he felt her small soft hands creeping their way across his skin.

Her fingers traced upwards until they found his scar. Where he had been shot.

“This is where the bullet hit her too. It’s the same, so she’s going to be okay. She’s going to survive it, just like you did,” Ellie repeated the line he had heard her say a dozen times before.

That was true, except Yara’s situation was a bit different.

“Maddox,” Ellie shot up suddenly before rolling over to face him. Even in the dark he found her eyes. “She’s pregnant. What if she doesn’t make it?What if her baby doesn’t? What if the baby is my sibling? But if her dad is my step-dad and her baby’s dad is my dad–does that mean the baby would be both my sibling and my niece or nephew?”

Maddox hadn’t been ready for all of that and simply reached out, tugging Ellie onto him. He cupped her face in his bulky hand. “She’s going to be okay. The baby is going to be okay. And when all is said and done, you will get all the answers you need and find out if the baby is your sibling or not. But for now? You need to rest, sweetheart. You’re vanishing before our eyes. We’re worried about you, your bruises are fading, but you haven’t talked to us. Told us what happened in that room.”

Ellie fell forward onto his chest, he almost expected her to doze off again, but she was watching him instead; observing him. It put him on guard.

What is going through that brilliant brain of hers?

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