Page 38 of Fast Justice

“Little before six,” she whispered before focusing her attention on her brother. “How is he?”

“Good. He woke a couple times through the night and his mind seemed clear. They gave him some more pain meds through his IV about an hour ago, so he’s out.” He dropped his hand and covered a yawn. “Didn’t expect you here today. I thought you were under twenty-four-seven protection for the next while.”

She nodded at Malcolm. “I am.”

Nick twisted around, gave a startled smile. “Oh, hey.”

“Hey,” Malcolm answered with a warm smile, and Rowan felt a twinge in her chest. She knew firsthand that not everyone was accepting of gay people. Malcolm was as alpha as they came, but from the get-go he’d accepted Kev and Nick’s relationship without any hesitation or reservations. She loved that about him. She loved alotof things about him, and hoped she still had a chance with him. “How you holding up?”

“Honestly?” Nick thought about it for a second. “Better than I thought. I even slept for a few hours.”

“That’s good to hear.”

Rowan rounded the hospital bed and sank into the chair opposite Nick. She met Malcolm’s dark gaze where he was standing sentry at the door, his muscular arms folded across his ripped chest. And in that moment, it hit her. Hard.

He was right. She was a freaking cowardly idiot for ever walking away from him. The hot, pricking shame that washed through her was an unwelcome and foreign sensation. She had to fix things between them somehow. Or at least try. If Malcolm rejected her… She prayed he wouldn’t.

Ripping her attention off him, she turned her gaze on her brother. “He looks pretty bad.” Both his eyes were still swollen shut, the lids shiny because the skin was stretched so thin, and a deep, purplish-magenta. More bruises and cuts scattered across his face, and she could just imagine what his surgical incisions looked like. Thank God he was asleep and not in pain at the moment.

“Yeah. It’s still Kev in there, though, thank God,” Nick said. “Doc’s coming to see him around eight or so. We’ll get a better idea of what he’s looking at in terms of rehab then.”

He was going to have a long road ahead of him. “You want to go grab something to eat while we’re here?”

“I could eat.” He pushed to his feet, stretched with a grimace. “You want anything?”

“No, we’re good.”

Nick reached across the bed to pat her shoulder. “I’m leaving him in good hands.”

The words made Rowan’s throat tighten. When Nick closed the door softly behind him, she took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I want whoever did this to suffer.”

“They’ll find the perps,” Malcolm said, still not moving from just inside the door. “They’ve got a short list to work with. Might be quick.”

“Hope so.” She twined her fingers through her brother’s, watching to make sure she didn’t wake him. He didn’t so much as twitch. “It’s still surreal that it happened. And that I was the target. It’s scary as hell.”

“Yeah, it is.”

She looked over at him. A mountain of strength for her to lean on, if he’d let her. “Do you think the threat’s over?”

“Probably. If it’s the cartel, they’ve made their point. But we’re not taking any chances, just in case.” He squared his shoulders as he said the last part, his posture and bearing making it plain that he was more than willing to place himself between her and any further threat. That melted her even more.

Yesterday’s violence terrified her. “If it is the cartel, they were either trying to disrupt the case against Ruiz by getting rid of me, or maybe it had to do with Oceane and her mom.”

“They were trying to make a statement,” Malcolm corrected quietly. “The why of it doesn’t really matter.”

She lowered her gaze to where she gripped her brother’s hand. A day ago she’d been questioning whether or not she wanted to remain a U.S. Attorney long term. Yesterday had solidified it. “I’m scared, but I’ll be damned if I cave and give them what they want. I’m staying on this case until I nail Ruiz to the wall for the rest of his goddamn miserable life, and whoever was responsible for this with him.”

“I understand.”

She turned her head to look at him. “Do you?”

“Yes.”

Of course he did, he was a former SEAL and now a FAST member.

She shoved down the sudden spike in vulnerability and went for it. “But I don’t want to go through this alone.” It was as close as she could come to saying out loud that she needed him.

Malcolm’s gaze sharpened. He held her stare for a long moment, not saying anything as the silence stretched out between them. It was impossible to figure out what was going on in his head.

---