Page 57 of Cautious

He looks at me, trying to gauge if I knew that, so I shake my head no. I didn’t know, but I’m not surprised. I knew she’d sold me, I just didn’t know what the going rate for a life was.

“Do you have any idea what he might have been paying your mother for?” he asks me softly.

“Me.” I push the word out gently, making every man in the room start cursing.

“She sold you?” Blake spits out from beside me. “Are you fucking kidding me?” he roars, moving to climb off the bed. I stop his movements by climbing onto his lap and wrapping my arms around him, careful not to touch my jaw to the side of his face.

Nobody speaks for a while, letting me and Blake have our moment until eventually, he relaxes enough for me to let go.

“She can’t hurt me anymore,” I grit out, my jaw throbbing. “Stay with me,” I plead.

He looks into my eyes, searching for answers I can’t give him right now, and proceeds to rock my world. “Marry me.”

I freeze at his words. Damn, those drugs are really messing with me.

Seeing the look of disbelief on my face, he presses his lips to my forehead before pulling back. “I’m so fucking in love with you, Callie, and I want the whole world to know you’re mine.”

I stare at him for a beat before I start crying. “I don’t know if these are happy tears orget away from me, loser, tears,” he teases.

I chuckle through my tears before answering him. “Happy ones,” I choke out. I reach up and cup his stubble-covered jaw with my hand. “Yes, I’ll marry you. A thousand times, yes.”

The words are slurred and slow, but everyone must understand the gist because the room breaks into cheers. I don’t smile. If I tried, I’d probably pass out again, but I hope Blake can see how happy I am from my expression.

When everyone quiets down, I face the new man again, who is watching me with kind eyes.

“Congratulations,” he says softly. I nod in thanks. “I’m going to let you rest. We can carry on with this conversation later when you’re feeling more up to it. Spend some time with your family,” he tells me, grief briefly marring his features before he turns to leave.

“Hey, Tate?”

The man turns back to look at Blake.

“Thank you.”

Tate nods his head in a “you’re welcome” gesture and leaves.

I look around the room at the guys and feel the love emanating from them all. My future is uncertain. I don’t know what’s going on with Christian or what will happen with my mother, but with these guys at my front and the man I love at my back, I finally feel like I can face anything.

Blake

I look over and see Callie is still dead to the world, her painkillers making her drowsy, which is probably a blessing.

We have just finished traveling back from Vegas. I’d been worried about how much pain she would be in on our journey, telling her there was no rush to get home. But of course, Callie insisted. She wanted to see Kellen with her own two eyes and sleep in our bed. I couldn’t argue with her after that, loving that she referred to the loft as home and the bed as ours.

If I have my way, she’ll never leave.

The guys who came home with us split off at the airport, heading to see Kellen and the damage done to our offices. Both those things are important to me, but nothing matters more than the woman beside me.

Parking the car in the garage, I climb out, moving around to open Callie’s door before unclipping her belt and lifting her into my arms. She mumbles something and her brow furrows with pain for a moment before smoothing out as she falls back into oblivion.

I carry her up the stairs to the apartment and straight through to the bedroom. Laying her down as gently as possible, I slide the flip-flops Felix picked up for her from her feet beforepulling the soft-down blanket over her. She murmurs again before sighing and rolling over, snuggling into the blanket. I can’t help but smile. The relief at having her here, home in my bed, safe and in one piece, is staggering.

I still can’t get my head around how close I came to losing her. Head injuries are fickle bitches. She was so lucky to walk away with a concussion and the damage to her jaw. I’m all too aware of how differently our story could have ended. Even if she hadn’t been hurt, I could have lost her the minute Christian took her aboard that plane. If he had taken her abroad to marry her, it would have been near impossible to find her.

Leaving the door open so I’ll hear her if she wakes up, I head out to the kitchen to make her something to eat. I smile when I open the fridge, knowing from the overflowing contents that my grandmother has been here. The freezer reveals much the same—food bags labeled with a variety of blended homemade soups and smoothies. I need to buy that woman some more flowers.

I take out a bag of soup and warm it through while making up a strawberry-flavored protein shake. Not the cheeseburger Callie’s been craving, but at least it’s not the slop from the hospital where they seemed content to sling everything on the menu for the day into a blender.

Grabbing a bottle of water and a handful of straws, I load up a tray and take it back to the bedroom for her. She’s stirring when I enter, her medications finally wearing off. It shows in her eyes that the constant dull ache is back.

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