Page 28 of Where We Bloom

“Good.” The more she gets flushed through her, the better. “Come on, let’s get you to the bathroom, angel.”

She’s stillveryimpaired, but she’s able to walk with my help to the bathroom. Her eyes are glassy and half open, but when we get inside my bathroom, she pushes on my chest.

“No. Out.”

“It’s fine. I can help you.”

“No.” She shakes her head and whimpers again. “Out.”

I sigh and set my jaw but press a kiss to her forehead. “I’ll be right outside.”

She’s leaning on the vanity when I walk out and shut the door, and I listen intently as she shuffles around. I can hear the tinkle of her doing her business, the flush of the toilet, and she even washes her hands, which makes me grin.

Even wasted, she’s a sanitary girl.

Finally, I can’t stand it anymore, and I push the door open and find her leaning on her hands, her head bent forward as if she’s sleeping standing up.

Christ.

“I’ve got you.” Carefully, I lift and carry her back to the bed and get her settled under the blankets once more. She takes a couple of sips of water, but then she’s too sluggish to keep drinking.

“Your house?” she asks with a whisper.

“Aye, baby, I brought you home with me. You’re safe. He didn’t do anything to you.”

She blinks her eyes open and looks up at me for just a second. “Scared.”

“You don’t need to be scared.” I kiss her forehead and her cheek. “Just sleep this off.”

I want to crawl in with her, but my phone lights up, so I walk to the other side of the room and accept Chase Wild’s call.

“Gallagher.”

“Well, we found him,” he says grimly. “Jesus, you fucked him up, Connor.”

“Told you. He deserved worse.”

“Yeah, well, his story is different from yours, of course. Claims you came out of nowhere and attacked him for no reason.”

“Right. Would you like a photo of Billie lying in my bed,stillout of it?”

“I don’t need it,” Chase says. “Side note, how is she? Christ, I’ve known Billie all of her life. Is she okay?”

“She will be. She’s still presenting as very drunk. And she didn’t even get much of that shit in her. I can’t even imagine if she’d drunk the whole thing, Chase.”

“It’s fucking scary,” he replies. “Anyway, I don’t need a photo because I have security footage from the bar that shows exactly what happened. She’s clearly shaking her head, and he attacks her anyway. I can’t prove in that video that she’d been drugged, but she’s clearly inebriated. I wanted to check in on her and let you know that we have him. Once he can be released from the hospital, he’ll be arrested for sexual assault.”

“Good.”

When my call with Chase is done, I turn to look at Billie, who’s sleeping peacefully. And just when I start to join her, my phone rings.

Again.

“Bloody hell,” I grumble as I accept the call. “Gallagher.”

“How is she?” Blake asks.

“She’s sleeping.” I fill him in on how she was a few minutes ago.

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