Page 32 of Her Bossy Bodyguards

“Zeke?” I was standing by his bed in the hospital, tears in my eyes as I stared down at him. After Zeke had gone unconscious, Kingston had woken back up, almost like they were still instinctively on their shifts when it came to keeping me safe, one not letting me out of his sight without the other standing close by.

A package deal.

After we were able to find a safe way out of Barca’s mansion, Kingston had carried Zeke on his back and had driven us right to the nearest hospital, explaining to me that Zeke’s wounds were too severe to bring him to a safe location without immediate medical attention. And it’d been touch and go ever since, the last several hours spent coming in and out of his hospital room, waiting on updates from various doctors, waiting to see if I was still going to have Zeke Trapper in my life.

“I love you, too, Zeke,” I murmured, my face close to his ear. “I love you so much. I know it sounds crazy. I know we haven’t known each other that long, but…I know it’s true. I can feel it in my heart. I can feelyouin my heart, Zeke.”

I let out a small sob, desperately trying to keep myself together. I knew that my father was going to be at the hospital any minute, and I didn’t know how to explain to him that I was in love with both Zeke and Kingston, that if I lost either of them tonight, something in me would break that might not ever be fixed. It was like I couldn’t have one without the other; my heart belonged to them both, just the same.

“Any updates?” Kingston asked as he stepped into the hospital room. The usual stern look on his face had been replaced with something softer, something that’d surfaced while we were in the car with Zeke, when we were worried that he wasn’t going to make it. He made his way over to where I stood over Zeke in his hospital bed.

King’s hand slowly reached for my own, our fingers soon intertwining as I leaned my head against his shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

“What are you sorry for, Natalie?” he whispered back and pressed a soft kiss to the side of my head.

“I’m sorry that any of this ever happened,” I continued. “I’m sorry that some psychopath held what I did as a little kid against me. I’m sorry that my dad ever hired both of you. I’m sorry that it ended up like this, that Zeke got hurt—”

“Hey,” Kingston said, interrupting my response as he placed a gentle hand under my chin. “None of this is your fault, Natalie. Not a single moment of it. And I bet if you could ask Zeke, he’d tell you the same thing. Hell, he’d probably tell you that he was grateful for every single second he got to spend with you. Because I think you’re the first woman he ever really loved. I think you’re…”

His words trailed off, and he took a shuddering breath. “Fuck, Natalie. I think you’re the first woman I ever really loved, too.”

“What are you saying right now, Kingston?”

“I’m saying that I’m in love with you,” he whispered. “But I…I understand that what you and Zeke have is something special, and I’d never want to come between you. I just wanted to tell you, because I wanted you to know. I’m just as crazy about you as Zeke is, Natalie. And I’ll always be there for you, even if it’s just as a friend.”

“I’m pretty crazy about you, too,” I admitted with a small smile. “I love you, Kingston.”

“But I thought you and Zeke—”

“We are.”

“But if you and Zeke are going to be together, how are we going to—”

“We all are,” I clarified, my smile growing even wider. “At least, if Zeke’s okay with it. I can’t imagine choosing one of you over the other, Kingston, not when I’m in love with you both. You, with how serious you take everything, acting like you don’t give a damn about anything but following protocol, but you cared about me so much you practically ran into a wall of gunfire without a plan. And Zeke, with how perfectly goofy he is, wearing his heart right on his sleeve, always saying what’s on his mind…”

I spared another look down at Zeke. “It’s both of you. It has to be. Otherwise, it’d be like asking me to choose between my left and my right hand.”

“Hmm.” Kingston wrapped an arm around my waist. “I’m not sure how your dad is going to feel about that arrangement.”

I smirked. “Hey, if my dad can keep the fact that he once took money from a slimy sex trafficker to help him with his campaign a secret, I think I’m allowed to keep one or two of my own—”

“Natalie?” Zeke’s voice interrupted our conversation, his words coming out raspy and hoarse. “Fuck, Natalie. Is that you?”

“Zeke!” I couldn’t help but shout his name with excitement, beaming as I looked down at him again. “Oh my God! Zeke! How are you feeling? Are you okay?”

“I don’t know if I’d use the wordokayto describe how I’m feeling right now,” Zeke murmured. “But I’m still alive, right? And I think that’s half the fucking battle right there.”

A Few Months Later

“I can’t believeyou seriously finished the rest of your semester online,” Kelly whined on the other end of the line. “What am I supposed to do without you during finals week?”

I was moving into my new apartment in L.A., far, far away from Texas and far, far away from men like Montel Barca. After Zeke had recovered in the hospital, we’d all decided that it’d be safer for me to relocate, maybe even attend grad school at UCLA if I was up for it. My father had signed off on the plan, too, even fronting the money for the apartment after he’d broken down and confessed to once being so low that he had been willing to take money from Barca for his campaign.

And while my father knew that he was signing off on a sunny apartment in a safe, hippie-ish neighborhood, complete with Zeke and Kingston as my full-time security guards, what he didn’t know was that he was signing off on my new way of life, too, the one where I never had to choose between themenI loved.

“What are you going to do without me?” I chuckled. “Not have some rando knock your lights out, for starters.”

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