Cruz (Dark and Dirty Sinners' MC #5) - Serena Akeroyd Page 0,100
some sleep."
Knowing I was losing her, I rasped, "Indy, I won't order you to do anything, not like this, not with what's at stake, but I'm telling you, if you run... I will find you."
Her gaze caught mine. "Guess we'll have to see if you're good for your word, then, won't we?"
My nostrils flared at the challenge, and just when she started to move the curtain aside, someone, or something, blocked her.
I'd admit, my heart started racing at the prospect of her running off. Goddamn oxygen tanks and patches and tubes on my body aside, I'd be going after her whether she fucking liked it or not.
But I didn't have to.
Nyx was there.
Had he been listening?
He stared down at his sister, his face smoke-covered, black and shiny with sweat and ash, and even as he hauled her into his arms, holding her tightly, I feared the worst.
Demonstrative wasn't exactly a word I'd use to describe Indy on the regular. With her brother, even less so. That Nyx was hugging her had my stomach twisting and I started coughing, unable to stop myself as Indy ground out, "What's happening, Nyx? What's happening?"
"It's a fucking miracle," he rumbled, "but somehow, the old bastard is going to live."
She sagged in his arms, and though the words comforted the pair of them, I didn't understand. Who was the 'old bastard?'
I'd have asked if I wasn't too busy coughing up my fucking guts, but, also, I was too goddamn grateful.
Whatever, or whoever, Nyx referred to, it made her shoulders drop with defeat.
For the moment, she'd stay put.
But I had no way of knowing how long that moment would last, which meant I needed to get my ass out of this bed. Stat.
Eighteen
Lodestar
"Care to share?"
I squinted at Mav, then rolled my eyes when I saw him and Ghost sitting together on his wheelchair.
He wasn't so dirty which made sense, because I knew he'd been upstairs in the attic working on something that he hadn't seen fit to key me in on—and if I sounded pissed, that was because I was.
I hated being kept in the dark.
Sure, I kept him in the dark about plenty of shit, but Mav didn't work that way.
Usually.
Which meant it was family-oriented, which meant he didn't consider me family.
Surprise, surprise, that hurt.
Stupid of me, sure, but it did, and I couldn't help my feelings.
So, if I was pouting a little as I watched a dirt-streaked Ghost sleeping on his lap, tucked into him like she was a little girl sitting on her grandma's knee—if that grandma just happened to weigh two hundred pounds of muscle soaking wet and looked like a walking Adonis, that is.
It was only fair that Maverick didn't have any siblings, because if he did, there'd be some weird incest shit going down.
Maverick was that beautiful.
Once upon a time, I'd owned a piece of that beauty. His smile had shone for me. But we were too similar, too alike. You couldn't have two alphas in a relationship, not without going to war all the fucking time, and with our day job, we didn't need the battles to be going down in the few hours we had to ourselves.
So we'd split, and to this day, I wasn't sure if that was the worst decision I'd ever made in my life or the bravest.
Maverick would have kept me safe.
I knew that, and I'd known it before I'd even seen him with Ghost.
It was a sweet kind of torture watching them together. One that made me happy for him, even as I mourned what I'd never have.
"I know I’m pretty," he said, wading into my thoughts, "but I did ask you a question."
"You did? Mustn't have heard it."
He snorted. "I call bullshit."
"You can call it whatever you want," I told him sweetly, humming at his annoyed grunt. "If you ask again, nicely, I might answer though."
That had him rolling his eyes, which, in turn, had me hiding a smile.
"There a reason they found you in the back yard?"
I winced, realizing that I'd been flung from the roof and into the yard beyond.
Shit.
No wonder my back was hurting.
"Did I damage my back?"
"No. Broken leg, though. Bruised hip. Couple of fractures on your ribs."
"Jesus, I was lucky."
"We're taught how to land," he disregarded, "but I wanna know how you had someplace to land from. I mean, it's not like we were doing parachute maneuvers, Star."
I bit my lip at his statement, not the words, but at his label for me.