“Where the hell is she!”

When I open my eyes and see the bed next to me empty and the unhooked IV line dangling from the pole, I’m not too proud to say I lose my shit.

The door bursts open, and Z and D rush inside.

“Where is she?” I demand, and both men recognize the quiet menace in my voice.

“With V. She needed to make a few calls. Business. Family.”

My first instinct is to bend her over my lap and spank her ass for leaving without telling me, but I rein it in. A little. Leopards don’t change their spots.

“Where?”

“Upstairs, because we’re still under lockdown in here with no signal. Your order, boss.”

V knows the penalty for anything happening to Keira on his watch would be death, and the man has proven his willingness to die for me. I expect he would do no less for her.

“Get her back down here now.”

“But, boss. Ms. Kilgore told us we couldn’t leave you unguarded. She said . . .”

When Z trails off, I prompt him to continue. “What did Ms. Kilgore say?”

“That she’d kill us both herself if we left you unattended.”

A smile tugs on my lips. The fact that Keira is now giving my employees orders comes as a surprise. Part of me wasn’t completely certain that the things she said to me earlier weren’t a product of drugs, adrenaline, and shock, but it seems that I was wrong. Keira is stepping into a role I wasn’t sure she’d accept, and she’s doing it without any prompting on my part.

“And you believed her.”

Both men nod. “She meant it, sir.”

I let the smile free. My little hellion.

“Send someone up to let her know her presence has been requested.”

The door, still partially cracked, opens the rest of the way.

“My presence has been requested? That sounds awfully official.”

Even in a scrub top the color of a Smurf and two sizes too big, Keira still has the bearing of a queen. She gives the men a nod and they leave the room, shutting the door behind them as she comes toward the side of her bed closest to mine.

“Did you handle what you needed to handle?”

“Yes. As much as I could. I’ve delegated a lot to Temperance. She’s COO in my absence, and I guilt-tripped my father—without remorse, I might add—into not coming until I’m ready for him to come.”

The mention of her father stops me cold. “Now is not a good time for your family to be in the city.”

“I know. And they’re not coming. Do you still have someone who can protect them? All of them?”

“Yes. They’ll be under protection until I give an order for that protection to cease. Which I have no intention of doing. I made you a promise, and I’ll keep it.”

Keira pauses between our beds. I can tell she’s running low on energy after walking around. I may be able to power through pain, but that’s because I’ve never had a choice. She should never have to.

“Thank you.”

“You don’t need to thank me for that.” I reach out and snag her hand. “Come here.” I gently bring her closer as I move over in my bed, ignoring the pain of the gunshot wound.

“I won’t fit.”

“Bullshit.”

Her mouth screws up into a stubborn expression, but she comes anyway, and we both get as comfortable as the bed will allow. Keira’s face is inches from mine when I speak again.

“You said you wouldn’t leave me, and here I am, waking up alone.”

“Emergency. I made sure you were covered.”

I shake my head. “That’s not your job.”

“Wouldn’t you do the same for me?”

“It’s different.”

Her eyes narrow on me. “No, it’s not. I don’t know what got us into this mess, but I do know that I’m riding it out with you.”

Us. The word reverberates in my chest. I’ve never been part of an us. But the way she says it, and the way she has stepped up when the stakes are the highest, makes me realize that this is the only woman who could possibly stand at my side.

“You can order my employees around, but never to the detriment of your own safety. That is a hard limit.”

“Fine,” she says with obvious reluctance.

“I have another deal for you.”

Her hand curls into mine, and I’m addicted to how she touches me so easily and voluntarily. “I’m ready to hear your terms, Lachlan.”

I smile again at her use of my name, something I’m doing altogether too often for my own comfort, but maybe someday I’ll get used to my lips curving upward. Or I could just make the streets run with more blood and call it balance.

“Terms. Unless I’m unavailable, unconscious, or in peril, I deliver orders to my employees.” When her mouth opens like she wants to protest, I continue before she can get a word out. “But I will make it clear that any order from you carries the same weight as one from me.”

Her lips press together for a beat before she responds. “I can handle that.”

“Second, if I tell you to do something for your own safety, you do it immediately. I think you realize that life-and-death situations are not out of the ordinary if you’re part of my life.”

“Understood.”

Her lack of argument or debate pumps a new feeling into my chest. Hope for the future.

“Finally . . . I still call the shots in the bedroom.”

Keira lifts her chin in that stubborn gesture I’ve grown accustomed to.

“Are you going to lie and tell me you don’t love it?”

She shakes her head. “No. But every once in a while, I get to take control.”

“We’ll see about that.”

This time, a sly smile crosses her face.

“One more thing.”

“What?” she asks, her tone edged with amusement.

“Kiss me.”

She bites her lip and leans in, skimming her mouth across mine, and I answer her with an equally light response. When I pull away, it’s with the taste of her on my tongue.

“You’re not giving any of those orders until you’re healed,” she says.

“When you’re healed,” I say, correcting her.

“Deal.”

I inhale and release a long, slow breath. I don’t want to change the subject, but it’s time. Before I let myself get drunk on her and the possibilities of the future, I need to answer her questions and tell her the truth.

It’s time to show Keira just how black my soul is, and see if she’s going to run in the other direction.

Which is exactly what she should do.