Angelo’s younger brother, Erik, stood in the doorway to the hotel room where Daemon and I were told Faith would be after we made our first drop for him.
A part of me still wanted to pound in my little brother’s head for making such a deal. From what I knew, Nordic Lords had worked their asses off to clean up Jasper Bay and prevent drugs from coming into the ports and the state. Now, Nordic Lords were in the damn middle of it all over again.
The other part of me—the stronger part—was so fucking glad we had found Faith.
“Let me in,” I growled again at the man. My hands were balled into fists and I didn’t give a shit that the man in front of me easily held a gun at his side. With the same hand, he waved Daemon and I into the room.
“She’s hurt,” he reminded us. Daemon was at my back and cursed. The anger I heard in Erik’s tone over seeing Faith was the only thing that stopped me from slamming him into the wall.
I growled as I shoved past him into the room. They had used her just like Black Death. I hated them for it even if I understood.
Collateral.
Jesus fucking Christ.
Faith wasn’t a damn pawn.
Daemon, sensing my rage and the loose hold on my temper, grabbed my shoulder and hissed quietly, “Get Faith and let’s get out. We’ll leave the other shit alone for now.”
I nodded and didn’t stop moving until I turned the short hallway from the hotel room and saw her.
It fucking felt like someone struck me in the chest with a frying pan. It was painful seeing Faith standing in the doorway to the bathroom with only a dress shirt on. Her skin was white as snow, and it highlighted the small red cracks on her lips along with the yellow bruise that covered the right side of her face.
Someone had hit her. Hard. The fact that it was healing didn’t settle the heat that pressed against my chest.
“Faith,” I said and took a step toward her. But the way her eyes widened and her lips parted on a quick inhale had me freezing in my feet. I had no idea if I could touch her or if she’d talk to me, but I definitely knew that I needed her.
In my arms.
In my life.
“Hey,” she said softly. And I swear, that one soft, shaky word escaped her lips and went straight to chest, soothing my anger, and then down to my dick, hardening it.
She wasn’t pissed.
“You came.”
She ran her hand through her hair until it loosely fell over the font of the white, buttoned up shirt she had on.
I closed the distance between us, and without thinking, I cupped her cheek in my hand and ran my thumb over her bruise. I stared at it as if I had laser powers that could make it disappear. Her skin had been marred enough. She didn’t need more damage.
Finally, I pulled my eyes from the bruise to her watchful blue eyes. She looked directly at me, and then pulled her bottom lip in between her teeth. Something sparked between us. I knew what it was. It was the same thing I always felt whenever I had looked at Faith when we were kids, when we got engaged, and when I first saw her at Penny’s only weeks ago.
Love.
Need.
This time… she felt it, too.
I smiled and leaned in, brushing my lips against her bruise and back to her ear. “Always, Faith. I will always come for you.”
Her head dropped to my chest right as her shoulders began to shake. Her sobs racked my body as hard as if they were coming from my own chest. My hands instinctively went to wrap around her waist, but when I did, her pained cry stopped me.
“What is it?” I asked, my hands freezing on her lower back. I didn’t need her to answer. As I caught the reflection of her back in the bathroom’s mirror, small red stripes of blood showed through the back of her shirt.
My teeth clenched together as I slowly lifted her shirt.
She tensed beneath me.
“Shush,” I told her. “Let me see.”
Through a quieted sob, she gave me her permission.
The flash of red I saw in my eyes as my anger rolled through my body was darker than the blood that lined her back. Lifting the shirt only halfway up her back, I couldn’t bare to see any more.
Holy shit.
“He’ll bleed,” I hissed in her ear low enough so Daemon and Erik couldn’t hear me. “I will make him fucking pay for this.”
“I know,” she whispered. My chest was wet with her tears as she lifted her face to mine. “You came for me.”
I stared down at her, wanting to reassure her again, but I couldn’t. My fury over her back and her skin made me flinch, and I looked away, too afraid I’d snap and scare her. She’d been scared enough.
“Shit,” Daemon hissed from behind me. I heard Erik begin cataloging all of her injuries. I stopped listening when he rambled off a list longer than anything I’d heard before.
“Come on,” I said, dropping the shirt and lighting wrapping a hand around her waist. “Let’s get you home.”
Her eyes snapped to mine. There was a hopefulness, and yet fearful look in them. “No,” she rasped through a dried throat.
“The clubhouse, Faith. We need to have Doc take care of you.”
Slowly, she nodded. I reached for a bottled water Erik held out for me and gently placed it in Faith’s free hand.
“Thanks for taking care of her,” Daemon said. Ever the professional. Hell—the President, now.
As we hit the doorway to the hotel, Faith looked back and flashed a small, pathetic smile to Sporelli. He raised a hand in a wave and closed the door behind us.
Once we got her settled in the back of Daemon’s truck, I cupped her cheeks in my hands. Without thinking, I leaned down and pressed my lips against her temple. She gasped in a quick, quiet breath that told me she was not unaffected by my touch. “You’ll never be alone again.”