Page 100 of Bad Medicine

“My baby,” she cried, her words muffled against my throat as I carried her through the rain and into my house. “He took my baby.”

I didn’t say anything. What was there to say? I had no words of comfort to offer her; wouldn’t even know where to begin, really. What did you say to a mother who thought she was losing her child.

At the door, Benny stood back, letting us pass, and followed me into the kitchen where I was surprised to see Vinnie standing there, looking nervous.

“I wanted to help,” was all he said, and I nodded my thanks, as I carried on up the stairs and into my room, where I set about caring for Mia in the only way I could. I stripped her out of her wet clothes, offering her a t-shirt and a pair of my sweats, then took a towel to her hair, gently blotting the water from it as she cried quietly on my bed.

The sight of it—her, in my room, my space—did something to me that I could feel on a soul-deep level. I’d never had a woman in my house, not outside the crew, anyway. My house was just that—mine.

Growing up the way I did, always being reminded what a burden I was, how every bed I slept in, every house I stayed at, were never actually mine, having a place that I could call my own, that no one could ever take from me or hold over my head, was really fuckin’ important.

But seeing her here, offering her the comfort and shelter of my home when she needed it most?

Well, that shit was fuckin’ primal.

Mia was mine. Mine to look after. Mine to care for.

Mine to protect.

And that shit started now.

I was gonna kill me a Bratva bitch.

Chapter forty-six

Mia

Thewholeworldhadgone gray.

There was no light, no color or vibrancy left for me.

Just an endless void of in-between.

Sitting at Rocco’s kitchen table, staring down at my shaking hands, I clenched them together tightly, not wanting to see my own weakness displayed for me any longer.

How? How had I let this happen? I knew there was a risk, that Greg had learned about Jasper’s existence, and still, I allowed myself to lose sight of him. To take my eyes off my sweet boy for more than a second, and look what had come of it.

It had been a trap; that had been obvious the moment that man had laughed in my face. He had used what he knew about me, about my chosen profession, and he turned my passion into a weapon.

And I hated him for it.

I hated them all.

I was completely lost in tortured thoughts when I felt someone touch my shoulder. Startled, I jumped, spinning around to see a sheepish-looking Vinnie staring down at me, his cheeks a dusky red.

“Sorry,” he murmured. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I made you some tea.”

I blinked at him, my foggy brain slow to process his words, as he set the mug he had been holding down on the table in front of me. Seeing the mug, a shiny black thing with the wordsSin Citystenciled on the side, along with the logo for the club, I felt one side of my mouth lift in the closest thing to a smile I could manage.

“Thank you, Vinnie.”

Unclenching my fists, I wrapped my aching fingers around the ceramic, letting the heat sink into my bones, but still, I didn’t feel warm.

How could I ever feel warm again?

Around me, the kitchen buzzed with quiet activity, Rocco having called in the troops.

And how they rallied around him.