Page 63 of Caution to the Wind

I jerked my knee into his groin and drove my knuckles into his throat simultaneously.

He wasn’t expecting it.

Then again, most people didn’t look at my five-foot-three height and slim build and assume I knew how to defend myself.

The man buckled in on himself, gasping in pain. I stepped out from between his body and the wall, tugging my jacket back down over my hips.

“I’m Mei,” I told him coldly. “I’m here for Cleo.”

Before I could step forward, he grabbed me, lightning-quick. His grasp on my forearm burned with pain, but I didn’t give him the satisfaction of cringing when I looked up into his face.

Oh.

He was gorgeous.

I forgot myself for a moment and stared at him, shocked to find not only such a beautiful Indigenous man in Cleo’s room but also one in the colours of The Fallen motorcycle club. It wasn’t usual to see people of colour in predominately white motorcycle gangs.

He scowled at me fiercely, but it didn’t impact the nature of his good looks at all. If anything, that strong-featured face and long dark hair suited his brooding expression.

“Who are you?” I asked, not as harshly as I would have a moment ago.

Because I liked this man standing guard for Cleo. I liked that he didn’t let anyone, even a seemingly unassuming woman, saunter into her hospital room.

“That’s Kodiak,” a whisper responded from over my shoulder. “Ignore him. I try to.”

I spun on my heel, wrenching my arm painfully from his hold.

Because Cleo was awake.

Her grey-green eyes were almost translucent in her brutalized face, devoid of all colour, like they’d been drained of water. But they filled with tears the moment our gazes locked, and I was hit with a flood of memories: Cleo laughing when I tried vodka for the first time and spat it out all over both of us, Cleo crying with me when I told her my mum’s diagnosis, Cleo sleeping beside me, face sweet with dreams, lashes casting long shadows on her cheeks.

Love filled me overfull until I had no choice but to burst.

Tears fell fast and silently down my cheeks, a mirror image of hers.

“Glory,” I whispered, forcing the words through my too-tight throat.

My hand shook as I reached for her, walking closer until my thighs hit the bed, and I could press that hand to her head. She tilted her weight into my touch and closed her eyes, lips forming a tremulous smile glossed by her tears.

“You came,” she croaked.

“Always,” I promised.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered through her panting breaths, her lids flashing open to reveal panicked eyes. “I need you. I-I can’t do this without you. I tried for days, and I-I just can’t…” She dissolved into inconsolable sobs, hissing at the pain of them wracking her recovering body.

I sat on the edge of the bed and bent awkwardly at the waist to press her face into the curve of my neck, cupping the back of her head as she cried and cried. My shirt grew soaked, my neck tight with the salt of her drying tears, but I barely noticed. All that mattered was that Cleo wasalive,and I was with her.

After a long time, her sobs turned to whimpers and hiccoughs. She clutched at my jacket with one hand, the knuckles bruised and split in a way I recognized meant she’d fought back against her attacker. My heart throbbed like an open wound in my chest, but I held back my own meltdown until later when I was alone.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered to her, stroking her greasy, dull hair. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there to save you.”

She sucked in a shaky deep breath. “I had a whole motorcycle club at my back, and they couldn’t save me. I know you think you’re a superhero, but don’t take this on, too. Okay?”

I nodded even though I wasn’t sure I could do as she asked.

“I was so dumb,” she whispered, eyes closed, body growing limp with exhaustion. “I was so stupid, Mei. It makes me want to die how stupid I was to believe him.”

“Not stupid,” I snapped, too harsh. Kodiak half stood where he’d taken a seat in a chair near the window, ready to intervene if I upset her.