Page 7 of Dusty and Dented (Fallen Angels MC #2)

A ndy’s head hurt. She lay still as she tried to remember why she felt so bad.

Then she remembered. Travis was dead. She’d gone to his funeral.

Her chest ached and her mouth felt like it was filled with cotton.

She shouldn’t have cried herself to sleep, but it had been the only thing she’d been able to do.

Once the tears had started, she hadn’t been able to stop.

She tried to push herself into a sitting position, but there was an unfamiliar weight over her.

She frowned and tried to think if she’d done anything, or if anything had happened to make it hard for her to move.

It took a moment of running everything she’d done through her mind before she remembered.

She’d been here, crying and not wanting to deal with anyone, when Dagger had come into the room.

She remembered him talking to her. She remembered refusing to listen, even giving up on answering and hoping he would just go away if she ignored him.

But he hadn’t. Instead, he’d lain on the bed beside her and held her until she’d fallen asleep.

Was he still there? Was he still here, holding her? How long had she slept?

“I hope you’re feeling better after your nap.” Dagger’s voice was gentle. As if she might startle or run if he was too loud. His arms loosened around her.

“A little,” she said, lifting her head and shoving the blanket off it. Her throat was so dry she had to swallow before speaking again. “You don’t happen to still have that water you wanted me to drink before, do you?”

“Yeah, just a sec.” He moved the arm that had been wrapped around her and twisted around to grab a bottle off the nightstand then brought it back around. “Here you are. I wanted to make sure it was here if you wanted it.” He twisted the cap, breaking the seal before handing it to her.

Andy pushed herself upright, took the bottle and tipped it back. It took her a moment and several drinks, but she finished the bottle and handed it back to him.

“Thank you.” She tilted her head as she watched his face. “Why are you here?” She had to admit, at least to herself, that she hadn’t expected him to do anything but ignore her. She’d wanted him to ignore her. It was what she was used to, and she knew how to handle that.

“I couldn’t take the sound of your heart breaking any longer. Not without doing something, anything.” He pushed himself up the bed so he leaned against the wall, but didn’t make any move to leave.

“So, you decided to come hold me?” She frowned, trying to understand.

Even Travis would have just left her alone.

A sharp pain shot through her chest as she thought about her brother.

For a moment she wondered if she would end up in tears again, but none came.

Either she’d cried herself out for a while or she was too dehydrated to produce tears.

Considering how much she’d cried over the last week, neither would surprise her.

“It wasn’t my plan when I came in. I was just trying to get you to stop for a minute and drink something, but you were inconsolable.

You were determined to be left alone.” He shrugged.

“I couldn’t take it. I did the only thing I could think of.

I held you to show you in some small way that you’re not alone. Even if it feels like you are.”

Andy didn’t know what to think. She did feel alone.

She had ever since Raven had shown up at her door and told her about Travis.

She didn’t see how someone wrapping an arm around her for a couple of hours would change anything, but she didn’t say it.

He was trying to be nice and she couldn’t tell him how alone she still felt, even with him sitting right beside her, his long legs stretched out on top of her bed and crossed at the ankles.

“You took your boots off,” she said with a frown as she stared at his stocking feet.

“Yeah. I wouldn’t put my boots on your bed. That’s rude.” He watched her, his eyes wide with surprise.

She lifted one shoulder and let it fall without saying anything.

She wasn’t used to someone being so considerate.

Travis might have come in and curled up on her bed with her .

.. not if she was crying, though. But he wouldn’t have thought twice about climbing in with his shoes on.

She’d gotten on him more than once for it.

Then she remembered she would never have to remind him to take his dirty boots off her furniture again.

It felt like someone had ripped part of her body away.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath and exhaled.

She didn’t even bother trying to keep herself from trembling, as she didn’t care if the man still sitting beside her knew how she felt.

Dagger knew what she was going through. Hell, he had an element of it himself. Even if he wasn’t as close to Travis, her brother had been his friend. Or as Travis had kept trying to convince her, his brother.

She didn’t understand how Travis could consider these men brothers, especially since he hadn’t known most of them until he was grown. But then, she didn’t have anyone she was as close to as him. Maybe that was part of why this hurt so much.

“Enough of that.” Dagger’s voice pulled Andy from her thoughts.

“Of what?”

“Thinking about Panther and being miserable.” He sat up and swung his legs off the side of the bed. “I know it hurts, but he wouldn’t want you to do this.” Dagger stood then picked up her hand and tugged her to the edge of the bed and to her feet.

“Do what? What are you doing?” She let him pull her around. It took everything she had not to climb back into bed and try to sleep more. She didn’t have what it took to fight him, not when it would be easier to go along with him until he got bored and left her alone.

“He wouldn’t want you to waste away while you want him to be here. He would want you to move on and live your life.”

“Just pretend he didn’t exist? Just go on being happy and living my life?” She didn’t bother to hide her horror at the idea of forgetting Travis. “I can’t do that.”

“I’m not telling you to.” Dagger’s hands on her shoulders turned her to face the bedroom door. “Let’s start with a shower,”

“Are you saying I stink?” She did her best to sound indignant as she asked a question she already knew the answer to.

She’d showered the night before and even though it was late summer it wasn’t hot enough for her to have worked up a sweat, even buried under the blankets like she had been.

At least not when all she’d been doing was crying.

“Not at all. I just know that a shower always makes me feel better, and I bet it will help you too.” He gave her a gentle shove to get her moving.

“Hop in the shower. I’ll see about getting some food.

What do you normally eat?” He was being nice about it, but she knew he’d seen the inside of her refrigerator.

It was the only place he could have gotten the water he’d given her, unless he’d had some delivered, and she didn’t think that had happened.

“Whatever is handy,” she said. He couldn’t have looked in the freezer or he would have seen the stack of frozen meals in there. Between those and cereal, that was what she lived on, and right now she was out of milk ... or at least good milk.

Not that she cared. She hadn’t felt like eating for the last week.

“I’ll find us something. You allergic to anything?” he asked as he continued to herd her through the kitchen and down the short hall.

“Shellfish,” she replied. What would he do if she just stopped where she was and refused to go any further?

“Okay. Anything else you don’t eat?”

“Raw onions.”

“Just raw? You can have them cooked?”

Andy nodded and stopped in the doorway to the bathroom.

“Yeah, I’m not allergic to them, I just don’t like the taste or texture of them raw.

” She turned to face him. “You’ll still be here when I’m done, right?

” She hated the way her voice shook, but she had to know.

She couldn’t walk into the bathroom and shower if he was going to disappear on her.

Dagger gently trailed the back of one finger along the side of her face as he met her gaze. “I’ll be here when you get out.”

She stared up at him a moment longer before nodding once, stepping into the bathroom, and closing the door.