Page 135 of Indecent Lies

He’d still be hearing that pain when he closed his eyes tonight, that much he knew.

With no idea what would happen to her, he hoped tomorrow and the days to come would be a better life for her. She stirred for a second but didn’t wake.

What the fuck were they even making in that place, snuff movies?

Tag looking down at her, he felt a kick of sympathy for what she’d endured already. “You’ll be okay now, darling.”

Then he did something that took him by surprise. There was a piece of paper on the bedside table, he wrote his phone number and added, “If you need help with anything, give me a call. – Tag, the guy who carried you out.”

He left Marianna asleep and sauntered back to Rider’s room.

What a fucking day, he thought.

It was even more eventful than one of his cage fights.

But at least today turned out okay

* * *

Zara was crying softly into Rider’s chest when he woke up.

He soothed her as her biker-man always did by palming the back of her head.

“I’m good, Icy. Stop crying.”

“You got shot. That is the opposite of being good. Let me cry a second.”

He chuckled and rubbed her hair. “Okay, baby.”

“You cannot do that again. I swear to God, I will lose my mind if you do that again.”

After a minute, he said. “Made…. world safer…for my family.”

She lifted her head to look into his sleep filled eyes and began to bawl again because she knew whatever danger he’d been in, and he’d tell her later, probably at home where there was no chance of being overheard, that he’d had their family in mind and Zara just lost it.

Everything became clear.

Not that it was a surprise that she absolutely loved him, worshipped him, adored every protective inch. But the love right then felt enormous and it became clear to the point she was a wreck for all the lost time she could have wasted if things today had gone a whole other grim way.

“Why haven’t I married you already?” She sobbed into his shoulder, soaking her man. “Why have I been so stupid all this time when I should be your wife already. Your wife. Rider’s wife.”

“Icy, baby.”

Her hiccups became worse. “Marry me, Rider. You have to marry me.”

Rider, when she looked at him was rolling his blue eyes. “Dammit, Icy. It takes me getting shot for you to want my ring on your finger?” Laughter in his tone.

“Yes,” she cried again and only stopped when Rider’s fingers stroked through her hair and lifted her head. “Are you going to marry me, Ambrosio?”

Even in a hospital bed with wires attached to him and a fresh bullet wound, he was still bossy and she almost split her face from smiling so hard. “Goddammit, Icy. I’ve been asking for years; you don’t get to take this shit from me.”

She blinked, wiping her wet nose on the sleeve of her shirt, it happened to be Rider’s shirt she’d slipped on that morning to do her housework.

“Are you saying no?”

What the hell.

He’d been asking her nearly once a month, and now he had the audacity to say no? She’d punch his lights out if he wasn’t already laid out.