Page 56 of Protective Love

"But I can tell it's getting to a good part," she says, glancing at the screen. "Although it is getting late. I should probably be heading out soon."

"You can stay for a little while longer though, right?"

I can hear the desperation in my voice, but I can't find it in me to care or be embarrassed by it, because I don't want her to leave.

"I'll stay and read for a bit longer."

I've gotten so used to her presence beside me every night when I go to sleep, that I hate it now when she's not here.

When she had the day off, I missed her, obviously, and she was on my mind the whole time, but I was fine because I had distractions, but as soon as night-time rolled around, the loneliness hit me like a ton of bricks.

I didn't realise how used to her I was until that night.

I struggled to sleep, wondering if she was okay, and what she was doing.

The silence of the hospital was harrowing when I was alone, but when she was by my side, it was peaceful.

"What are you thinking about?" she asks, her attention on me now instead of the Kindle in her hands.

"You," I tell her, honestly. "Always you."

Her cheeks grow red underneath the light from the lamp and she glances away from me as a shy smile takes over her face.

I smirk at her reaction to my words.

Knowing that she's going to have to go soon, I move around in the hospital bed until I'm comfy, readying myself for sleep because I don't want to still be awake when she has to leave.

My eyes never stray from her face, admiring her as she loses herself in a fictional world.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Jaylen

"Ican't believe you had me do this for you," Dominic grumbles, walking into my room with a McDonald's bag, and a bouquet of flowers which he places at the foot of my bed, looking at them with disgust. "You owe me big time."

"In my defence, you were the one that chose to come and see me this morning. If you'd waited to come with everyone else later on, then I would've asked Sophia or Jess to get them for me."

He rolls his eyes, glares at the flowers one more time, and then moves to sit on the chair beside me while I unwrap the double cheeseburger he brought me, moaning in delight when I shove it in my mouth.

"Finally," I groan, biting into the burger again. "I've needed this so bad."

He grimaces as he watches me finish the burger and then gulp down a glass of water, muttering something about me being an animal.

"How's everything going out there?" I ask, wanting to subtly pry some information out of him about what I've been missing.

He shrugs and rests against the back of the chair, leaning his head back and closing his eyes before releasing a sigh.

"Honestly, I'm in way over my head," he admits, looking defeated. "I thought it'd be easy to merge everyone together. Some of the guys have been understanding and haven't had any issues, but a few of the men from the Rossi side haven't been easy to deal with."

"Has Jericho been helping?"

He scoffs and shakes his head.

"He's technically still in charge, so you'd think so, but no. He's spoken to me once, and that was because I begged Sophia to get Kaleb to call him after one of his guys had leaked the location of one of the warehouses to the fucking Russian mob."

"Did they get much?"

"Thankfully no. We were moving things anyway, so they only got a couple gun crates."