Page 147 of Reaper and Ruin

“You most certainly are not fine! Your leg…” I could barely look at it. The skin and muscle were torn to pieces, jagged bits of metal still embedded in his flesh.

If that had hit him in the chest, or the face or any other vital organ…

I couldn’t even think about the sort of damage it could have done. Tears slid down my face. “You could have died.”

His thumb stroked over my skin, and he stared into my eyes, pure reassurance and determination in them. “I’m not going anywhere, Violet.”

“Except to the hospital,” the paramedic interrupted. “We need to get you loaded, sir.”

“Not until I kiss my woman and tell her I love her.”

“Well, if you could do that fast—”

The man didn’t need to tell him twice. Whip dragged me in, pressing his lips on mine and kissing me until my head spun. I clung to him, inhaling his scent, reminding myself I would get to do this for the rest of my life.

“I love you,” I whispered to him.

“I love you too, sweetheart. See you at the hospital.”

I nodded fiercely. “I’ll be in the next ambulance. I just need to see X…” I frowned, glancing around. “Where is he? Did he go to pick the kids up from school or something?”

Whip chuckled. “No, Kara picked them up. They’re at the clubhouse. But if you want to see X, you’re probably going to have to look up.”

I frowned but did as he said.

My mouth dropped open.

“Hey, Omelet!” X called from up in the tree. He waved at me with one hand, but that caused him to wobble so hard his eyes went wide and he clutched at the branch again.

A very patient firefighter sighed heavily. “Sir, you really arerightthere. Like, if you just scoot back an inch—”

“Scoot back an inch and DIE, I think you mean.”

The firefighter squinted at him. “You really aren’t going to die, sir. I can promise you that. I mean, even if you fell onto the ground—”

X shot him a horrified look, and the firefighter lifted his hands in mock surrender.

“Which you won’t because we have an air pillow down there for you, just in case. But it really isn’t that far.”

“I might as well be on the moon, sir! I’ll beg you not to downplay the seriousness of this situation!”

It really wasn’t that high, especially compared to my third-floor balcony, but I guessed he’d felt a bit more stable clinging to metal rather than the branch that groaned beneath his weight.

“X?” I called. “I need to go to the hospital and get them to check on the baby. I really want you to be there for that.”

His expression changed in an instant. Gone was any fear, either the fake kind for a laugh or the real kind. In its place was the man I loved. The one I saw beneath the jokes he used as armor to hide the insecurities about who he was and how his brain worked. He might have never felt like he fit in with society. But he fit here, with me. With the family we were creating together.

“I need you,” I told him.

He moved down the ladder like it was as easy as strolling down a footpath. And then I was in his arms, him holding me tight, his lips pressing kisses to my hair.

“I thought I was going to lose you,” he whispered in my ear. “I was all set to come through that roof and save you. But you didn’t need me. You saved yourself.”

I shook my head. “I always need you.”

He didn’t say anything, but his answer was in the way he held me, like I was something tiny and precious, something he was never going to give up.

It was X who loaded me into an ambulance, and ours followed the one Levi and Whip had gone in. The paramedics asked me all sorts of questions, and I wasn’t sure if I answered them well, because all I wanted to do was curl up in X’s arms and have someone reassure me that Whip was okay.