Page 54 of The Pursuit of Happiness (Satan’s Angels #2)

Aria

My head feels like it was run over by a fucking truck. The pounding is incessant and immensely painful. My body feels sore and weak all over and I don’t dare move in fear of making something worse.

What the fuck happened? Why do my eyelids feel so heavy? I try to blink them open and it takes a great effort. When I finally manage to open my lids, a bright, white light nearly blinds me and causes me to wince.

My vision is blurry and when my eyes finally come into focus and adjust to the light, I take in my surroundings.

I’m in a hospital room and it seems to be morning or noon.

I try to lift my head, but my neck is sore.

Instead, I roll my head to the side and find a figure sitting in a chair next to my bed.

His face is in his hands and his elbows are on his knees.

I recognize the blond mass of hair immediately. Sly.

I try to open my mouth to call out to him, but my mouth is so dry and my lips feel so chapped.

I try to lift my head again and I groan.

His head shoots up immediately and he gives me a wide eyed expression.

When our eyes meet, I immediately start tearing up.

I lick my lips to moisten them before I push the words out, “Sly, I’m so sorry for leaving.

I should’ve listened. I-” I try to explain my reasoning but my mind is coming up blank.

I can’t seem to remember anything past leaving Sly’s house and going to the after party.

I don’t recall anything after ordering a drink at the bar.

He wipes the tears from my cheeks and shakes his head, “Shh, baby. It’s okay. Everything’s okay now.” He has an exhausted look in his eyes and so much pain etched into his features.

I know right away that something is off. “What’s wrong?” I panic.

Sly takes a deep breath and sits at the edge of the bed, brushing hair from my face. “Do you want water?”

I shake my head, “No. I want to know what happened.”

He looks down for a moment before he responds, contemplating his response. “Rogan drugged you last night. He drugged you and brought you to the Renaissance hotel and he- he was gonna-” he stops himself and squeezes his eyes shut, wincing.

“He was gonna what?” I’m panicking, my breathing is erratic.

“I found you in that room passed out on the bed with your dress unzipped. He propped the phone up and he was going to do God only knows what to you before I got there,” his voice cracks on emotion.

My eyes widen, “You found me?”

He nods. “I got there before he could touch you or worse.”

I relax, exhaling. Sly saved my life. A detail comes to mind and I give him a betrayed look, “The phone. The blue phone. It was in your drawer. Why was it in the drawer?”

He suddenly looks so unbelievably angry.

Like an angry God. “Rogan planted it there. He came over the day before the talk show and pretended to use the bathroom when really, he was planting the phone in the drawer where you would find it. Dallas confirmed he called the phone so you would hear it vibrating from the drawer.”

I gasp, “Rogan had the phone. It was Rogan’s,” I’m practically speaking to myself.

He nods, “He’s the one who recorded the sex tape, Aria. He drugged us at the club and set us up in hopes of ruining my career and making you hate me. He wanted you to hate me and he wanted to come to your rescue, but you never chose him. You chose me and that set him off.”

Oh my God. “That’s why he was such a dick after the tape?”

Sly frowns, “Yeah. And when he apologized to you, it was all bullshit. It was to get you to trust him so that he could make the next move. Which is what he did last night.”

I rest my head back against the pillow and stare at the ceiling. We sit in silence for a moment and Sly just holds my hand and makes small circles on the back of it with his thumb.

A minute later I agonize, “I’m so sorry I didn’t believe you.”

“Don’t apologize. He set us up,” his voice is soft, gentle.

I squeeze my eyes shut and tears pour out, “I was so awful to you.”

He laughs, “You thought I deserved it.”

“I was wrong.”

He shrugs, “It’s okay.”

I sob, “No, it isn’t. I actually thought that you didn’t love me. I thought-”

He presses a finger to my lips and frowns, “Do not say another word. I do not want to hear you say I don’t love you or that I lied to you, even if it wasn’t true.”

I obey his command and he adds, “I love you more than anything, Aria Kane. I would do anything and everything for you with no hesitation or questions asked. I would endure the most treacherous of pains if it meant making you happy and I would happily rip my own heart out of my chest and hand it to you if you so much as asked.”

He leans so close, his lips are only an inch from mine, “I have loved you since I first saw you and I will love you for the rest of time and maybe after then.” He closes the distance between our lips and kisses me.

It’s soft and gentle and before I can deepen it, he pulls away.

“I was so afraid when I saw you like that. I thought for a split second that you were dead.” There’s so much pain in his face and in his voice.

I shake my head, “I’m alive. I’m okay.”

He exhales, “He did this to you because of me and I’ll hate myself forever for it.”

“No,” I snap. I try to sit up, but he keeps me down so I don’t strain myself. “No, Slater. None of this is your fault. Rogan did this because he’s insane. It isn’t your fault at all and I don’t blame you.”

He gives me a weak smile and I continue, “Slater.” He meets my eyes and his deep blues look so exhausted.

“I love you so fucking much it hurts. I didn’t realize how entwined our souls were until last night when I left.

Walking away from you last night was easily the biggest mistake I’ve ever made in my life. I’m so sorry.”

Sly smiles weakly and leans back down to kiss me again.

There’s a knock on the door and we pull apart to look at who’s entering. Ivory peeks her head in and grins, “She’s awake!”

She rushes into the room and stops right beside my face, grabbing my cheeks in her hands and squishing them together. She kisses my cheek with a dramatic sound and cheers, “She’s alive!”

Brody appears at the other side and she places a hand on my shoulder, “Glad to see you’re okay, Six. We were worried about you.”

I smile at the nickname and at her familiar face. I turn and grab Ivory’s hand, squeezing it. Selene stops at Ivory’s side and looks relieved, “Thank God.”

“Miss me?” I croak at her.

She rolls her eyes, “Not really.”

“Liar,” I smirk.

She tries to stifle her smile, but it’s there. I see it.

I look over Sly’s shoulder and find Harvey and Dallas in the corner of the room. I raise my chin at Harvey, “I guess you were right, huh?”

He raises a brow and dips his chin, “I tried to warn you.”

Sly looks confused, “What?”

“After Rogan tried to befriend me at the studio, Harvey tried to warn me not to trust him,” I explain.

Harvey complains, “But of course you didn’t listen. Because why would any of the three of you ever listen?” He says with a frown as his eyes move from me, to Brody, to Ivory.

Selene huffs, “Congrats, Harvey. You finally get to experience a fraction of what I’ve been dealing with for years.”

I change the subject, asking the question I’ve been dying to know. “What’s gonna happen to Rogan?”

Sly tenses, but Selene explains, a dark and violent look in her eye, “I’m sending that motherfucker to jail. The evidence is stacked against him. And Dallas provided enough digital data. It’s enough to keep him locked up for a long time.”

I thank Dallas and sigh in relief. A new thought comes to me and I worry, “Sly, your band-”

He holds up a hand, “We’ll find a new guitarist. We were all sick of his shit anyway.”

I look at Brody, “Were you guys at the afterparty?”

Ivory groans and her voice sharpens, “That fuck.”

Brody looks violently angry. “We were there when he drugged you and dragged you off. We didn’t know you were there or what was going on.”

I scoff, “He told me you’d all left.”

“That lying piece of shit. He’s bottom of the barrel. Something you’d scrape off the bottom of your fucking shoe,” Ivory raises her chin and rants.

I catch sight of Dallas raising an amused looking brow in the corner, but my attention quickly focuses on Ivory and her colorful words. “Wow, Iv,” I say, impressed.

She shrugs, “It’s not like I lied.”

“This is true,” Brody adds.

A nurse comes in and catches sight of everyone inside. She blushes and reprimands politely, “Visitation hours are almost up. I can only have one person here.”

Selene announces, “Slater can stay.”

Sly’s shoulders sag in relief.

Selene, Ivory, and Brody say their goodbyes. Harvey gives me a fist bump before he leaves and Brody returns for a second to give me a huge bouquet of flowers. She places them next to a vase of blue roses Sly got me.

When it’s just the two of us, he kisses my forehead and I ask, “So what now?”

He raises a brow and I clarify, “What happens next for us?”

He smiles as he answers, “Now, you never leave my side ever again.”

“I would never dream of it.”

He kisses my lips and I kiss him back fervently, wrapping a hand around the back of his neck. We kiss for so long, I feel breathless, completely consumed by him. When he breaks the kiss reluctantly so we can both get more air, he whispers against my lips, “Marry me.”

I gasp, “What?”

He grins, “Marry me.”

“But Sly, we’ve only been together for a few months,” I try to rationalize.

He shakes his head, “Who gives a fuck? Marry me.”

“I don’t know if I’m ready,” I worry.

He takes a deep breath. “Fine. I’ll ask again tomorrow and if you still aren’t ready, I’ll ask the day after that and the day after that until you say yes.”

I laugh and he smiles as he presses another kiss to my lips.