Filed To Story: Secret Shifters Next Door Series PDF Free
A few minutes after they moved me to my new room, Tate walked in. When he looked at me, it was obvious that he’d been crying. His eyes were red and bloodshot. He rushed forward, and I could tell he wanted to hug me. Thank God he didn’t. He probably would have broken me. He stopped at the edge of my bed and rested his hands on the rail.
“Hey, big guy,” he said. “I guess you really are too dumb to die.”
I chuckled, but it sent a lancing pain through my side where I’d been stabbed. “Ah, fuck, that hurts. Where’s everyone else?”
Tate sighed. “I didn’t call anyone until I could be sure you were awake for good. I called Ava as soon as they moved you to this room. She’s on her way. I talked to the guys a second before I came in here. They’re coming.”
My heart ached at hearing Ava’s name. “How is she?”
“If I’m honest? Pretty shitty. You and her father have both been knocking on death’s door. Gio’s fine. He got released yesterday. She’s been holding up as well as she can, but…” He shook his head and shrugged.
I sighed. Tate leaned forward and put a hand on my shoulder. “You’ll never know how much it meant to me. The way you raced in and saved Steff like that. But you can’t…you can’t scare us like this again.” His voice cracked as he spoke and his eyes misted with fresh tears.
At that moment, I understood how worried everyone had been for me. It really must have been bad. Tate was
not a crier. For him to be this emotional, I truly must have been right on the edge.
That thought gave me an existential fear that made me a little dizzy. I wanted to raise a hand and pat his shoulder, grab his forearm for comfort, but it was like hundred-pound weights were tied to my wrists. My body was still too tired.
“Where is he?” a voice in the hall called out. “Blayne Walker. Where the hell is he?”
My heart sped up when I heard that voice. Ava.
Tate turned and opened the door, waving her in. Ava stumbled into the room. Her hair was messy, like she’d just woken up. Her eyes were frantic and red. My heart shattered when I saw how strung out and worried she looked.
“Hey, beautiful,” I whispered.
Ava’s hand went to her mouth, and she began to sink to the floor as tears and sobs burst out of her. Tate, lithe and quick,
leaped forward and caught her around the waist before she could hit the floor.
“Come on, Ava,” Tate whispered.
He helped her walk to me, and a lump formed in my throat. Seeing her this broken tore my insides up. It made the physical pain I felt seem like nothing.
Tate lifted her up like a bride, then settled her in the bed beside me, on the side that was not injured. The doctors and nurses would have probably lost their shit if they’d seen him do it, but they could fuck off. I wanted to hold my girl.
Tate helped me get my arm up and around her before backing away toward the door. “I’ll head out and wait for the guys.” He closed the door as he left.
Ava’s fingers twisted into my hospital gown as she clung to me. She buried her face in the crook of my arm and sobbed. The shaking of her body as she cried shook my own body. It made her sadness more real somehow.
I managed to stroke her hair twice before getting too tired. “It’s okay. I’ll be all right,” I whispered into her ear.
“I thought I was gonna lose you,” she mumbled into my chest. “I’m gonna kick your ass for scaring me like that.”
Even though it hurt, I couldn’t stop the chuckle that came from me. We sat like that in silence for a long time. It was nice—holding her against me, feeling her heat melt into me. She needed this as much as I did. The comfort of being together, of hearing each other breathe was what I needed to heal.
Finally, she looked at me. “I was so scared, Blayne. It was bad when Liam died, but when I thought I was going to lose you, too…” She shook her head. “I thought it was going to be the end of me. You need to promise me that you’ll never do something like this to me again. I don’t think I could survive it.” Fresh tears filled her eyes.
I kissed her. My lips and tongue were dry, but it didn’t matter. “I promise.
The nurses continued to come in and check on me. Tate started bringing in visitors. Steff and April had been the first to get there. Steff had his usual cocky smile, but it was forced.
“You asshole. Had to go and be the hero. I guess you had to do something since you’re the ugliest one of all of us.” Steff took my hand as he spoke.
We talked for a few minutes before Celina came in, rolling Miles in a wheelchair. Miles grinned at me, and I could see he’d been crying. All these guys were getting sentimental now that they had families.
At the edge of my bed, Miles stood. It looked painful for him, and even though Celina chastised him for it, he stepped over to me and leaned on the bed. He rested a hand on my shoulder. “Good job, bro. I never had any doubt you’d pull through.”
I nodded toward his injuries. “How are you?”
He grinned. “Got shot in the shoulder and leg. Shifter healing, though. I’ll probably be walking on my own in another day. Limp for a week maybe. I should be fine by the end of the month. No need to worry about me.”
Ava never left my side, huddling against me in the bed.
The last visitor was Gio. Sam pushed him through the doors in a wheelchair similar to what Miles had been in. Gio looked much worse for wear, though. The two men smiled when they saw I was awake.
Looking at Gio, I said, “Man, you’re way too old to be getting into gun fights.”
Gio laughed, then winced and put a hand to his side where he’d been shot. “Yeah, yeah. I’m too old for a lot of things.” He looked at Ava, and his face softened. “We both scared the shit out of my girl. We shouldn’t make a habit of it.”
“We’ve had that conversation already,” I said.
“Well, if I know my daughter, it won’t be the only time you have it.”
“You’re damn right,” Ava said.
Gio leaned forward in his chair and locked his eyes on me. “I loved your brother. I’ve felt, for years, like I failed him. I like you, too, Blayne. I’ll probably come to love you the way I did your brother. I never want to see harm come to someone I love. From now on, you keep yourself safe. You understand me?”
I couldn’t speak. The memories of my brother made it hard to find the words. This man really had loved Liam. I could see that my brother’s death had been hard on him. All I could do was nod in response.
“Good,” Gio said. “I need to head home. I took some pain meds right before we came. I’ll start to fall asleep soon if I’m not careful. Ava? I’ll see you at home?”
“Yes, Daddy.”
Sam rolled Gio back out the door. Ava stayed with me until visiting hours were over. I thought she might clock the nurse when she told her she had to leave, but thankfully she complied.
I didn’t have to wait long to see her again, though. Every day for the next two weeks, she showed up and spent the whole day with me. The nurses had almost nothing to do. She fussed over me like a mother hen. She fed me, helped me move to prevent bed sores, and escorted me to the bathroom. I put my foot down on her wiping my ass, though. I’d be damned if she was gonna do that. At least not until we were in our eighties—maybe not even then.
Through everything—the hospital recovery, the sessions of physical therapy, the removal of my stitches—Ava was with me. Attached to my hip. The day I was finally released from the hospital, I looked at her as she rolled me toward the doors in my wheelchair, and I couldn’t remember ever being so happy to have someone near me.
THIRTY-TWO
AVA
Years ago, Liam had explained to me how fast shifters could heal. They were immune to tons of diseases, never got colds or the flu, and didn’t really even gain weight, no matter what they ate. It was difficult to comprehend. So, even knowing how it worked, I was still astonished by how quickly Blayne recovered.
Once he was home and able to get up and move and eat what he wanted, he improved rapidly. Every morning when he woke, it was like he’d taken another step toward perfect health. It had been two weeks since they’d discharged him, and other than a scar on his chest and on his side, you couldn’t tell anything had ever happened. It was bizarre. I was happy about it, but it was crazy to watch. If those injuries had happened to a human, they would have been in physical therapy for at least a year. Hell, they might have still been in the hospital. I wasn’t going to complain about it, though. Too much in my life had gone wrong for me to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Blayne and I had spent almost every waking minute together since he’d gotten out of the hospital. I felt safe when I was around him. I’d almost convinced myself that if I could see him, nothing bad could happen. On the few occasions he left the house without me, I freaked out and worried.
When he told me he was going to the office to check in with the guys, I told him it was fine. I didn’t want to be clingy and make it seem like he couldn’t have any freedom, but my anxiety was off the charts.
“I’ll be fine, Ava,” Blayne said.
“Okay, sure, but what if you aren’t?” The familiar flutter of panic built in my chest.
Blayne sat beside me, taking my hand. He’d been understanding. He’d been the one who’d gotten shot. He’d been stabbed and almost died. Except that now it seemed like he was the one taking care of me. Like I was the one who was fragile and recovering when it should have been the other way around.
“Ava, I won’t be gone for long. If you need to, you can call or text me every five minutes for reassurance. If you do, I swear I’ll answer.”
I took a breath and realized he was right. The danger was over, he was healed, and he was only going a couple of miles. “Okay. You’re right. Go see your friends.”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
After Blayne left, I turned the TV on. Without some kind of background noise, the house was way too quiet. The first channel I clicked on was a news station.
I gasped. They were talking about Antonio. He’d been fairly big news the last month. It wasn’t every day that a billionaire went missing. I turned the volume up to hear the news anchor.
“—missing over a month. Mr. Lowry, as some of our viewers may remember, lost his daughter Marianna Lowry some months ago. Today, we learn that the mystery to his disappearance has come to a conclusion, tragic though it may be.
“An anonymous letter arrived at Mr. Lowry’s lawyer’s office, stating that the loss of his family was too much. The letter, the contents of which we’ve obtained here at Channel Nine, goes on
to allude to suicide. It seems Antonio Lowry took his own life. He had his body cremated and his ashes scattered with those of his daughter.”
I snorted. It was a funny irony that Dad’s guys put that in the letter. In actuality, Antonio really had been cremated. Except Tate had done it, not a mortician.
The letter had been well-researched. One of Dad’s guys had studied hundreds of samples of Antonio’s handwriting and used some of Antonio’s vocabulary quirks to make it as legitimate as possible. Without a body, and with no motive, there was no way his death could be traced back to us—at least, we were ninety-nine percent sure that was the case. We’d never know for sure. We had to hope that we’d covered our tracks as much as possible.
Uncle Sam said our FBI contact had assured us that none of the government agencies really gave a shit about Antonio being dead. Especially not after we showed them all the dirt they’d dug up on him. They looked at it as a good trade-off.
The only good thing to come of his death was that his will had a clause stating that his fortune was to be donated to charity. In reality, Antonio hadn’t had a will. The fucker probably thought he’d never die. He seemed like the type who thought he could buy his way out of anything—including death.
Dad had forged the will. He’d paid off a notary to help, then had it checked by one of his own lawyers. It should hold up, especially seeing as how Antonio had no blood relatives to dispute it.
The rest of the news report went on making him sound like some kind of saint. The second coming of Mother Teresa or something. Disgusted, I turned the television off.
Blayne got back an hour later, looking excited. “Hey. How was it while I was gone?”
“Fine. You look like you have news. Spill it.”
He grinned and sat beside me. “I talked to Tate and your uncles. Several of the hunters had outstanding warrants and are officially in custody. The rest, though they were involved, will probably get off with even a halfway-decent lawyer. The feds and your dad put the fear of God into them and sent them on their way with a hefty pay-off from Antonio’s funds.”
“What about the ones who got away?” I asked.
Antonio had sent almost his entire army of hunters to Lilly Valley for the final showdown, but there’d been a few who were in other parts of the country, and some who’d escaped the final battle when they saw we were winning.
“Haven’t heard anything. They’re still out there, but without Antonio’s fortune, contacts, and resources, they won’t be much trouble. I can’t see them mounting any type of secondary attack. They’ll lay low. Hopefully, it’ll stay that way.”
That was a relief to hear. It would be nice to live without looking over our shoulders. “Are you hungry?” I asked. “I was gonna make something for dinner.”