When he finally breaks the kiss, he wraps one hand behind my neck for support and places the other on my chest, while looking into my eyes. What I see behind his makes my heart stop mid beat: love. “I’ll never let that piece of shit near you again. I fucking promise you that. No one will ever hurt you.” His eyes move up to land on the bandage on my head. “Fuck,” he breathes. “I’m so sorry. Shit. Come here.”

He pulls me in as close as possible, burying his face into my neck and holds me as if he can’t bear to let go of me, and truthfully, I never want him to.

We stay like this for a while, him holding me in the fountain as the water splashes down around us. It’s cold. So damn cold.

He doesn’t seem to care though. He just holds me close, comforting me as if he knows that I need him this way right now . . . and he’s right. This right here is all I need: him.

Finally pulling away from my neck, he rests his forehead to mine and cups my face in his shaking hands. “Tell me you’re okay, Avalon. Please . . .”

I grab his hands as he rubs his thumbs over my face and closes his eyes, waiting for my response. “I was scared something bad was going to happen to you, Royal.” I move my hands up to grip his wet hair and pull it out of his face. “Tell me that I’ll never lose you,” I whisper. “Then I’ll tell you that I’m okay.”

His jaw tightens and he turns his face to the side, as if to hide it from me.

“Royal . . .” I pull his face back to mine and brush my lips against his. He sucks in a small breath, but stays where he is. “Can you promise me that? Say it. Please . . . say it.”

Breathing heavily, he crushes his lips against mine, before pulling away and grabbing my hand to walk us out of the water. “Let’s get you back inside and changed. All that matters to me right now is that you’re taken care of. I’m not letting you get sick because of me.”

He quickly wraps his arms around me and picks me up to cradle me against him, before I can say anything more. Releasing a long breath, I wrap my arms around his neck and press my face against the side of his as he carries me past Jax and Blaine and back into the warm hospital.

He asks Jax where my room is and he carries me there, shutting the door behind us, before undressing me from my wet gown and helping me back into my clothing.

The nurse comes back in a few minutes later, shakes her head at me, and gives me my discharge papers.

“The doctor has cleared you to go. That’s what I tried telling you as you were rushing past me down the hall.” She looks to Royal, standing there dirty and wet. “There’s instructions on what you need to do over night. I’ll just let you read it yourself since y’all seem to be in a hurry.”

“Thank you,” I say, while flashing her a weak smile. “Sorry about the puddle.”

She looks down at the floor where my wet gown is laying in a huge puddle. “Mmm hmm. I’m sure you are.”

Grabbing my hand, Royal leads me out of the room, motioning with his head for the boys to follow. “I have a pit stop to make on the way home. You good with that, Blaine?”

Blaine squeezes his shoulder. “Hell yeah. I’m always down.”

After Royal helps me into the backseat of Blaine’s truck, he closes the door and walks over to talk to Jax.

“Hey,” I say to Blaine as he jumps in the driver’s side. “Should I worry about this little pit stop?”

Blaine grins. “Nah. This is going to be good. Trust me.”

Royal jumps into the truck a few minutes later and wraps a blanket around me, before pulling me into his arms. “Get comfortable, but I need you to stay awake for a while.” He leans in and kisses the top of my head. “Can you do that?”

I squeeze his hand and bury my face into his chest. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m not tired yet.”

“Good,” he whispers.

The drive back into town is quiet. I’m suspecting it’s due to my head injury, and neither one of them want to give a reason for my head to hurt even more. I’m thankful for the silence, but I won’t be for long.

I want to find out what happened with Royal tonight, but tonight probably isn’t the best time to talk about it. I’ll wait until the morning.

“This is going to be fun,” Blaine says, while shifting the truck into park.

Sitting up, I look around to see that we’re parked outside of Colton’s house.

“Stay here,” Royal demands. “I’ll be out in a few minutes.”

“Oh trust me . . . I never want to step foot in that house again,” I mutter.

Royal quickly kisses my forehead and then jumps out of the truck, slamming the door behind him.

I hear Royal digging in the back of the truck for something, before I see him toss a rope down beside the truck and rush up to Colton’s door.

Without even bothering to check if the door is unlocked or not, he kicks at the door three times before it flies open and he rushes inside.

“That’s always fun to watch,” Blaine says, while lighting a cigarette and rolling down the window. “At least he won’t need to break any of my shit now.”

I don’t say anything. I just stare at the door, waiting for Royal to come back out. A part of me even wishes that I could see the scared look in Colton’s eyes as Royal kicks the shit out of him. Maybe Madison will get her wish and he’ll piss his pants and ruin his damn perfect carpet.

We wait patiently for about ten minutes, before we hear Colton cussing as Royal drags him out of the house, naked, by his neck.

“You’re fucking crazy! What are you doing, you, crazy son of a bitch?”

Royal slams him face down into the grass, grabs the back of his head and slams it into the ground, repeatedly.

Grabbing the back of his hair, he pulls his head back and presses his knife to his neck. “Come by her again, brother . . . and you’ll see how fucking crazy I can get.”

“Fuck!” Colton yells. “I’m done. I’m done.”

“Good,” Royal seethes.

He turns toward the truck to look at Blaine who is now sitting out his window. “Bring me that fucking rope.”

Blaine laughs and throws down his cigarette, while climbing out the window. “Hell motherfucking yeah.”

I place my hand over my mouth and watch as Royal ties Colton up to his porch, naked, his face now covered in dirt, grass, and blood.