She nodded and told me she would take care of it. She was already a few steps ahead of me in fact, and it wasn’t just those girls she was interested in making sure had a better shot at a good life. She was so fucking impressive. I wanted her because she was my equal in so many ways, but I loved her fully and completely because she was always going to be better than me in so many other ways.

Key also told me that the cops had gone to the older French’s house to check on the dad when she explained why the kid wanted to shoot me in the first place. They found him where I left him, trapped and angry as hell, and still ranting about how I needed to be arrested and thrown in jail for breaking and entering. But the cops were on their game and the reasons why his kids had been taken away were no secret to them, so once they pulled him free it was the deranged and crippled man who found himself in cuffs and hauled away.

When she was done talking about justice and fairness, we stayed there on the hospital bed until we both fell asleep.

I was stuck in the hospital for another week and I think the staff was onto the fact that I was running a criminal enterprise while under their care. It wasn’t like I bothered to hide it. Chuck came by once a day to fill me in on what was going on at the club and with the other businesses, and Race kept popping in and out to check on me. Seemed like once I was out of commission he had done what any good partner would and stepped up to the plate to juggle all my ventures, even the ones he didn’t want anything to do with. Maybe that whole partners-not-friends line was starting to get a little fuzzy. I’d never really had a friend before, but if Race wanted to be the first, I knew I could do a whole lot worse. Also, according to Chuck, my lady had switched from sexpot to cutthroat businesswoman in my absence. I told him there was no switching. She had always been savvy and smart; it was just that these qualities were often overlooked because of the length of her skirt. I picked her as my partner, in business and in life, for a reason.

She was the one Race went to with questions about the club and the girls. She was the one writing checks and pushing money around while I was laid up. She was taking care of my empire while I was unable to, and according to Chuck, she was damn good at it. With my future so precarious and unknowable, Key had become the person to fear in my place, and he laughingly told me she was much better at it than I was. People were too dumbfounded by her bombshell looks and megawatt smile to be threatened by her. She robbed them blind and manipulated them and they didn’t even know what was happening. He told me that in the kind of negotiations in which I usually left people peeing themselves or swearing to take me down, she was instead leaving them thanking her. That made me love her even more. If she lost me she would have something I built, something I brought to life to hold on to. My legacy would take care of her, and she would take care of it, long after I was gone.

The day I got sprung from the doctor’s care I don’t know who was more excited, me or them. Chuck rolled me down the long hallway as the nurses and several of the other hospital staff we passed looked visibly relieved to be rid of me. Key was also really ready to have me back at home and eager to be my one and only nurse. I still wasn’t very mobile and I was doped up on some pretty serious pain meds for the broken collarbone and the cracked sternum. I was the walking wounded, but I couldn’t complain because I was alive, and even though the kid who shot me hadn’t made it, I knew I had done as right by him as I could. Taking responsibility stung but the pain was worth the salve it offered to my tattered soul.

Chuck actually had to drive us up to the house in the mountains because I couldn’t bend down to get into Key’s little Honda and the Range Rover was still missing all the glass and riddled with bullet holes. He also had to help maneuver me up the stairs and onto the couch in the living room because there was no way I was making it up the stairs into my bedroom. I uncomfortably shifted against the pillows and closed my eyes on a sigh as Key appeared with a bottle of water and a handful of pills for me to swallow down.

“You look really pale.” She leaned over and pushed her fingers through my hair. I turned my face into her touch and kissed her palm. “If I can see how white you are under all that golden skin, there’s a problem.”

“I’m fine. You need to go back into town with Chuck and grab your car. We can’t be trapped up here without a vehicle.”

She scowled down at me. “No way. You just got home. I’m not leaving you here alone. I need to be close by if you need anything.”

Chuck nodded. “Yeah, boss. You’re a mess. Let your lady take care of you. I’ll have a couple of my guys grab her ride and get it up here.”

I didn’t have the strength to argue, so I just held out my good arm and she sat down next to me and curled herself into my side. We sat in silence like that for a long time. Appreciating the time and the fact that we both had more of it, and that we could spend it together.

“You had to know he was going to pull the trigger. He felt like he had nothing to lose.” Her voice was soft and her heart was in it.

“I’ve been him. I had to offer him the choice. A choice was something I never got, and now, after you, I’d like to think I would make the right one if I was in that place again.”

“I would’ve never forgiven you if you died on me, Gates.” I turned my head so I could kiss her on her temple.

“Yes, you would. You love me, so you forgive me everything as long as I’m properly apologetic.” Something I’d never been before her. Being able to actually be sorry was the same as finding salvation.

She sighed. “Maybe, but you need to know if you go anywhere you’re going to have to take me right along with you, Nassir.”

I nodded just a little. “Same.”

I couldn’t hold back a yawn that was big enough to have my jaw cracking uncomfortably. I curled my arm around her tighter and asked, “Wanna take a nap with me on the couch?”

She put her hand over the bandage on my chest and traced a finger over the sling that held my injured side trapped down. “No. You rest, you need it.”

I groaned in frustration but didn’t argue with her when she bent down to pull my shoes off and then lifted my legs up so I was sprawled on my back as comfortably as I was going to get on the sofa. She leaned over me and gave me a quick kiss. It wasn’t nearly enough but I obviously wasn’t up for any more when just shifting my legs had pain shooting all along my spine. Plus, the pain meds were starting to kick in and everything was starting to feel heavy and hazy around me.