“Get the motherfucker with the gun,” Malice roared out. He wanted to go to Phillip himself, but no fucking way was he leaving Adrianna alone, even long enough that she could run into the safety of the club. He continued to shield Adrianna with his body and watched as Rock and several of the other Brothers from the charter rushed forward with their own guns held high. The cops had been called by now, and the fanatics were at least smart enough to get the fuck out of there—even their psycho leader was on the move to a car.
Phillip took off in the other direction, but right before Malice lost sight of him he ran across the street. Everything happened so fast that all Malice could do was stare in shock and sadistic pleasure as one of the church fanatics’ car sped across the street and slammed right into Phillip. That asshole flew ten fucking feet in the air before slamming down on the asphalt. Even from the distance Malice could hear Phillip’s body making contact with the ground.
“Oh my God,” Adrianna choked out, and then she was leaning to the side and throwing up.
Yeah, this was one of the most fucked up situations that Malice had ever been in.
****
Adrianna glanced over at Malice for what felt like the tenth time in the last five minutes. It had been hours since the shooting and seeing Phillip run over by that car. It was already nightfall, the cops had come with all of their questioning, and after they had left she felt this kind of shock, but also this relief fill her. The police had said Phillip died on impact, but it was from a heart attack, and not from the actual car hitting him. Apparently he had cocaine in his system—not a surprise to her—but that upon impact his heart had already been pumping overtime, and the accident has just been that push he needed to have his heart explode—figuratively speaking. He had died of a heart attack, and not so much of the actual impact was what they told her. It was now dark out, and all she wanted to do was curl up and sleep this day away. She didn’t know what the police had found out from the fanatic protestors, but right now she didn’t care, and frankly didn’t know if she ever would. It just went to show how fucked up this world really was.
She looked at Malice, who sat in front of her, and although she hadn’t know what he had done to Phillip before that asshole had come back looking for her, she didn’t care one way or another. He had saved her life once, and then did it again when he used his own body as a shield from Phillip’s crazed intentions. Whatever she had felt for him before was now heightened to the nth degree, and letting him walk out of her life didn’t seem like the smartest move anymore.
The silence stretched on between them, and she shifted on the bed. It might have been hours since she had been caught up in the middle of that life and death situation, but her heart still felt like it would come right through her chest. And then she’d look at Malice, and her heart would drop into her stomach.
“You’re sure you’re okay?” he asked again and stared at her with this very worried expression on his face.
“I am, just still a bit shocked over everything I guess.”
He nodded and gave this gruff grunt of acknowledgment. “I can call the doctor in here, make sure you’re okay?”
She shook her head. The bullet hadn’t hit them, thank God. “No, I’m okay, really. But thank you.” They sat in more silence, and the sound of their combined breathing seemed overly loud.
He had saved her, and she knew that if Phillip hadn’t gotten hit by that car and died Malice would have gone after him and killed him. There had been that dangerous air about him as he held her tightly in that parking lot and made sure she was kept behind the mountain that was his body. Even now she swore she could still hear the sound of Phillip’s body being hit by the car, and then slamming hard on the pavement. It was enough to make her stomach roil.
But here they were now, neither saying anything as this heavy feeling moved between them. Adrianna supposed she could have been in the main room with everyone else, but the truth was she liked being alone with Malice. He was the only one right now that made her feel safe.
“Seeing as all this shit went down, Adrianna, I can’t let you just walk away,” Malice said. He was hard, unyielding, and stared right at her. “I want you to come to Colorado with me. I can find you work, make sure you’re safe, and most of all I want you close.” He said the last part just as hard as the rest, but she heard this vulnerability in his voice that she never had before. She could still fell the anger that surrounded him from what had happened earlier. His lip was split, and she could see some bruising starting to form on his cheek and jaw. He had looked like he had gotten into a fight when he came back from town, but the bruise was from when he had taken her down to the ground to protect her.