“Whore.”
“Love you,” Abi said with a laugh as she headed toward the door.
“Love you, too, lady,” I called after her.
I spent an hour going over the pros and cons of the decision I had to make. Lose some personal privacy, and not die. Have someone watching me 24/7, and not die. Uproot my life and move to a strange place, and not die. I huffed out an irritated sigh. The mental math was playing out 100-to-1 on the side of taking Nico up on his offer.
Less than thirty minutes after Abi left, Nico returned. He swept into the room, and I had to admit, I’d never seen a man look as smooth as he did. Somehow, he made even mundane things look graceful, like opening and closing a door. He nodded at me and pulled up the stool, taking a seat in front of my bed.
He glanced over at the hospital phone beside my bed. “I heard you made a call. Had a visitor.”
“I had to let my friends know what was wrong. Did you guys clean up my bar? After you brought me here?” I asked, changing the subject.
Nico gave me a half grin. “I thought it would be for the best.”
“You couldn’t have grabbed my phone while you were there? I had to dial my friend Abi from memory.”
“Uh…sorry. To be honest, I didn’t even think of it to be honest.” That had caught him off guard. Good. I was glad to see someone else as out of sorts as I had been the last twenty-four hours.
“It’s fine. I’m just in a bad mood.”
“Are you in that mood because you’ve made a choice you don’t like?”
“That’s a smooth way of asking whether I’ve made a decision,” I said.
He shrugged. “I try.”
“Okay, let’s talk. First off, having a complete stranger living in my house is totally off the table. Not gonna happen.”
Nico nodded once. “Understood.”
“So, hypothetically speaking, if
I did choose to stay with the pack, what would that look like?”
He raised an eyebrow and cocked his head. “As in?”
“Do I get to come and go as I please? Will I have my own place? Where would I live?”
“Oh.” Nico looked relieved, as if it was an easy question. “You’ll live with me. At my place.”
That information sent a wave of tingles through my entire body, my heart rate kicking up a few notches. For some reason, the idea of being in close proximity to Nico, living under the same roof, made my body react in a way I wasn’t ready for.
I couldn’t deny that Nico was attractive. Jesus, he was gorgeous. I still had to remind myself that nothing romantic was going to happen between us. This wasn’t him coming on to me or trying to seduce me. He was trying to protect me from certain death.
“You’ll have your own room with an attached bathroom,” Nico added. “Locks on all the doors, the whole nine yards. You’ll have all the privacy you want, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“Okay. What about freedom of movement? Coming and going?” That was the big sticking point. I didn’t want to feel like a prisoner.
He nodded. “Whenever you want. Just let me or Luis know and we’ll make sure you have a tail. Someone following to watch out for you.”
“Free meals?” I asked, only half joking.
He smiled, and the tingling in my body increased. “Whatever you want. I grill a mean steak, and I can make a killer pasta sauce. Grandma’s recipe.”
“Not exactly what I meant, but okay.”
If someone had told me three days ago that I’d be getting ready to move into a shifter compound, I’d have called them crazy. But all I kept picturing was that other shifter’s face. Him snarling at me that I shouldn’t exist. The way they’d attacked me kept flashing through my mind, like a horror movie where the worst scene is on repeat. I’d come close to dying. Another two or three minutes without Nico and his friends, and I would have been dead. I owed Nico my life. The least I could do was trust him to protect me a little while longer.
“Fine,” I said. “It seems it’s in my best interest to take you up on the offer. When will I be moving in?” Once the words were out, I had the feeling that I’d crossed some proverbial Rubicon-the point of no return. Butterflies filled my stomach, but I couldn’t figure out whether it was from worry or excitement.
Nico grinned. “I’ll have everything set up and ready before you’re discharged tomorrow. I’ll be the main security point of contact. Doc said you’ll need to come in a few times so he can assess your wounds and healing. Those stab wounds were pretty bad-not life-threatening, but Doc wants to monitor them anyway. I’ll bring you to those appointments.”
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