“I’m on my way.”
She hung up without another word and proceeded to dress in a panicky whirlwind, throwing on the first items of clothing she found. Then she flew down the stairs toward Lacey’s room, only to halt in her tracks when she remembered that her friend was at the hospital. Damn it. Lacey was a doctor—Skyler would have felt a million times better if her friend had been able to check on Gage with her.
How badly was he hurt? Why hadn’t he called her himself? Terrified thoughts buzzed through her mind as she slid into her car. Since it was so late, there was zero traffic on the road, but she forced herself not to drive double the speed limit. She couldn’t afford to get pulled over by a cop right now.
Panic and worry sizzled in her veins the entire way to Gage’s house. When she got there, all the lights were on, and Reed met her at the front door, his blue eyes grim.
“He’s in the living room.”
She was already pushing past him. She didn’t take off her shoes, just careened into the living room. Her heart plummeted to the pit of her stomach when she saw Gage.
He was on the couch, flat on his back with his eyes closed. Well, with one eye closed—the other was swollen shut, black and purple and twice its normal size. Her breathing grew shallow as she examined the rest of him. A cut on his eyebrow, held together by a row of narrow butterfly stitches. More bluish bruises on his bare chest, white tape wrapped tightly around his torso. His hands were at his sides, and from where she stood, she noticed his knuckles were red and caked with blood.
Reed’s voice drifted in from the doorway. “We cleaned him up, taped up his ribs, and shoved some aspirin down his throat.”
Skyler sat next to Gage and gently touched the cheek that wasn’t bruised. He didn’t stir, massive chest rising and falling with each steady inhale and exhale.
“He was probably right about the hospital,” Reed added, albeit grudgingly. “The doctors wouldn’t have done much more than Jerry and I did. None of the cuts are deep enough for stitches, and there’s nothing they can do for his ribs.”
Skyler swallowed, then shifted her gaze to Reed. Another man stood next to him. Their employee Jerry, she assumed. “You guys can go,” she said softly. “I’ll stay here with him.”
Reed’s forehead creased. “You sure?”
She nodded. “Go. We both know he wouldn’t like having all of us fussing over him. It’ll just make him grumpy.”
Reed’s lips twitched in a reluctant smile. “You’re right about that.” He walked over and dropped a quick kiss on her forehead. “Good luck with our patient. Though I have a feeling he’ll be grumpy regardless.”
Yeah, so did she, but there was no way in hell she was going anywhere.
She moved her attention back to Gage, effectively dismissing the other men. She heard their footsteps in the hall, the creak of the front door closing, but her focus remained on Gage. She squeezed his hand, then dipped her head and pressed her lips to his in a tender kiss. He still didn’t stir, and she didn’t try to rouse him. He needed to rest right now.
But there was no rest for Skyler. She stretched out beside him, keeping an inch of space between them as she settled on her side and watched him breathe. Tears stung her eyes when she started cataloging all his cuts and bruises again.
Gage had been so certain Mitch O’Donnell had accepted that their arrangement was over, but obviously he’d been wrong. So fucking wrong. O’Donnell had gone out and punished him for not toeing the line, and Skyler fought the urge to track that bastard down and strangle the life out of him.
As she mentally plotted O’Donnell’s demise, an uneasy thought occurred to her. Clay could help.
No, Clay would help, if she only asked him.
But did she really want to reach out to the man who’d brought chaos into her family and uprooted her entire life?
You wouldn’t do it for Gage?
She pressed her lips together, trying to keep a sob at bay. God, that wasn’t even a question. Of course she’d go to Clay if it meant helping Gage. She’d do anything to stop O’Donnell from hurting the man she loved.
Skyler froze.
The man she loved?
Her heart beat faster as she stared at Gage’s face, still unbelievably gorgeous despite being all bruised up. But even from the start, it had been about more than his looks. It was his intensity, his strength, his dominance. It was the thrilling sex and the sweet kisses. The way he appealed to her nurturing side and fueled her confidence and challenged her to unleash her wild side. Her previous boyfriends hadn’t done that. They’d been content with the status quo, the same old date nights followed by the same predictable sex.