Was that all that had happened? Was there more? Maybe he’d never know.
And with that, his brain finally shut down. Because his woman was alive and safe. And the man who wanted to take her away from him was gone for good. Just then, that was all Maverick could possibly ask for.
ALEXA DIDN’T THINK anything could surpass the relief of learning from Officer Martin that Grant had died, but then morning had come and they’d removed her breathing tube. And the sheer relief of being able to breathe gave that news a good run for its money.
Her lack of grief or even remorse over Grant almost made her wonder if there was something wrong with her, but how could you grieve the loss of someone who only wanted to hurt you, to own you?
She couldn’t. That was for sure. Not when her mother still lay unconscious, her prognosis unclear. Alexa felt like she stood at the edge of a tall cliff, her heart and soul set to shatter when it hit bottom, and she wouldn’t know whether she’d get to stand or fall until her mother’s situation was clearer. After everything she’d tried to do, she hadn’t been able to take care of her mother in the end.
How would she ever forgive herself for that?
After getting some scans done, Alexa got wheeled in her bed back to their room, but voices from inside had her asking the orderly to wait a moment.
“I’m so fucking sorry, Mom.” Maverick, the sound of his strained, smoked-scoured voice breaking Alexa’s heart.
“Oh, son. You have nothing to apologize to me for,” Bunny said, her voice strained, too.
“I do. I didn’t protect you from my father. And now I’ve let Alexa get hurt. It’s like I can’t stop fucking failing the people I care about.”
Alexa wanted nothing more than to go inside and set Maverick straight, but she didn’t want to intrude on their conversation.
“You listen to me, Maverick Rylan,” Bunny said, her words strong and full of certainty. “I hid your father’s abuse from you. On purpose. So you wouldn’t know. But the only one of the three of us to blame was your father. You couldn’t have changed a thing until I was ready to get out. Tell me you hear me. Tell me you believe it.”
A long pause.
“Tell me, hon.”
“Fuck,” Maverick said. “Okay.” The conversation seemed to cut off, or the words they spoke were too quiet to share.
Alexa finally nodded to the orderly, who nodded in return and wheeled her into the room.
She found Dare in a chair beside Maverick’s bed and Bunny standing on the other side holding Mav’s hand. And, oh, seeing Maverick’s incredible dark blue eyes, awake and aware and alive, brought a whole new wave of relief. When she’d dragged his dead weight out the door last night, she’d been afraid he might never look at her again.
“There she is,” Bunny said, a big smile on her face.
“Hi,” Alexa said, unable to take her gaze off Mav. But having his mother and cousin there was special, too. She never had a big family she could rely on before—and the Ravens were certainly that. Loyal, dependable, protective. Way more than just a club.
Now if her mother would wake up, everything would be as close to perfect as she could ever hope for.
“How are you?” she asked Maverick. She could see him sitting in front of her, of course—living and breathing. But she’d never forget the terror of learning that Grant had hurt Maverick, that he’d wanted to see him die. She’d never be able to unsee the picture of the blood streaking Mav’s hair.
“Just some achiness. How about you?” Maverick asked, his eyes locked on her.
Her chest felt like an elephant had sat on it, and maybe was still there. “Same,” she said, her voice sounding sultry and low, the result of all the smoke and the tube.
“You’re both goddamned liars but I’m so fucking happy you’re okay that I don’t even care,” Dare said. “What the hell happened?”
She and Mav exchanged a look, and then he launched into it.
When he stopped, she jumped in with the things he didn’t know. “After you took my mom out, Grant came in and just started ranting. He admitted to intending to hurt my mom and us, too, once we showed up,” she said, looking at Maverick, the memory of the terror and despair she’d felt upon realizing he must’ve been hurt boomeranging through her.
Pain flared in her chest. If he hadn’t survived, she wasn’t sure she could’ve, either. Not when she’d just found her way back to him after so long, and not when she loved him so damn much.
“I was so beside myself that he’d hurt you. I grabbed a metal lamp and hit him in the knee so hard it crunched and he fell.” She shuddered, a confession welling up inside her, then spilling free. “I . . . I probably could’ve helped him, but I didn’t. I left him.”