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I want to wake up and realize the horrors of the night were all a bad dream.

But every sore muscle and twinge of pain remind me that it wasn't, and I can't pretend otherwise.

I feel Sully's gaze on me and keep my lashes down. He probably senses I'm awake, but I'm not ready for more questions. Not when I'm still trying to come to terms with what happened myself.

The police appeared multiple times between tests throughout the night, asking the same things over and over. Did I remember anything else? Did I see their faces?

I tense when Sully takes my hand in his, lifting it to his lips for what had to be the thousandth time.

"Why are you hiding from me?"

I give up the pretense of sleep and blink my eyes open to look at him.

"There she is," he murmurs, lifting a hand to smooth the hair from my face and gently rubbing my head. "Hey, beautiful."

I grimace, and he chuckles softly, kissing my knuckles again. "You should go home," I say grumpily.

"Not happening. I'm staying right here until they release you, and then you're coming home with me so I can take care of you."

I inhale as much as I can, hurting as badly as I do. "Sully," I say as I exhale. "I'm not⁠—"

"You are," he says firmly. "Vi, you can't go home. Those men could know where you live. It's not safe."

I suck in a breath and heat fills my body. A hot flush of anger and hatred mixed with pain.

"Hey, hey, come on. I won't walk around in my underwear," he says. "Not unless you want me to, anyway."

That draws a reluctant huff from me.

"There's my sunshine. Look, MacGyver went to your place last night with some Saints and stayed there long enough to get the locks changed. They're keeping an eye out on your parents' house, but we have to play this smart, yeah? We can't risk you or Jas staying there. Besides, you can't be home alone with a concussion."

"And who better to take care of you than Sully?" Jasmine says softly as she enters the room with a bouquet of get-well balloons trailing behind her. "Not that he'll even consider letting me take care of you."

"I know the signs of concussion," Sully says. "Do you?"

I shake my head at them and then moan softly from the pain that follows the movement. "I'm fine. I need to sleep off the headache, and I can't do that with people hovering."

"You can sleep at my place," Sully says.

"What about Betty? We need to work." Especially now that there would be more hospital bills to pay. I was so close to paying off the last ones, too. It makes me angry that there are going to be more now.

"You aren't working any time soon," Sully informs me. "Doc's orders."

"And mine. Besides, the Saints have that covered," Jas says.

"What do you mean?" I stare at Jasmine in confusion before glancing at Sully once more. He's still giving me a grumpy stare I send right back at him.

A gentle smile lifts the corners of his mouth and eases some of the tension coiling tight inside of me.

"You know those guys love to grill. They've got the next week or so covered in shifts of four," he says. "All volunteers."

"And they're totally playing up the name and calling themselves the Bearded Beach Babes," Jasmine adds. "Social media is eating it up, and they've only been at it for a couple of hours so far."

Jasmine comes to the side of the bed and reaches down to squeeze my leg.

"People are coming out in droves to support you due to the news coverage."

"News?"