“No.” Cain’s voice sounded dazed. “Yeah, no. I’m fine.” He looked into Damon’s eyes, like he wanted to be sure Damon was okay, too.
Damon had no idea whether he was okay, and had no voice he could raise in reassurance. Cain had just jumped on top of him. Had literally thrown himself in front of bullets to protect him.
Maybe there was no way to be sure of someone’s loyalty until they’d proven it, but Damon didn’t need any further proof of what kind of man Cain was.
He lifted his hands, dirty and gravel-covered as they were, and cupped Cain’s jaw. “Fuck, baby,” he said, his voice barely intelligible even to himself. “Why?”
Cain shook his head like he didn’t understand the question. “Damon are you hurt? Your leg!” he said, horrified, as he realized that he’d been laying on it. He stood up quickly. “Is it broken? Shit, did I hurt you? Are you okay?”
Damon braced himself on his good leg, holding his right as steady as possible as he grabbed the closest door handle and pulled himself up. Yeah, that leg was not going to be holding him anytime soon.Fuck.
He looked around the parking lot, quickly assuring himself that the black car, and whoever had been driving it, were long gone. He had a pretty good idea who had been behind the incident, buthow? How could they have been found, when he’d been so careful to pay for things in cash, to drive an untraceable car?
But he couldn’t think about that now. He had to get his family to safety.
He grabbed Cain by the upper arms. “Help me get…” He registered Cain’s flinch a second later, and they both looked down at Cain’s arm, where blood was seeping through his dark shirt.
“Shit, Cain!”
“Scraped it when I fell, I guess. Or maybe it was the broken glass?” He looked confused, like he couldn’t remember how it had happened. He shook his head like he was clearing it. “It’s fine,” he told Damon firmly. “Really.”
Damon peered at him closely, then nodded. “We need to leave as quickly as possible.”
“Right. You need to get going! Get them safe. I can…” He looked bewildered for a second. “What can I do? Use the phone in the office? Call Bas and Drew?”
Damon grabbed him by the back of the neck and shook him gently. “You can help me to the car, baby. You’re coming with us.”
“But…”
“Butnothing. They shot at you, Cain. You’re not leaving my sight.”
Cain blinked. “I didn’t… I don’t think they were shooting atme.”
“Doesn’t matter who they were aiming for,” he whispered fiercely. “Come on. Before the police come, and start asking questions we don’t have answers for.”
Cain nodded, wrapping his good arm around Damon’s waist and taking his weight as he limped to the car. He got Damon to the passenger’s seat, then made his way around the car to take the wheel.
“God, you’re a pair, huh?” Chelsea said. Her voice was shaking as she climbed into the backseat and hovered over her weeping daughter protectively. “One good set of legs, one good set of arms?”
“I guess so,” Cain agreed distractedly.
Damon directed him out of the parking space, ignoring the hotel manager who was trying to flag them down, and pointed out the sign for the highway they needed to take. His eyes scanning the road for any sign of the black sedan, he barely heard his sister murmur, “Guess that means you should stick together.”
