Better When He's Brave

It made me slightly sick. Reeve was too good for that. Beyond her bad choices, which had been fueled by grief, she was an amazingly good woman. She had a hard heart with a soft center and she deserved better than what I had given her so far. She deserved someone willing to risk as much as she was risking. She deserved to be coddled and protected the way Bax coddled Dovie, sheltered the way Race, in building a fortress, protected Brysen. She deserved more than me.

I pulled out my phone and sent her a text asking how her night was going. She freaking loved that filthy strip club. True to form, she took something downtrodden and broken and had added her street savvy and sharp style to it. She had taken a bunch of jaded and life-weary dancers and given them a purpose. I hadn’t been inside the club in the week she had been there, but already on the outside it looked like a totally different place. The graffiti was power-washed off the walls, the neon-pink sign that flashed GIRLS-GIRLS-GIRLS was long gone, the parking lot was lit up like a beacon, and the ridiculous sign declaring the place SPANKY’S was nowhere to be seen. Instead an old antique sign that looked like something from the Moulin Rouge shone with soft lights and directed people to the newly minted EMPIRE. It was sleek. It was sexy and it was fitting. Those girls had built an empire on naked skin and gyrating hips. Reeve was giving them their own kingdom of sex and power to control and I could see how empowered she was by it every time I looked into her shining navy eyes. She loved that she was helping women she identified with, and I think in that she felt like she was making up for her little sister getting torn up and spit out by the Point. She wanted to make sure no other young girl suffered that same fate.

I’m headed home. See you soon.

I stared at the text and frowned. Booker hadn’t shown back up since making bail, which had everyone wondering and questioning where he might be, and leaving Reeve to fend for herself with just the feds and Nassir to keep an eye on her when she wasn’t with me. I hated the idea of her out on the streets alone. I was doing a terrible job of keeping her safe.

Like she could read my mind, another message came through.

Chuck is going to drop me off. Don’t worry about me.

I swore out loud and sent her back a message telling her I would be home in the morning since I promised Dovie I would stay with Bax. Reeve sent back a frowning face and I felt my heart kick. She didn’t want to go to bed alone any more than I wanted to let her. I needed to step up my game, needed to make sure she knew I wanted her safe every single second she was risking her neck. I couldn’t let Bax show me up. My competitive nature and the fact I really did care about Reeve in a deep and powerful way wouldn’t allow for it.

I told her to think of me while she fell asleep and she shot back that if she was thinking about me while she was in bed, the last thing she would be doing is sleeping. I groaned out loud into the quiet of the hospital room and tapped my phone against my forehead. She really was perfect, just the right blend of good and bad, and I couldn’t get enough of either part of her.

I settled back into the too small chair and gratefully watched Bax’s chest rise and fall until I drifted off at some point listening to him breathe. It wasn’t comfortable and I never slept deeply anyway, so I was wide-awake as soon as my chin slipped off my hand. I shook the fog out of my head to clear it and squinted into the dark to try and figure out what time it might be. I climbed to my feet stretching my arms over my head, making every vertebra in my spine pop painfully. I was too big to try and curl up for a catnap. I rubbed a hand over my short hair and was scrolling through e-mail on my phone when the door snicked open and a familiar shock of red hair appeared.

Dovie tiptoed in, silent as a cat until she saw me wide-awake and watching her. She blinked slowly and shrugged without guilt.

“I don’t go to bed without him.”

She moved toward the hospital bed and reached out a finger to brush it across Bax’s star.

“He’s worried he can’t keep you safe.” It was a rough whisper but she heard it and nodded. She kicked of her canvas tennis shoes and hopped up on the edge of the bed.

“I know he is, but I can keep both of us safe until he gets better. And he’s just going to have to get used to it.”

Bax muttered something in his sleep and instinctively reached for her. She gingerly lay down next to him and put her hand on his chest that was concave and thinner than it had ever been. “We take care of each other. That’s what love in this place looks like. You have each other’s back.”

She sighed softly as Bax turned his head and rubbed his nose in her wild hair. Neither one had ever looked so removed from the grime and grit of their everyday. They just looked like a couple united and in love. It twisted something deep and hard in my gut. Bax had gone through hell to get to this place. It was a victory hard won.

“I’m gonna take off since you’re here with him. Call me if you need any help getting him home. He might be more of a handful once he isn’t tied to a hospital bed.”

She giggled a little bit and waved me off in the dark. “I like it when he’s a handful. It’s my favorite when he makes me work for it.”

“You guys are perfect for each other.”

“No, we are so not, but we aren’t right for anyone else, so I guess that means we’re stuck with one another until the end of time.”

Bax made a noise in his sleep and moved his broken wrist toward her. She whispered soothing sounds to him and continued to rub the pad of her finger over that black star. Like I said, that was what love in the Point looked like and I couldn’t be happier for either of them.