7. Zach

Chapter seven

Zach

I watched from my motorcycle as Layla dropped to her knees. My heart was fucking breaking for my girl, and I didn’t know how to make it better. That wasn’t true. I knew how to make it better, but I also knew that telling her Sean was alive right now wouldn’t change anything. She would still feel like she needed to deal with him, and we’d be back to where we were yesterday.

Layla had been so focused on escaping the house that she hadn’t even noticed I was in the garage. I had sent Colt a quick text and jumped on my bike to follow her immediately. I don’t think she saw me following her, and once I figured out where she was going, I hung back to give her some space. I’d cut the engine at the tree line and walked the bike the rest of the way to the dunes.

The wind carried Layla’s sobs to me, and I gripped my handlebars until my knuckles turned white to keep myself from rushing to her side. She needed this time to herself to mourn Sean without worrying that someone who shouldn’t would see her falling apart.

My cell phone rang, and I huffed in annoyance when I saw it was Colt.

“I told you I have her,” I said instead of a hello.

“She fucking left the house without any security, didn’t bother to let us know she was leaving, and didn’t take her fucking phone,” Colton growled. “I’m going to turn her ass red, bring her home, now.”

“She’s the boss, Colt. She can do what she wants. She needs space to think so I’m giving it to her. I won’t let anything happen to her, so relax,” I replied.

“Where are you? I’ll drag her back myself. She shouldn’t even be driving. She hasn’t eaten anything, and you saw how much whiskey she drank.”

Yeah, I also saw how erratic her driving had been, but I wasn’t about to tell him that. “I’ll call you if she can’t drive home.”

“Zach!” Colton barked.

“Stop fucking hovering!” I snapped back. I glanced at Layla to see if she heard me, but she was still crying in the ocean. I lowered my voice to make sure she couldn’t overhear me. “There were two ways to play that yesterday. Fake Sean’s death or tell her it was a mistake. You made your choice, so now we have to deal with the consequences.” I hung up on him and gave myself a few minutes to calm down before going to Layla. While I’m glad Colton spared Sean’s life, we were still in this mess because of him.

I went to the beach and bent to pet Dash and Dire when they ran to greet me. As soon as I stopped petting them, they were back at Layla’s side, ever the loyal beasts.

“I wondered when you would come down,” Layla said with a numbness in her voice that sent a chill through me.

“See, you aren’t as drunk as Colt thinks you are,” I said, trying to lighten the mood a little.

“Is he mad?”

“Yeah,” I replied honestly, “but he’ll get over it.”

“Are you mad?”

“I’m not thrilled about you taking off without a word, but I was behind you the entire time, so not nearly as pissed as the others,” I replied, looking out at the horizon. “I don’t think I need to tell you how dangerous it is to be out here without protection.”

“I brought the wolves. They won’t let anyone hurt me,” Layla replied.

“True, but what if someone shot them before showing themselves?”

In a flash, Layla whipped the gun hidden at her back out and pointed it at me. She slowly turned her head to look at me. “I’m a big girl. I can protect myself just fine.” I felt my dick twitch at the loaded gun pointed at me and mentally kicked myself. Now was not the fucking time to explore my crazy kinks.

Layla’s eyes widened as she looked between the gun and me, and then suddenly, the gun fell to the sand as my girl crumbled before my eyes. I tossed the weapon further up the beach and dropped beside her in the surf.

“Hey, hey, hey, it’s ok, Layla. I’ve got you. I will always fucking have you. Tell me what you need, baby. How can I help? I’ll do anything, just say the word, and it’s yours.”

“Make it stop hurting,” Layla sobbed. “Make me feel something else, even if it’s only for a little while. I can’t stand the pain. I feel like I’m constantly shattering inside.”

I shifted in the sand to kneel in front of her. I cupped her face and brushed the tears away with my thumbs as I stared into her broken brown eyes. “I can do that,” I promised before crashing my lips to hers.

If she wanted to forget for a while, I’d make sure she couldn’t form a coherent sentence by the time I was done with her.