Page 20 of Triple Protection

I brush past her to reach for my pants to hide the prosthetic again and hopefully avoid this conversation, whatever it ends up being.

"It's none of your business."

"Oh, fuck you, Brick. I know what you're doing and fuck you." She says, exasperated, before storming out the door. I'm not sure I've ever heard her curse before, or be angry before. Out of all the reactions, that was the least I expected. What about my amputation and prosthetic would piss her off?

Shit.

I get dressed quickly before meeting them in the foyer. The moment she sees me, she huffs and spins on her heel. Alex and Liam both raise an eyebrow at me in question before following her out to where the valet has parked our blacked-out SUV.

Once Alex takes the driver's seat and I take passenger, thinking she'd want distance from me, leaving Liam and Angela alone in the back. Acid churns in my stomach, anxious to have this conversation once and forever, but Angela simply sits with her arms crossed across her chest, looking out the window.

"What did you do to her?" Liam's the one to break the ice.

"I didn't do shit."

"Well, whatever you didn't do, you need to apologize."

"I'm not saying shit. Every time I open my mouth, I make it worse."

Liam reaches across and squeezes Angela's thigh in question.

"I saw his prosthetic."

I breathe out slowly through my nose while Alex goes rigid. Fuck, I feel like we're in combat again. My body knows exactly how to roll through the fight-or-flight response, grab onto fight and prepare for battle. My heart beats a staccato beat against my chest and my ears start to ring.

"And..." Liam encourages.

"And I'm angry at him because he felt like he had to hide it from me. I'm angry at him because he's doing his whole 'I'm not a big enough, bad enough man,'" she says, lowering her voice in a comical Brick impression. "'because I'm an amputee' and it's stupid."

If I weren't so uncomfortable with this conversation, the way my Babygirl is throwing a temper tantrum would be adorable.

"Hey! She does a good Brick impression!" Liam laughs at Alex, who stifles his own laugh.

We sit in silence while I let her words unfold themselves in my mind. I can be a little slow to process things. She's angry. Ithought I had to keep it a secret from her. Not that I actually am an amputee. It sounds like she doesn't care about the prosthetic. As her bodyguard. But could she see being with half a man?

She isn't wrong. I struggled hard after multiple surgeries, prosthetic fittings, physical therapy, and still had my confidence and body issues to work through. Through the therapy and self-work I had gotten to accept my prosthetic and new way of life, but Babygirl deserves perfect. She deserves a man who can give her everything, not one who has to take hislegoff every night before bed. What if someone breaks in in the middle of the night? Intruders aren't going to wait for me to put on my prosthetic before they attack.

I groan, rubbing my hand down my face, trying to process and trying to figure out how to respond.

Thankfully, Liam can read me like an open book and steps in to help.

"So you're not angry that he's an amputee, or that he hid it from you, but because he felt he had to and that he's insecure about it." I bristle at the word 'insecure', but he isn't exactly wrong.

"Yes!" she shouts, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "I'm offended he thought I would even care! I thought we were friends! I thought he knew me well enough to know it doesn't matter at all to me. I'm pissed that he thinks so little of himself and other amputees that he thinks he's not just as good and just as capable as any of you. How much of his life has he missed out on because he thinks he's not good enough?"

Finally, her frustration and anger simmer into... compassion? Empathy? I'd received a lot of pity from people because of the prosthetic, because of how difficult it must make my life, but not so much compassion.

We sit in silence a moment more before I have to ask, before I chicken out. "So I am big enough? I am bad enough?" I feel likeI've sliced my entire chest open and am laying my heart out for her. She's either going to heal a part of me that had broken in the helicopter crash and ORs, or she's going to destroy me. I peek over my shoulder, terrified of her response.

She doesn't even dignify my question with a response. She screws up her face, wrinkling her nose and frowning at me in the most obviouswhat the fuck do you think?face I could ever imagine. My lips tilt up in a rare grin before I return to face the windshield.

And without a single word, my Babygirl takes my broken self-image and patches it back together again. I had learned to ignore the children staring, and pitying looks from women, but for the one woman I care about - it doesn't matter. I am man enough for her, and that's all that matters.

"You're not forgiven." She sasses from the back seat.

"Oh no?"

"I can forgive you for being insecure. I'm not an amputee. I wouldn't know what you've been though,butI don't forgive you for thinking it would matter to me. You really think that lowly of me?" Guilt threatens to dampen my light mood, but something in her voice tells me she's not serious.