"Hi" he greeted, coming over to me with his hands in his pockets as Clover excused herself again. She stopped to whisper something in his ear, before finally leaving the room. I wonder what she told him.

"How are you feeling now?" He asked, standing awkwardly by my bed.

"Much better, thanks" I replied, watching as he went over to pull a chair from the corner of the room towards my bed and took a seat, leaning forward.

"That's great........I know, this might not be the best time for this but I really just want to clear this misunderstanding between us, it's really bugging me" he started "First off, I'm not a Viper, I was  but I'm not anymore. I didn't become friends with you to spy on you or something like that. I didn't know anything about the chip or your dad. I handed André over to the Vipers, but only because I want to protect you. If he's set free and allowed to go back, he'd surely come back and yes I saved you from him this time but what's to say I might be able to next time?"

I watched as he explained everything, desperation clear in his tone and after some minutes of thinking, I realized that he was making some sense and he really meant no harm, so I decided to forgive him.

"It's alright, I forgive you Blake" I stated "If not for anything, at least for the fact that you saved my life and also for the friendship between us. I'm sorry I wasn't willing to listen before"

"Really? You forgive me and now everything can go back to normal?" He asked, excitement evident on his features.

"Yes, it -" I started, a smile playing on my lips but was interrupted when I felt the air knocked out of my lungs. I was suddenly in a tight embrace with Blake and I was finding it hard to breathe. It was definitely not because of the heart palpitations I was having due to his close proximity to me, nope, he was squeezing the air out of me.

"Can't....breathe" I managed to get out before he finally let go of me. Phew!

"Sorry" he replied, a sheepish grin on his face as his cheeks turned red.

"Even though that poison didn't kill me, this hug would definitely have if you didn't stop" I joked, making us laugh.

"One thing still confuses me though" I started after some time.

"What?" He asked.

"You didn't want anything to do with the Vipers right? So why enlist their help to stop André?"

"Well other than the fact that this is their territory and a member of the Las Vegas branch isn't allowed to carry out mafia business here without permission from them, that was the only way I could think of to protect you" he replied and I felt the heat run up my neck.

To protect me huh? I thought.

"Yeah" he said making me look up.

"Huh?" I asked before realizing I must have said that aloud. Oops. "Oh, thank you"

"So in lame girl English, you handed him over to your 'gang'" I joked, trying to ease the tension in the air. Luckily, it worked.

"No, not my gang" he chuckled, "but yes I handed him over to them"

"Okay then" I replied, trying to hide the fact that him being partially part of a mafia gang still freaked me out a little bit. Now that I think about it, it was actually pretty cool and badass. I just wish it wasn't the same gang that wanted my father's head on a platter of gold.

I was amidst my crazy thoughts when I felt his eyes on me. I then looked up to see him staring intensely at me, a ghost of a smile playing on his lips. Um, okay. That made me nervous and I felt my cheeks heat up once again. Ugh!

"What?" I asked nervously "What are you looking at?"

"Nothing. I'm just happy" he said, placing a hand on my cheek as he turned serious. "I was seriously scared at the thought of losing you Dani and that fear made me realize something" he continued, stroking my cheek with his thumb.

"What?" I asked quietly as the tension in the air grew.

"I like you, Daniella Robinson....a lot...and I care so much about you that I never want to see you hurt" he declared, leaving me in complete and utter shock that I found myself gaping. Oh my God. I was definitely not expecting that. Blake liked me. He like liked me!

I wanted to reply, to say something at least but I couldn't bring myself to. I stared at his anxious face as he stared back and after some moments of silence, he finally spoke, his hand leaving my face.

"Uh, you don't have to say anything, I just thought I should let you know" he said, trying to mask the disappointment in his voice with amusement.

My silence was disappointing to him and that made me feel bad, so I gathered up my wits and was just about to say something when the nurse walked in and made him leave the room because she wanted to administer to me a dose of my medicine. Apparently, that would've made me fall asleep.

I watched as he left the room, the tension leaving with him and I felt my shocked look morph into a full blown smile. I'm sure the nurse thought I was crazy, but I didn't care. I felt happy and as the medicine kicked in, I found myself dreaming of a certain brown haired boy.

*  *  *  *  *

I woke up some hours later to my mom by my bedside. According to her, she had arrived a few hours ago when Clover informed her that I was at the hospital due to food poisoning from the food served at the restaurant. Food poisoning huh? Close enough. It took all I had to convince her not to go over to the restaurant and create a scene, but in the end, I was successful.

It was already late, so she had told Clover and Blake to go home. I was finally discharged after the doctor had made sure that I was in good enough shape with just a few rest and drugs needed and my mom took me home.

The soft snore of Tyler, who was on the couch, welcomed me back home. Poor thing, he must have been waiting up for me. I went over to place a kiss on his forehead after which my mum picked him up and took him to his room.

I made my way to mine and after changing into my Pjs, I plopped onto my bed hoping to fall asleep again, but an hour later, I was tossing around, thinking of what had happened at the hospital.

One minute I was mad at him for supposedly lying to me and the next , he's telling me how much he liked me. What a day!

*  *  *  *  *
We didn't go to church the next day because my mum decided that I needed more rest, so we had a mini devotion in our living room after which we had breakfast and I was back in my room, Tyler by my side.

"Where did you go yesterday? You took so long to come back" he asked placing his chin on his palms as he laid on my bed looking up at me with cute brown eyes.

"I went to meet up with a friend but then I ate something bad" I explained vaguely, making him gasp.

"Was it nuts? Did you eat nuts? You shouldn't eat those, they're very bad" he cautioned, sitting up and pointing a finger at me in an attempt to be stern. I giggled.

"Nuts are bad only for you Ty" I replied, laughing "I'm allowed to eat them"

"So you don't get fat when you eat them like I do?" He asked curiously.

"Nope"

"But that's not fair" he whined, pouting.

"Sorry Ty, life isn't fair" I replied, ruffling his hair.

"So what happened? Did the doctor give you injections?" He asked eagerly.

"Yes and it was so painful" I replied dramatically, making a face like I was in pain and he giggled. I then started to tickle him. After some minutes, I finally let him go and he scurried out of my room.

*  *  *  *  *

Hey! Slow updates, I know, I'm sorry. Been kinda busy.

Anyways, please tell me what you think of this book so far, I'll really like to know 🥺.

Please don't forget to VOTE, drop COMMENTS and SHAREEE! Ty!♡