Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 39689 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 198(@200wpm)___ 159(@250wpm)___ 132(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 39689 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 198(@200wpm)___ 159(@250wpm)___ 132(@300wpm)
I softly smiled down at her as I trailed the tips of my fingers over her cheek.
This woman was everything I ever needed in my life.
Hayley
Damien’s arms slid around me from behind as he stepped into the shower, his muscular chest and torso pressing against my back. My eyes slid shut as he pressed a kiss to my shoulder. “I missed you,” he told me softly. “I’m so sorry I left you when you needed me.”
I didn’t reply. He knew it wasn’t okay that he had left, and he knew that it wasn’t okay that he had killed Drake. Was I going to lie and say, ‘it’s okay’? No. And Damien knew that I wouldn’t say it.
“I’ve been working with Tyrone—building a truce,” he informed me. “Took a lot of apologizing and dirty work, but he’s coming back around. Mostly for your benefit, though, I think. He knows danger seems to follow you everywhere, and he doesn’t want anything to happen to you.”
I turned around in his arms and looked up at him. “Tyrone never talks to me much,” I told him honestly.
Damien shrugged. “He’s a man of few words these days. Scarlett has mostly mellowed him out.”
“She’s a quiet woman herself,” I commented.
Damien laughed softly. “According to Miles, she was a fucking handful for Tyrone and his brothers before they got married. Tyrone was always fucking up with her—wanted a woman that shut the hell up and did as she was told, but she wasn’t like that.”
I arched an eyebrow at him. “Sounds awfully familiar,” I laughed.
Damien shrugged. “I just wish that I had realized I was ruining you sooner than I did. It would have saved both of us a lot of heartache.”
“You’re here now,” I told him softly. “Just . . . just please don’t leave me again,” I quietly begged him.
He softly rubbed my belly. “I’m not, darlin’,” he promised me.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Miles called from the bedroom. “But we’ve got company. Kaden and Natalie have just rolled up.”
“Kaden?” I asked incredulously as I looked up at Damien. “Wasn’t he in prison?” I’d met Kaden four years ago around the time Damien and I had gotten engaged. He was in high school still, but he was a dangerous guy, someone you definitely didn’t want to cross.
And he’d gone to prison for shooting a guy while in school to protect the girl he was with at the time.
Damien nodded. “Last I heard he was,” he told me. He released me and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “I’ll meet you out in the living room.”
He stepped out of the shower. A few minutes later, I got out, too, quickly getting dressed to go see why Kaden and Natalie were here. Plus, the last I had heard, Natalie had disappeared off the grid—no one could find her. She ran a few months after Kaden got locked up.
Kaden had definitely changed while he was in prison, I noted when I saw him. His shoulders were wider, and he had actually gotten a little bit taller. Ink crawled up his neck and out onto his hands from under the sleeves of his flannel. His blonde hair was longer and slicked straight back, his blue eyes cold and hard—emotionless.
The last time I had seen Kaden, he was a teenager—still in high school—only a VP in his father’s club. But now, he wore a president patch on his chest.
Natalie was sitting on the couch holding a sleeping baby—close to a year old—on her chest. Her belly was slightly rounded with the signs of another baby—probably four or five months along now. Her long brown hair was pulled up into a messy ponytail, her face clear of any makeup. Unlike Kaden, she had no ink visible except for the inside of her arm where I knew she had a scar with a guy’s name who had decided to scar her permanently.
“Heard you two got back together,” Kaden commented as he looked over at me.
Damien nodded silently, not offering any other comment on it. “So, to what do I owe the visit?” Damien finally asked.
“Wanted to see if we could work out something with some guns,” Kaden told him. “I just pulled out of business with the Reapers. They’ve got a lot of shit going on right now—Jayden thought it would be best that I pull out for right now to save myself from any damage. He told me to look your way.”
Damien nodded. “Shouldn’t be an issue. You’ll have to give me a couple of weeks to get in an extra supply for you.”
“That’s fine. Just let me know whenever.”
The baby that Natalie was holding began to cry, and Kaden instantly walked over and took him from her, cradling the baby in his arms. I swallowed down the knot in my throat, my mind instantly flashing back to the first time I had gotten pregnant—how excited I was to have a little piece of Damien I got to love and care for, only to lose it.