Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 60447 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 242(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60447 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 242(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
I don’t know what they have been told, so for now, I’ll play dumb.
I shake my head.
“Well, you were in a bad way. Somehow the bullet missed anything vital, but you had lost a lot of blood, and you were dehydrated. Your lungs had received a little damage from small pieces of the bullet that broke off. The doctors have fixed everything, and you should make a full recovery. You were very lucky.”
She’s not wrong about that.
“When you are out of recovery, you can see your family. We just need to monitor you here for a few hours first.”
My eyes are so heavy, I finally cave and close them, letting them rest. The moment I close them, I find myself drifting back into an anesthetic induced slumber that is a blissful relief.
Just another few minutes.
That’s all I need.
A few more minutes.
“HEY.”
A warm, rough hand glides down my cheek.
Sweet bliss.
“Baby.”
That voice.
A voice I require so much.
My eyes flutter open, and I see Cade staring down at me, his gaze soft, his expression full of relief and a touch of sadness.
“Hey,” I croak. “Fancy seeing you here.”
He chuckles and brings his lips down to mine, pressing them to me for a long, long time. Like he requires it, like it’s the only way he can continue on. As if my lips are the only way he can breathe. Once his lips are removed from mine, his forehead presses to me, and we sit like that for a long time, just feeling each other.
Reaching up, I run my fingers through his hair, feeling the soft strands against my flesh. I have never appreciated the feeling of having him against me so much. I thought for a moment there, we were done for. I thought I might die, or worse, he wouldn’t come out of it alive. That is something I never want to feel again in my life. The helpless agony of loss.
“What happened?” I whisper.
“Jackson gave Marshall a choice. Either he handed us over and told him where Clara was, or he would bring in the kind of force that would put so much attention on what Marshall was doing, it would expose him.”
“I’m guessing Marshall didn’t agree, considering the amount of gunfire I heard when I was being whisked away.”
“He didn’t agree, but it didn’t take long for him to call it all off. He knows that while he might have the power to bring us down over time, it’s a battle he really doesn’t want to deal with. It takes away too much time from the evil shit he is doing and for that reason, he came in mid-fight and told Jackson they had a deal.”
Marshall is a smart man. Kind of.
“He just gave up?”
Cade grunts. “Like I said, it wasn’t worth the battle he would have to carry on for a long fuckin’ time. He wants his world to flow easily, and if he has to take out people, he will, but an entire club is a war he wasn’t willing to fight.”
“Do you think he was just saying that? What if he comes back with an unexpected attack?”
“It’s goin’ to be fine, baby. I promise.”
My eyes lock on his. “Wait, Jackson said he needed to tell you where Clara is? Cade...did he tell you?”
Cade gives me a look, a long, unreadable expression that has my heart clenching.
“Cade?” I plead, sliding my hand up to his face and cupping it.
“She’s alive. She and Darth did steal from Marshall, and because of that, Darth was killed. He took the fall, and Clara did a runner before Marshall could get to her. He maintains he doesn’t know where she is and quite frankly, he doesn’t care. He has bigger fish to fry than a rogue woman who meant nothing to him.”
“If she ran,” I say, my voice shaky with shock. “Why didn’t she come looking for you?”
“She doesn’t know that he isn’t still lookin’ for her. Chances are she changed her name, started a new life and hasn’t dared come back in fear that he will kill her. When you run from a man like Marshall, you do not show your face again. Not to mention our relationship wasn’t exactly strong, she had no reason to reach out to me. Why would she? I left her.”
I’m sad for the entire situation, for Clara, for Cade, and mostly for the years they have lost.
“How are you going to find her?” I ask.
“I have no fuckin’ idea. Darth would have had someone create a whole new identity for them before they stole those goods, he was smart enough for that, but it is goin’ to take time to try to find out who that was and if they even know what the hell they did back then. There might be a chance we never find her.”