Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87895 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87895 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
“Noah, I…”
“I promise you that I will be careful and that I will come back to you and Ryan. I’m asking you to believe in me, Rory. I’m asking you to have faith in me,” I plead with her, needing this from her more than I’ve ever needed anything in my life.
“Noah—”
“I have to do this, Rory. I don’t have a choice. I have to make that son of a bitch pay for taking our child from us. I have to make him pay for scaring my boy and hurting you. I have to do this. If I don’t I’m not going to be able to live with myself.”
She tilts her head up to look at me, her fingers scratch gently into my beard and her tear-filled eyes study me.
“I don’t want you to not do it. I want that revenge too… I just want you to be… safe.”
“I survived death once to get back to you, Rory. If you think I will let anything keep us apart you’re crazy. I will always come back to you, Gorgeous. Always.”
“Okay,” she whispers. “If that’s what you need from me, you have it, Noah.”
“I love you, Rory,” I tell her, leaning back down to take her mouth and kiss her, drinking her in and knowing that in my arms right now I’m holding everything and I’ll never give it up.
Never.
“I love you, too, Noah. I always have and I always will,” she replies when we break apart.
I just hold her, letting her head rest against my chest, letting her presence soothe me. She takes my hand in hers, linking our fingers together and I close my eyes and thank my lucky stars that I haven’t lost her. Even after all of the shit I put her through and everything we’ve had to go through to get here…. She’s still with me.
That’s a gift I’ll never take for granted.
54
Diesel
“Thank God this baby looks nothing like Devil,” I tell Torrent with a wink. She smiles, still looking tired, but very happy.
“I couldn’t agree more,” Devil says, sitting in Torrent’s hospital bed with her, his arm wrapped around her as he leans down and kisses the top of her head. “He’s beautiful, just like my angel,” he murmurs more quietly and Torrent looks up at him and kisses him.
My heart squeezes, feeling the bittersweet pain deep inside. I’m happy for my brother, after all of the hell he’s gone through, I can’t think of anyone that deserves this happiness more. Still, I hate that Rory and I didn’t get this. That we were robbed of this happiness, this pleasure. I’ve never had it. Having Ryan was a fight the whole time. I had to lock Vicki down while she was carrying him, just to make sure he was safe. Ryan deserved for his parents to be like this. I can’t keep looking back, but still it slices open that wound deep inside, knowing that had things been different, Rory and I would have known this kind of sweetness.
“I love you,” Torrent tells him, and suddenly I feel like an intruder in their family moment.
“I better get going,” I announce, standing up and clearing my throat.
“Rory’s not with you?” Torrent asks and I do my best to smile, but it’s mostly just straightening out my lip.
“She… had things to do at the club,” I tell her finally, handing their little boy back over to his momma.
Rory couldn’t handle seeing a baby right now… not like this. Hell, if Devil wasn’t one of my closest brothers I’d find a reason not to be here.
“I understand,” Torrent says, and the look on her face tells me that she does.
“I appreciate you postponing the thing with King until after the baby arrived,” Devil says. “But I’m ready. We need to get that bastard and hopefully get Wolf while we’re at it. I don’t like that those men are breathing the same air my family is,” he mutters.
That’s a feeling I’m intimately aware of.
“You all were right. I need to make sure we’re ready. After I leave here, I’ll be meeting with Scorpion and Gunner. When we make our move, it will be because King has nowhere else left to run.”
Devil nods his head. I’m just about to say my final goodbyes when my phone rings. I reach in my back pocket and grab it, clicking accept as I bring it to my ear.
“Speak,” I order, not bothering to see who it was that called.
“Hey Boss, I got some bad news,” Fury announces through the line.
“Why doesn’t that fucking surprise me?” I respond with a sigh. “Hold on, I’m with Devil and Torrent now. I’m going to put you on speaker. Okay,” I tell him after making the switch. “Go ahead.”
I hold the phone down between the three of us and as I mention Fury’s name Devil and Torrent’s look of confusion clears and they stare down at the phone like they can actually see Fury there. Hell, I do too, I guess. I’m so tired of running into dead ends. I want things to go back to fucking normal. It feels like we haven’t had normal and boring in my damn club in longer than I can remember.