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“How long do you think we’re going to be here for now?” Sofia asks once the men have left the room. She rakes her fingers through her dark hair to tame it, something she does when she’s stressed. “I have shit to do tomorrow.”
The conversation is cut short as the doors open again and Liv steps inside with Dean at her back, holding their son. Her eyes quickly lock on our little group, which is only missing Clara and Sammy now, and she hurries towards us.
“I heard there was a shooting,” she says in place of hello. “Is anyone hurt?”
“No,” Beth moves to assure her, running a finger over Danny’s downy hair. The kid is so flipping cute. “Everyone’s fine.”
“Where is everyone?” Dean asks, his eyes lingering on Beth for a moment before taking the rest of us in.
“They’re in church,” Beth tells him.
Dean presses his lips to the baby’s head and hands him over to Liv. Once Danny is in her arms, he leans down and kisses his old lady. Yeah, that melts my heart a little. Liv deserves all this good in her life, considering the shit she went through with her ex. I don’t know all the details, but I do know Simon Wilson beat the hell out of her for years until she was able to escape. The women’s shelter she works at, Safe Shelter, helped her get free. She hid in Kingsley for a while before Wilson found her. He battered her, but Dean put her in hiding while he did what he could to find Wilson. That ended with Wilson’s death, I’m sure, although no one has ever admitted what happened to the man.
“I won’t be long,” Dean tells her, and I can see the reluctance in his eyes to leave his family.
Loyalties are always tested in this life—loyalty to Club, to family, to people you love. It never gets easier. I don’t envy Dean having to make these choices, even if this is what he signed up for.
He hesitates for a moment, giving Liv and his son a last lingering look, before finally moving to the common room doors, leaving us alone.
“We had to wait outside because the police had cordoned the building off,” Liv says, taking a seat Jamie pulls out for her. “Where’s Clara?”
“Work, I think,” Paige says.
“Sammy?”
“I’m not sure,” Beth answers, running a finger over Danny’s cheek, while making faces at the baby. “Ghost isn’t here yet though as far as I know, so I assume she’s with him.”
As I glance around the women, I can’t help but wonder if this is what life is going to be.
Fear.
Wondering who will be hurt.
Wondering when the Reapers will come at us.
Wondering who we will lose.
I refuse to live a life in terror. I refuse to let them win this way.
How do we fight an enemy that comes at us from the shadows, though? That I don’t know.
