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“Dagger found him. I went to speak to him, and he told me he’d been working for Sanderson. Sanderson wanted to fuck me up the ass, so he used your brother to do that by getting to you. He said…” I hesitated because the truth could be ugly sometimes, and I knew I never wanted Wren to hear something hurtful but, “… he said Sanderson would destroy you if he didn’t work for him. The plan was to kill you in front of me to make me suffer, knowing that my blood was on your hands.”
“He said that?”
I rubbed at the spot in the middle of my chest, trying to massage away the pain she was feeling. “Yes. Sanderson eventually showed up and told me it was all to get me out of the drug trade. There was a gunfight.”
Wren looked up suddenly, her face twisted in agony. “Are you hurt? Did you get shot?”
I touched the bandage over my chest. “No. I got out okay. Dagger, not so much. He’s recovering in another ward.”
Her head dropped into her hands, and she began to weep. Rubbing her back, I said softly, “It’s okay. It’s over now.” I hesitated over the words I was about to say to her, though. Any sentiment that I was sorry for Hawk’s demise was a fucking lie, but Wren loved him even if he was a fucking asshole.
“I’m sorry about your brother, too.”
“Thank you,” she whimpered. “I did not like the man he’d become, but I still loved him.”
“I know you did.” Moving farther up on the bed, I continued to rub her back, hoping the motion would calm her sobs and dry her tears. As I waited, I watched the clock on the wall. The big hand moved a full two revolutions before she was finally silent, and I was pretty sure that was because she’d fallen asleep. She turned her face toward me, her cheek resting on the top of her knees. She was struggling to open her eyes. Leaning forward, I kissed the tender flesh, tasting her tears.
“I have to organize a funeral for him… although where I’ll get the money to pay for that, I don’t know. Maybe give up the shop?”
“There’s no body left to bury,” I said, kissing the top of her head, hoping she understood.
“But you said—”
“I said he was shot, yes, but so were three other people… the kind of people that the cops would be very interested in finding.”Please read between the lines, Little Bird.
“Oh,” she eventually said. She took in a shuddering breath and let it out.
“We can still have a memorial for him.” Even making the suggestion made my stomach turn. Hawk’s actions against his sister made him my enemy number one, and I gave zero fucks to people who liked to fuck over their own family.
She nodded, then turned to look out the window. Fuck, that motion slayed me. She couldn’t even fucking look at me right now, and she didn’t even know the full truth about how Hawk ended up there in the first place.
“Little Bird?” I murmured. “Are you okay?”
“No.” Her reply was a bare whisper, hardly big enough to take notice of, but I did because I fucking loved this woman. I was consumed by her. She fed me life just as much as the blood in my veins did.
“I can’t wait to take you home.”To make love to you. To love on you. To fucking marry you.I didn’t say all that to her even though I wanted to. I should’ve been fucking terrified even to be thinking about marriage, but I knew what I wanted with Wren. I didn’t want an agreement for two weeks. I wanted her entire fucking life, and I wanted her to share it with me. If she agreed, she could stay with me forever. I could buy the entire goddamn block where her shop was if she wanted to continue, but mostly, I wanted her at home with her stomach growing with new life—a life we created together.
I realized as I burned the warehouse that my life had always been about instant gratification. The women, the drugs, the fucking power that rode my veins when I got my way. Wren made me work damn hard to get her, and I would work hard every damn day of my life to keep and make her happy. I was willing to give away that instant high for her. She was my high. She was in my veins, and I wanted her to stay there. I needed to wake up beside her, to fuck her dirty when I needed it, to slow things down and make love to her when she needed it.
I just needed her.
“Marry me, Little Bird.”
She stiffened at my words, turning her battered face toward me. “Marry you?”
I licked my lips. Was I fucking ruining everything here? “I love you. I need you in my life. I want to protect you, so you’ll never have to go through shit like this ever again.”
Tears streamed down her cheeks, and I brushed them away. “I—”
I silenced her with a kiss. “You don’t have to answer now. Not this second while everything is still so raw. But I want you to be my wife.”
Wren deepened the kiss, sliding her tongue against mine as that familiar spark between us flashed to life and sent us careening down a path of desire. I clutched her shoulders, holding her to me because as much as I wanted to wrap my hand around the back of her neck and control her, I couldn’t.
With a groan, I pulled away. I didn’t want to walk out of here with my dick tenting my fucking pants. Panting, I studied her red mouth, her lips swollen from our bruising kiss. Her breaths were heaving from her too, the passion that tried to consume us not letting go just yet. Pressing my forehead to hers, we stayed like that for a moment.
“Yes,” she said softly.
Tilting her face toward me, I asked, “Yes?”
