AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I heard you,” I told him around the thickness. “I heard you calling for me. Asking me to run back to you. Well, demanding it because I don’t think you’ve ever asked nicely for anything.”
A shaky smile pulled at one side of my mouth.
River grunted an amused sound that still was pained. “Refused to let you leave me. Refused to let you leaveus.”
Emotion burned in my chest, and I reached out and dragged my fingertips over the scruff that lined his jaw. “I still can’t believe you saved him. That you took him in. That he’s been with you all this time. That you’ve loved him like this.”
He slipped off the side of the bed and onto his knees, and he took my hand in both of his. He brushed his lips over my knuckles, his voice scraping on the hushed admission. “Sovereign Sanctum wanted me to place him with another family. With one of the women we’d helped start anew. But from the second I held him…”
His head shook as he drifted in the memory. “I knew I couldn’t let him go. Knew I was bonded to him in some way. Even though keeping him made things a thousand times more difficult for my crew. At the time, I chalked it up to believing I owed him for letting you down. For not being able to bring you to safety. For failing you and your family. So, I devoted my life to him. He became my purpose.”
He kissed across my knuckles again. His chest expanded as he inhaled. “But now I have to wonder if maybe I wasn’t purposed to hold him for you. To protect him until you could return to him.”
My nails scratched up his cheek. “And maybe I was purposed to find both of you.”
“I would do anything for him. For you.”
“I know…just the same as I would for both of you.”
Darkness crowded his expression. “We almost lost you.”
“I would have gladly made that sacrifice, just the same as I know you would have made it for us.”
“Charleigh, fuck, I’m?—”
I knew it was going to be an apology, as if this selfless, beautiful man was responsible for the actions of Frederick. So, I pressed my fingertips to his lips to stop him, and I murmured, “There’s no room for guilt here because the only thing I have left is love. I’ve lost so many days, River. So many days. I don’t want to lose any more.”
On a heaving breath, he leaned forward and pressed his forehead to mine. His big palm splayed out over the entirety of the left side of my face.
Energy whispered and lashed.
That connection that had found us from the beginning.
And one I knew would be with us until the end.
“Don’t worry, Little Runner. We’ve got from here to eternity.”
EPILOGUES
Charleigh
Cool air liftedwith the gentle breeze that blew over the lake. The sun shone high in the vast expanse of blue above, and the warmth of its rays caressed my skin where I sat on a blanket on the sandy beach.
Voices and laughter carried from where River’s family was gathered at the foldable tables we’d brought for our barbecue.
I gazed back at them.
My chest clutched.
Myfamily.
It’s what they’d become over the last two months since everything had happened.
Kane was giving Otto crap the way he always did, and Theo was chuckling along at their antics where he sipped from a beer where he sat on a fold-out chair.
Raven retaliated in Otto’s favor. She sat tucked close to him, tiny against his massive frame, though likely not close enough if she was ever to get her way.
I thought the guy was oblivious, though, or maybe just…scared of looking at her in a way hethought he shouldn’t.
