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“Okay.” Her eyes go over to Gillian lying peaceful in her bed. “Do you think she’ll be okay?”
I look at the woman I love more than anything, the one I’d give my last breath for. “We’ll make certain of it. Right ladies?”
“All right,chicas, let’s go pack our bags.” Maria turns, whistles at her bodyguard. “Hey, hot stuff, let’s hit it.”
I can’t help but chuckle. The woman is incorrigible.
“You know, Tommy’s not going to like you calling your bodyguard ‘hot stuff’,” Bree says as she waves at the Viking six-foot guard I have assigned to her.
Maria lets out a sound that mimics a tire losing air rapidly. “I gotta keep my man on his toes.” She clucks her tongue and sways her hips into a little dance.
Kathleen moves to turn away then faces me once more. “What you’re doing…” She swallows and starts again. “How you love her, it’s special. Beautiful. I’m glad she found you.” Then before I can respond she’s got me in her arms once again. This time I pull her against me and hug her tight. She hums, pulls back and kisses my cheek. “It will all be okay. Very soon. I can feel it.”
“I hope you’re right, Kathleen.”
“You know, you can call me Kat.”
“You’re name is lovely the way it is.”
“Charmer. Now I see how she fell so quickly. It wasn’t the physique, though since I’m bedding a member of your family, I can attest that’s a factor.” I chuckle. “It’s your charm, and your belief that she is meant solely for you.”
I look one of her best friends in the eyes. “I never believed in soul mates until I met her. Now I’m sorry for every schmuck out there who doesn’t find theirs. Do you think you’ve found that in my cousin?”
Kathleen smiles wider and winks before turning on a heel and walking away, question unanswered.
On heavy feet, I make my way back into Gillian’s room. She’s mumbling in her sleep. Every so often she says my name only she doesn’t say it with happiness. It’s said with desperation. Closing the door, I kick off my shoes, remove my pants and pull off my shirt. Then I press the button to bring the bed flat. There’s a chair that turns into a cot near the bed, but I can’t be away from her tonight. Not tonight. She needs to know I’m here for her, even in sleep.
I slip in cautiously. Before I can lie back she’s cuddling into my chest. Medicated sleep doesn’t prevent her body from knowing mine. Soulmates. I meant what I said to Kathleen a bit ago. Meeting Gillian almost a year ago at the hotel bar was like the universe opening up and delivering me a piece of heaven. It’s something I never knew I wanted or needed, but it was there. And I took it and made it mine. I will continue to protect what is mine until my last breath.
Holding her warm body to mine, I close my eyes enjoying the feel of her breath against my chest. Too many days have gone by since we’ve been skin to skin.
She snuffles against my chest and says in the most serene voice yet, “Chase…my Chase.”
I swallow down the emotion needing to be strong for her. The next few weeks, maybe even months are not going to be easy ones. We have absolutely no leads on McBride. The only thing all of the investigators and my men can agree on is that he will strike again. He’s going to come after Gillian or her friends in one way or another. We stole something he believes is his, fromhisproperty. To a psycho like Daniel McBride, that’s worthy of a death sentence.
Thoughts of him, what he did to her, how he kept her locked up prevent me from easing into sleep. Eventually, I change my thoughts to the wedding we never had and the honeymoon we’re currently missing. Right then and there I make a decision. We will be married and soon. I cannot let a madman keep me or Gillian from something that means more to us than anything else has in our relationship. The moment she’s better, I’m taking her way. Away from it all. Just the two of us.
Chapter Six
Gillian
The morning frostcrunches and the spikes of my low heels dig deep into the cold ground as we make our way up the incline. My healing ankles resist, but I tamp down any residual pain; clenching my jaw and grinding my teeth works just fine. I’ve been out of the hospital a week, and it’s been a total of two weeks since our wedding day. The day that never happened.
It’s a sea of black everywhere you look when we arrive at our destination. Hundreds of people stand like a hill of ants waiting to worship their queen, only their queen is dead. Ms. Colleen Davis is being laid to rest today. Chase held off on the services until I was found and out of the hospital. Now, he’s finally dealing with his loss, though I’m not sure dealing with it would be the right term. More like avoiding it completely.
I clutch Chase’s hand and look up at his profile. He’s stoic. Hasn’t smiled or moved a muscle in his sculpted face in the last hour. It’s a cold day when the world isn’t graced with one of his smiles. For a while I got so used to seeing them, it became a welcome permanent fixture in my life. Lately, we’ve all been nothing but frowns. Today is no different.
Solemnly we tread through the group of people. So many stop him with a few kind words, a pat to the shoulder or back, people I’ve never met or seen providing small snippets of comfort in Chase’s time of need. Except me. I have nothing to say. There’s nothing I can say that will ever take away this hurt. Because the woman Chase loves is the reason his mother is dead. The one woman he trusted above all others is gone, and it’s my fault.
I’m a realistic person, I get that I wasn’t the one who murdered Colleen in cold blood, but I was the catalyst for Daniel even being there that day. I watched Chase’s mother take her last breath. As much as that hurts, it’s the topic of what we were fighting about before Daniel entered that bridal room that plagues my every breath. She never believed that I was the right woman for her son. Those thoughts and feelings were the last things she had on this Earth.
I haven’t even been able to talk to Chase about it. How could I? Oh yeah baby, your mom hated my guts, and on our wedding day, she was making it clear how wrong I was for you. Five minutes later, her neck was slit by my ex-boyfriend. Sorry.
I let out a deep sigh and Chase pulls me tighter against his side, leans down and places a warm kiss on my head at the hairline. We’re here to bury his mother and he’s comforting me. Things are so messed up. When we get to the graveside seating area, I see my six favorite people, aside from Chase, all sitting together like my own personal cheering section. Tommy is sitting next Maria, who’s next to Bree, who’s alongside Phil, who’s next to Kat, who’s sitting with Carson. All of our friends are in black, all wearing matching somber expressions. Chase leads me over to them.
Carson gets up first. “Hey man, I-uh...” he clears his throat then tries again. “This has to be hard, after what happened to your girl and all. Carson glances to me then back to Chase. “Aunt Colleen, well, she loved you more than anything in this world. Everyone knew that.” Carson pulls Chase into a man-hug and surprisingly, Chase accepts, though his expression is still set in stone.
Maria clasps Chase’s hand, looks into his eyes and says, “Voy a rezar por el alma de su madre para estar en paz.” He nods and gives Ria a tight-lipped smile. I pick up a bit, something about his mother’s soul and rest in her words, but not much else.
