Page 48 of Crusher

“Hayes, what did you do?” she sneers coldly, her voice crackly, and I flinch as a lot of, oh fucks, echo in my ear.

Clearing my throat, I say, “I’ve got to go, brothers, and Cage, as for my shifts, I have a double graveyard shift in three days, then two days at the firehouse. I don’t know the rest because I took time off when I went to get my wife back.”

“Good luck,” he chuckles before hanging up, and I keep eye contact with my wife, whose nostrils are flaring, and I know even trying to get close to her right now is a death sentence.

“I brought you home,” I state the obvious, “Our son is currently downstairs doing his schoolwork, I have a meeting with Hill Crest Elementary tomorrow, and you have been given full clearance to use the ice rink on days it isn’t open for the public. I’ve got the schedule on the fridge,” I swallow before finishing, “I quit your job for you, and canceled your class, and you are no longer in debt.”

“Uncuff me, now,” she demands, but I shake my head, not stupid, but when she snaps, “I need to go check on our son who was shot! Our son, I have barely let out of my goddamn sight, so uncuff me, right now!” I turn stupid because my feet move before my brain can catch up with how much of an idiotic idea it is to uncuff her.

My heart can only see a panicked mother, while my head, which hasn’t caught up with what my heart is doing, probably sees a pissed-off wife, meaning it’s a lose – lose situation.

I undo the cuffs and take a step back and watch as she gingerly stands up, and I have to hold myself back when she wobbles before suddenly, her fist is coming my way and fuck’s sake, I really should have seen it coming.

My head snaps to the side as she hits my jaw in a hit I fucking taught her, and I blink because fuck me, that hurt.

A big part of me is proud, the other part is pissed I didn’t see it coming.

“Okay, I deserved that, I guess,” I grunt as I look at her, but absolute pain rushes through me, and my eyes water as I groan, “Fuck,” and I cup my balls, my knees giving out.

I really should have seen her kneeing me in the balls…

I cough as I kneel onto the floor before choking, “So, I guess you don’t want more kids?” as I squeeze my eyes tight, and she growls loudly before stomping out of the room, and I breathe heavy, suddenly regretting uncuffing her.

Fuck, I think she might have popped a testicle.

Trying to get my bearings, I slowly stand but wince at the pain between my fucking legs before I carefully follow my wife, who I know won’t be going anywhere because of our son, and I try to come up with a plan while praying she hasn’t broken my dick.

I hurt her enough for her to still be feeling the pain eight years later. I’m fully aware that bitch who is still missing, sending her fake pictures for two years hasn’t helped, but she loves me, and whether she wants to believe it or not, it’s a fucking start, and it’ll help me keep her.

“I just have one long fucking hill to climb…”

Chapter 22

Alexiana

I tilt my head as I watch Kayden sleep peacefully in his motorcycle room. My heart breaks a little at how relaxed he is, unlike how he’d sleep back in Rose Hill, tossing and turning, crying in his sleep.

I made a mistake, and I already knew it, but seeing it makes it clearer.

A few tears fall, and I quickly wipe them away.

When I came downstairs a few hours ago, my eyes went to all the photos on the wall, the memories. My heart cracks because this was my home, a place I thought I’d grow a family in with Hayes. It didn’t help that everything that Hayes and I had decorated hadn’t changed. My dark grey throw was still over the leather couch, my slippers near the door. Even the plants I bought that he has somehow managed to keep alive after all this time still sit on the windowsills. The paintings I chose still hanging, pictures of us everywhere, including the one of us on our wedding day, large in front of the fireplace.

I tried to ignore it all, I tried to shove the memories, the pain, down, and focus on the little trouble who has been feeding his father everything he overheard me say or do, even if it was hard.

Guess Hayes should have made sure I couldn’t hear his conversation when I woke up dizzy and disoriented, handcuffed. It took me over twenty-four hours to recognize the room we once slept in, the bed we made love in the day he moved me in. That’s when I realized the asshole drugged me.

I sigh as Kayden turns in his sleep. I couldn’t think about anything else, I refused to allow myself to because if I did, I would have torn this home apart in anger that my husband drugged me and dragged me back to Hill Crest.

I chew my bottom lip as I watch Kayden's little chest move up and down slowly.

He was finishing up his schoolwork, and despite side-eyeing me, gauging my reaction, the little monster ignored me, and now I’m understanding why.

He felt like he was betraying me by speaking to his father about my plans for us and I get where he was coming from, I do. He wanted to live with his daddy, but he also didn’t want to lose me. He has to come to understand not all parents stay together, I mean, he was born without his father around no thanks to that woman. As much as people say, like my so-called friend Linc, that if I had shown up with a baby I would have seen everything she sent was a lie, she sent me pictures of him holding a goddamn baby for Christ sake!

Frustration runs through me at my current situation, of not feeling like I have any control of my life right now. A warm hand grazes my hip and tingles rush through me sending electric bolts throughout my body. The hand splays flat on my stomach, and I feel soft, warm lips touching my shoulder, a lip ring giving me that sense of peace as it glides over my skin.

“How are your balls?” I ask quietly as I keep my eyes on my son.