After the way he was able to soothe me during the pressure of everything, I want to see if he is to me what my dad is to my mom. Her anchor.
I knew when Blaze got back from the lab Dixie would try something stupid. What I didn’t know was that I’d be filled with a raging jealousy at seeing her put Blaze’s hand on her stomach. Didn’t matter that it wasn’t his child. I’d felt a sting of pain roll off him for a brief second and doubts started to seep in.
Would he change his mind if I’m wrong?
Sure, he says that right now that I’m his wife and the one he wants. However, the bond a parent has with its child is sometimes worth more than being with the one you love. I’ve seen it happen.
Leaving the clubhouse, Blaze must have needed the ride because instead of going straight to my house or wherever, we just rode.
The winds though still spoke to me, they weren’t screaming like they’d been earlier on the ride in. Closing my eyes, I lay my head against Blaze’s shoulder and relax for the first time today.
I don’t know how long we rode around but when the bike comes to a stop and the motor is cut, I open my eyes. Glancing around I realize we’re at a cemetery.
“What’s going on Blaze?” I ask.
“Liam. Here, just like when we’re home together with no one else around, I’m not Blaze,” he murmurs, patting my leg motioning for me to hop off.
Confused by the tone in his voice, I climb off and wait for him. With a deep sigh, Blaze joins me silently and takes my hand as he guides me through the rows of headstones until we get to one right next to a large oak tree.
Reading the words engraved into the stone my heart sinks.
Laura Ann Morgan
July 20, 2000 – October 4, 2002
Beautiful daughter who will never be forgotten
“Liam?” I tilt my head to meet his gaze, he’s not looking at me but at the stone.
“Laura was my daughter,” he whispers as he let’s go of my hand to sit on the ground. Patting the ground next to him, I do as he wants. Right now, I’d do anything he needed. “When I was seventeen, she’d come into this world kicking and screaming, becoming the light of my life. Her mom and I married when we found out. I thought I was doing the right thing but in the end it wasn’t.”
Shaking his head, Blaze finally meets my gaze.
“Not long after Laura was born, I found Rissa, her mom, in bed with my father high as a fuckin’ kite. Filed for divorce and cut all ties with my family. Rissa and I had shared custody of my little girl. I should have done more to get her from the woman, but I thought she loved her daughter. The day it happened; I went to pick her up for my weekend. Rissa, of course, pulled her typical stunt and I had to wait for her to go get her from her mom’s house.”
Breath hitching, Blaze turns his attention back to his daughter’s grave. “I waited for a while and when she didn’t return, I headed for Rissa’s parents’ house. As I got closer to their home, I was stopped due to an accident. That accident was Rissa’s car smashed into the guardrail on the other side of the bridge.”
“Liam,” I whisper, lifting a hand to touch him.
Blaze tilts his head slightly in my direction. “I never got to hold my daughter or even tell her goodbye. She’d died on impact, thanks to her mother not fastening her into her car seat properly. Rissa’s lucky she’d died as well that day because I wanted to kill her.”
I want nothing more than to kill his ex-wife myself for doing this to him. Taking something so precious from him.
Wanting to comfort him, I shift from sitting next to him to his lap and wrap my arms around his neck. No words are needed for this moment as I hold this man to me.
All my doubts that had started to seep inside me earlier dissipate. There’s no way he’d ever have brought me here if he didn’t want me.
“I wanted to bring you here for two reasons. One, so you’d know the truth as to why I’ve fought what I felt for you for so long. I didn’t want to deal with another person doing to me what Rissa did. Two, if the lab results come back that I am the father of that child, I’m not turning my back on it. If that’s going to be too much for you, I’d understand but doesn’t mean I’m giving up on you either.” My breath catches at his declaration.
I’m not wrong. I can’t be, but if I am, can I deal with Dixie constantly?
No, because you’ll kill the bitch.
True I would. She deserves to die for all but bringing this pain Blaze has carried with him to the surface again.
“I’m sorry Liam, so so sorry. If I could take your pain away, I’d do it in a heartbeat,” I murmur into his neck.
“I wouldn’t want you to do that. It’s my job to protect you from the pain. I mean what I say when I say I want you. You’re my Little Bird with wings spread ready to fly but I don’t want you flying without me. We do this life together from here on out,” Blaze states, lifting a hand to grip my chin, tilting my head up to meet his gaze.
“But . . .”
“No buts Little Bird. I’ve got no problem telling you I love you because I do. Does that mean I’ll let you walk all over me? Fuck no. I know you’re a wild spirit and I’ll let you fly but it’ll be with me. You and I are gonna spend the rest of our lives doing things right.” The severity in his tone and the determination rolling off him tells me there’s no way I can protest this.
Not that I wanted to anyway.
Holding his gaze, I nod my head. “Okay but don’t think I’ll let you walk all over me either mister. I won’t be chained down. Now take me home and show me just how much you love me because Liam, I love you as well.”
Most people might think it’s too soon for us to be saying those words to each other. But fuck them. I don’t need anyone telling me what’s right or wrong.
Even drunk as hell, I’d done something I’d dreamed about doing since I first met Blaze. I married him.
Fate is going to go whatever way it wants, and nothing is going to stop it from happening.
Chapter Ten
Blaze
Over the past several days it’s been a tossup between hellacious and bliss.
After leaving the cemetery, I felt a sense of ease inside me. Like I didn’t have the weight of the world completely on my shoulders. I’d been worried about what Raven would think of me when I told her about Laura and what was going through my head since leaving the clubhouse the other day about the baby Dixie was carrying.
Raven being who she is, understood my turmoil and has stood by me each day. We’d spent the last two days with me deep inside her whenever I didn’t have to go take care of club business. She even went with me to the clubhouse every day. Evidently, she’d been on vacation from the veterinary clinic she works at, this week.
Thanks to Dixie trying to constantly cause problems at the clubhouse everyone is ready to strangle her with her incessant whining about no one believing her. Unfortunately, nothing can be done about her until we had the results. Which thankfully came in today.
Dixie had wanted to go with me to pick them up, but that won’t be happening. Instead I’d gotten Neo, one of the prospects, to go grab them. She also threw a fit claiming Ranger wouldn’t speak the truth if he was the one who read the results, so Raven called her friend Raul’s significant other, Doctor Alverez.