And I knew damn well and good his wife, the woman he loved with all of his heart, the woman that he would give up his family for, dying would be the trigger. He wouldn’t get past this, even if he had a baby to live for.
“Harker needs you,” I said, my eyes studying Dory’s face. “He needs you. Bram needs you. I need you. Come on, doll. Wake up. Fight.”
They’d weened her off of the medicine that was keeping her in a coma two days ago. She’d been extubated this morning.
“He’s there, but he’s not there, if you know what I mean,” I said to Dory. “He’s right now getting your son out of the NICU. Taking him ‘home’ so to speak. But his heart just isn’t in it. Come on, doll. Wake up. Let me see your eyes. Please?”
Dory didn’t move.
Didn’t so much as react.
“Come on,” I whispered. “Fight.”
• • •
DORY
I fought.
I fought hard.
Because Shine was right.
Bram would give up without me.
I knew it just as well as I knew that the sun would rise every morning.
“Shit,” I heard Shine whisper. “Bram, what the fuck are you doing up? You were stabbed in the fuckin’ chest for Christ’s sake. Give me that baby so you don’t drop him.”
What? Stabbed in the chest? My Bram? And he had our baby?
“Police cornered me for the third fuckin’ time, that stupid, incompetent sheriff thinks that I did this on purpose. That I’m guilty. That I stabbed myself in the chest,” Bram growled. “Which he knows damn well that I did not. But he looks like a dumbass, and he’s up for reelection, and thinks that if he makes me look like I was the one in the wrong, he’ll be rehired. I was tired of him coming to my room. And I missed her.”
He missed me?
That made my heart melt a little bit.
The last remaining crack was filled in, and my wall stood reconstructed with Bram’s love, whole and strongly new.
With Bram at my side, I would always be able to stay strong.
“I’ll handle it,” Shine said. “Sit down before you fall on your fuckin’ face.”
I heard the chair at my side squeak.
Then a quiet, more delicious squeak that sounded a whole lot like a baby.
A short, unsatisfied cry filled the air, then Bram’s deep, soothing voice said, “Shh. I know you know your mama’s close. You can smell her, can’t you?”
Then I felt a soft, warm weight press against my leg.
A wiggly body.
Then the wiggly body went still.
“Damn, I’ve never seen a kid go to sleep that fast in my life,” Shine said softly. “And look. Her heartbeat’s faster.”
It was?
“She knows we’re here,” Bram said. “Told you.”
“You didn’t ‘tell’ me anything,” Shine grumbled. “I was the one who agreed with you. In fact, I was in here complaining about you before you arrived. She knows that you’re being a dumbass.”
“Fuck you,” Bram said.
“Don’t swear in front of my baby,” a whispered croak sounded from the bed.
“Holy shit, Dory?” Bram was all but pressed against my face as I felt his warm breath whisper across my lips.
“Yes,” I said.
God, it hurt to talk.
It hurt to breathe, actually. But it really hurt to talk.
My vocal cords hurt, and even worse, every time I moved my jaw, it caused something in my scalp to ache.
“Hurts,” I whispered, barely moving my lips.
“I’ll call the nurse,” Shine said.
Then I felt a drop of liquid hit my lip, and the taste of salt on my tongue.
I couldn’t open my eyes, but I could tell without looking that Bram was crying.
“I’m. Okay,” I whispered, moving as little as possible.
“I know,” he rasped. “I know.”
CHAPTER 29
Your anxiety is a lying ass ho.
-Coffee Cup
DORY
“Going back means I’ll have to face Amon. I’ve been running from him for so long…”
Bram caught my face in his hands and looked at me with his heart in his eyes.
“Yeah, but this time, you won’t be alone,” he promised. “This time, you’ll have me. For the rest of your life, you’ll always have me.” He hesitated. “And it’s not Amon. It’s Amon’s lackey. We can face that little shit.”
I snickered. He was right. We weren’t facing Amon. We were facing the man that wanted to be like Amon and couldn’t.
Amon was dead. Even if Travis Haynes wanted to glorify him for the rest of our days.
Travis Haynes had survived the slitting of his throat, barely, and hung on to life with sheer determination because of the hate in his heart for us.
It’d been exactly six weeks since the bombing. Six weeks of excruciating pain, rehab, and determination had led me to here. Now.
We were going back to Accident, Florida, for a trial that would determine whether or not Travis Haynes was guilty of any crimes.
As in, did he or did he not blow me up.
The sad fact was, we had a lot of evidence that proved that he did.
However, it wasn’t a slam dunk or anything.
The asshole sheriff was holding us up everywhere he could.
He didn’t want to look like the incompetent jerk that he was with his reelection next week.
“It’ll be okay,” Bram promised.
Bram, on the other hand, wasn’t being charged with anything. He was let off the hook with self-defense thanks to Birdie, the criminal defense lawyer, having cameras everywhere around her building.
Which was another nail in the sheriff’s coffin.
The sad fact was, Travis Haynes wouldn’t get what he deserved.
Death was too quick for him.
Lifelong imprisonment was too good for him.
What would be better was if he’d actually gotten to go to Hotel Crow or just Crow B&B if we are being especially facetious, where he would forever be a ward of the Battle Crows MC, where they could make his life what he deserved.
How did I know about this place?
I suggested such a one to Bram in the middle of the night, crying from the pain in my hand, only for him to tell me that they already had such place where Cannel’s kidnapper and abductor was housed.
If Travis managed to go free today, then there wouldn’t be a long period of time where Travis stayed free for long.
He would one day find himself within the Battle Crows’ clutches. And he would hope that he wasn’t set free by the state of Florida.
I looked at the road ahead of us, then turned to survey our sleeping baby in the mirror.
“He’s okay,” Shine said as he allowed his arm to hang along the top of the back seat. “Just a smilin’.”
I smiled and turned back around.
Shine had decided to ride with us today out of solidarity.
Over the last six weeks, Shine had been there every step of the way for us, along with his wife, Iris, and their newborn child. Needless to say, I knew that Harker and their baby would be the best of friends, because Shine was quickly becoming mine.
When Bram wasn’t there, Shine was.
It was weird, because usually one would be friends with the female of the relationship, but Shine was mine.