His parents were in with her. He needed a minute to pull his shit together. His dad joined him, put his hand on his shoulder. “She’s going to be okay, son.”
“I know.”
“Cooper too.”
“Yeah.” She fucking carried him. He weighed almost as much as she did, but she’d carried his boy. Graham had seen her coming, before Max caused a scene. Said he’d never seen anything like it.
“She’s a lot tougher than she looks,” his dad said.
That was absolutely fucking true. Stronger than she even knew.
“Strange that the rattler struck though and twice. Almost like it was already riled up,” his dad said.
“If he was feeding,” Killian said.
“Yeah, I guess.” Jared stood. “So, you want us to go to her place and pack up some things.”
Killian stood and pulled her key from his pocket. “Please.”
“We’ll check on Cooper too.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
“Nothing to thank us for, Son. We’ll see you soon.”
“She’s going to be okay, honey,” Maureen said, when she stepped out of Cedar’s room. “We’ll get her stuff. You go look after your girl.” She touched his chin like she used to do when he was a kid. “And she is your girl.”
Yeah, she fucking was.
Stepping into her room, she looked so small in the bed and still. He approached, and her eyes opened. He settled on the chair, laid his palm on her forehead, and gently brushed her hair from her face, curling his fingers, needing the connection. “Cooper?” she asked.
“He’s fine. Mom and Dad are going to check on him. You’re going to be fine.”
“I know,” she whispered.
“How do you know?”
“Because you wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Yeah, she was his. And she fucking knew it, too.
“If I don’t get up and move, my ass is going to be permanently melded into the leather,” Cedar called after him. He was learning she had a flare for the dramatic. She slept in his bed at night, but he waited until she was asleep before he joined her, because having her soft body up against him was torture enough, if she were awake and touching him…he wasn’t sure he had enough will power for that. Not when the memory of their sex-a-thon was still fresh in his mind.
“One more day,” he shouted back.
“It’s been four days.”
He returned to her side and stood over her. “One more day.”
She blew a curl out of her face. “Then sit with me.”
He’d loved to, but Cooper was on the sofa with her. “No room for me, Sweetheart.”
Her face went soft, the way it did when he used endearments. “At least I’m with you,” she muttered.
Yeah, she was. It was something else they were going to need to talk about. It had only been four days, but he liked her here. Wanted to make it a permanent thing. He wasn’t sure how that would work with her putting all the work into her place, but it was a conversation they were having and soon. There was something they needed to talk about now. He’d held off for too long. He settled on the coffee table.
“We got to talk.”
“This sounds serious.”
“Donnelly mentioned to you that Kenneth Callahan was working with the mob.”
Her expression shifted, closed off. “Yes.”
Despite what Brock had said about it being handled, not fucking likely, no one would sit back after losing twenty million, and with the added shit with the leak, it was a fucking powder keg, one Brock was right in the middle of and that fucker was in Little Hill.
“He wasn’t working alone, and Donnelly believes Kenneth’s partner is looking for Brock.”
Worry and anger swept her face. “Why?”
“Money, lots of it.”
“Hasn’t he been through enough?” she hissed, then demanded, “Who’s this partner?”
“Dustin Thompson.”
Took her a second. “Fucking Declan’s dad. Never liked Declan.” There was more going on in her head, but she didn’t share. Killian continued, not really wanting to put this on her, but she deserved to know.
“Brock is in an MC.”
“Iron Guardians.” She wasn’t asking.
“He’s the president.”
“So, Donnelly does know where he is.” He heard as well as saw her pain. “That’s who came to see you, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
She shifted, her hand coming to rest on Cooper’s head. “He’s an outlaw,” she whispered. “He deserved so much better. Deserved to have his cottage on the beach.” Tears filled her eyes; she lowered her head to hide them.
“Some of his crew is in Little Hill.”
Her head snapped up. “What?” She put it together. “The bar fight.”
“Yeah.”
There was more than hope in her voice when she asked, “Is Brock…”
He was her past, a part of her, but seeing and hearing the evidence that she still loved him twisted Killian up. “Yeah.”
She didn’t react the way he thought she would. “Have you seen him?”
“Yeah.”
He didn’t know what she was thinking, but she reached for his hand and held it. That was all he needed. He held hers tighter.
“How much money are we talking about? It’s been fifteen years.”
He didn’t miss a beat. “Twenty million.”
“Well, fuck.”
Cedar found him later that day. She’d gotten off the sofa, but when her hands moved around his waist and she pressed her body against his back, he bit back the order to return to it.
She pressed a kiss on his back. “Losing my parents and Brock changed me.”
Killian tensed.
“I used to be so different, so carefree. I moved to the beat of my own drum, and I didn’t care if people joined me or laughed at me. Their loss was a hit, one that knocked me on my ass and left me stumbling for years. I moved here and met you.” She chuckled. “You were the first person to make me feel again. Sure, it was frustration and annoyance, but it was something. I’ve carried a weight in my chest for fifteen years, but being here, being with you, that weight is lifting. I can’t effectively put what I want to say into words, but I’m not stumbling anymore, and if I do, it’s you I want to catch me.”