I swallowed at something I thought I might’ve … maybe had seen there. But it was too fleeting to catch, his eyes quickly returning back to mine, full of that cold menace.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I proclaimed.
“Yes, you fuckin’ are,” Hades refuted. “What I’ve got in mind is going to take a long time.”
I crossed my arms. “Then I’ll wait.”
“Like fuck you will. I want you checked out by a doctor as soon as fucking possible.”
I wasn’t going to argue about the doctor. I knew that I wouldn’t win that. “Well, then you better rethink how long you’re going to take with Conrad,” I challenged.
Swiss was no longer glowering behind Hades. He was smirking.
Hades was nowhere near smirking. He was furious. At me for deigning to argue with him. And at himself, because he was carrying the blame for letting another man lay his hands on me.
I was pretty furious too. At myself for letting him push me away, for running. At him for pushing me away in the first place, for not chasing after me. I was also determined. No way was I leaving the room I was sharing with Hades after spending months apart.
“You will have to get Anderson to drag me out kicking and screaming if you want me to leave,” I advised.
A muscle in Hades’s jaw twitched. He was pissed. Beyond pissed.
He took one more look at me, in my eyes, not my stomach, then he stormed out of the room.
Swiss wasn’t smirking anymore. He had a full-blown smile. “Oh, darlin’, have I missed you.”
Although it was shaky, I did my best to smile back. “Right back at you.”
I didn’t hear any screaming. I didn’t know why I’d expected to. This was a fucking big house, and Swiss had urged me out of the bedroom to a ginormous room with insanely priced rugs and a floor-to-ceiling fireplace. He shielded me from the blood, the bodies, but I still knew what was happening so it was like I witnessed it all anyway, my imagination running wild. I’d blinked at it all, emotionless. In shock, surely.
The whole club was there—Hansen, Jagger, Elden, Anderson, various prospects and a couple of patches I didn’t recognize. Their cuts read ‘Colorado’, which made sense. The men stared at me and the red mark on my face with varying degrees of fury. It was comforting, their anger insulating me from the reality of it all.
Swiss sat me in front of the fire then disappeared, presumably to help with the torture. No one touched me. I’d figured that had something to do with Hades going around torturing all of the people in this house who had touched me.
Someone brought me water. I sipped it thoughtlessly, staring at the flames, waiting.
Then Hades was there, kneeling in between my legs, his hands on my bare thighs. They were covered in blood. It was the first time he’d touched me in months, wearing the blood of the men who’d hurt me.
I didn’t know if that was him apologizing or trying to scare me away. I didn’t care. Hades was touching me. My body could relax, finally. I could breathe again. My hand covered his without hesitation, the other reaching up to cradle his jaw. His entire body was granite, but he didn’t flinch away from my touch.
“Will you take me home?” I whispered.
His eyes stayed locked on mine. I hadn’t needed to say that I didn’t mean the house full of boxes in Falcon Springs. I said home. I’d only ever had one of those. We’d only had one of those.
As much as I’d wanted to go back to New Mexico tonight, logistically, it didn’t work. Hades wanted me to see a doctor, and the Colorado charter had already arranged for me to see theirs which happened to be less than an hour from Falcon Springs.
Then there was Aunt V who had been expecting me to come back with groceries hours ago. Who would’ve been worried sick. And Sirius.
Home had to wait.
The club doctor in Colorado checked me over then said I seemed healthy, the baby too. He advised that we do a sonogram to be sure, but I knew that the baby was fine. I’d do it for Hades, who had been quiet and brooding during the entire drive. As much as I had wanted to, I couldn’t ride on the back of his bike. So he’d driven a fancy SUV, just the two of us. We didn’t say anything the entire drive. His hand remained on my thigh the entire drive, though. The sun was shining by the time we pulled up to the small house Aunt V and I had been occupying. There was no police car, so I guessed the Sons had taken care of that like they took care of everything.
Aunt V and Sirius met us at the door, Aunt V crying and hugging both of us. Sirius pressed heavily into my leg, looking up at Hades with accusation.