“Know this isn’t what Kate wanted for her,” I continued. “Know that this is not what you want for her. Know I did it in a fucked-up way. But I love her.”
The steady beeping of the monitors kept me calm. Or as calm as I could be.
“I’ll give her the life she deserves,” I told him. “Wherever that takes me. Even if I have to abandon the cut, I’ll do it. For her.” The thought wasn’t as terrifying as I thought it might be. The club, the cut, had quickly become a part of me when I had nothing else.
Now I had something else.
I had two heartbeats that I’d do anything for.
Swiss looked at me. I hoped he wouldn’t challenge me on this. Not because I wasn’t up for it, because Violet didn’t need that shit.
“Thought, very seriously, about burying you in the desert, up to your neck and letting the sun, the coyotes or the ants get you,” Swiss said coolly.
I nodded once, knowing that was not hyperbole. He was a sick fuck and would do anything for those he loved.
“Thought of about a hundred other ways to end you,” he said conversationally. His eyes shifted to Violet. “I knew Kate was mine the second I saw her. And when I heard her talk about Violet, knew she was mine too. Knew it was my job to do what her father didn’t. Couldn’t. Love her. Protect her. Make sure anyone in this world who thought about fucking with her wouldn’t be breathing for long.”
His eyes found mine again.
“Not crazy about the way this started,” he grumbled. “But having the time to figure it out, see what you’d do for her, the love you feel for her... The other bullshit falls away.”
His eyes trekked to Violet again, as if he too needed to remind himself that she was there, breathing, heart beating.
“I realize now that I wouldn’t want anyone who wasn’t wearin’ a Sons of Templar cut to be lookin’ out for her,” he murmured. “Granted, I wanted it to happen a little later in her life and earlier in yours.” He grinned. “But who the fuck am I to talk about what’s appropriate. What’s normal. You make her happy, keep her safe, I don’t give a fuck about the rest.” He squeezed my shoulder. “You break her heart, I’ll carve out yours and feed it to you.”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” I replied.
We both looked at her. “I was the easy one, you know,” he gestured to the tiny body lying in the bed.
“She’s gonna be the challenge, with all of her progressive ideas on marriage and patriarchy.”
I wanted to smile. But it was impossible when my woman was lying in a hospital bed with stitches in her shoulder and a bruise next to the place my daughter was growing.
“Oh, I know,” I said.
“You’re up for the challenge, then?”
“Oh, fuck yeah.” I looked at him once more. “You gonna walk her down the aisle?”
“You get her there, I’ll walk her down the aisle,” he promised.
And there it was, one hurdle crossed. I could feel it, the chasm between us being crossed.
But Swiss was right … he was not going to be the difficult one. The small, pregnant woman in the hospital bed would be it. The one who had just fought off a serial killer then walked calmly to the van when she found out she had a knife protruding from her shoulder.
Yes, she was a miracle.
And she’d be my wife.
Even if it took forever to convince her.
ChapterTwenty-Seven
VIOLET
Elden was sittingin the chair next to my bed when I woke up. That didn’t surprise me. It wouldn’t have surprised me if I’d been in a coma for three months. He would’ve been at my side the entire time.
He jerked the second my eyes opened. Thesecond.He was watching me with a concentrated intensity that likely would’ve woken me up if he had those kinds of powers. I hadn’t ruled out that possibility.