Chapter 70
CHAPTER SEVENTY
ROWAN
Idart forward just in time to stop Hannah from hitting the ground.
Her weight settles in my arms, and my entire body relaxes.
She’s back where she belongs.
“What…how…I…” Jeffrey’s stammering has me glancing up just in time to watch Asher land a punch to the asshole’s chest, stealing the air from his lungs and leaving him gasping for each breath.
“That should keep you quiet for a minute,” he mutters as he rounds the table and drops down beside us.
He brushes his fingers down the side of Hannah’s face, reassuring himself that she’s okay.
“It’s just the shock,” I tell him.
I wish we could have let her know earlier that we were okay, but there were no opportunities, and we didn’t want to tip Jeffrey off until we got here.
I’ll make it up to her. Every second of pain she felt today, I’ll repay tenfold for the rest of our lives.
He nods, but doesn’t take his eyes off her, watching her chest rise and fall for long seconds.
“Is she okay?” Camilla asks, coming around the edge of the table with concern etched into her brow.
I nod. “She will be. Let’s wrap this up so we can take her home.”
“How do you want to handle this asshole?” Kovu asks, pushing Jeffrey forward until he’s slumped on the edge of the table.
There’s a part of me that wants nothing more than to spend the next week torturing him for every second of misery he caused Hannah, but I have a feeling I’m not going to want to be anywhere that she’s not for the foreseeable future, and I don’t think she has the stomach for torture.
“Sounds like the asshole killed her dad as well,” Camilla supplies, and I can’t help but look to the man who has caused so much pain to so many people.
“He didn’t leave her?” I ask quietly, my chest cracking open for the eighteen-year-old version of Hannah who felt her father’s abandonment so deeply, whose eyes are haunted with the fear of anyone else leaving her the way he did.
Camilla shakes her head. “He must have told her on the way over.”
Asher finally drags his eyes off Hannah to meet mine, the same fury in my chest staring back at me. “He deserves to suffer.”
I look over at Kovu. “You got room for him in your schedule?”
“Fuck yeah, I do!”
Camilla huffs out a laugh. “We just renovated the cellar at the estate. You’ll be giving him a chance to break in the space.”
“You gonna help me, Little Lamb?”
“I might just watch you work.” She rubs her swollen stomach.
He smirks and grips Jeffrey by the back of his shirt. “Looks like you and I are going to have a lot of fun together.”
“No, please, I’ll do anything. Please don’t kill me.” His pleading is pathetic and far too little too late.
“Should have thought about that before you tried to hurt our girl.” Asher glares across the room at him. “No matter how much pain he brings you before you take your final breath, death will be too fucking merciful for you.”
Our attention is pulled from the human garbage when Hannah stirs, her body shifting against mine a moment before her eyes flutter open, and I’ve never been so fucking happy to see that pretty green.
“Hannah,” I murmur. “How do you feel?”
“Are you a dream?”
I huff out a laugh as Asher crowds around her other side. “Not a dream, Little One.”
“Am I dead too?”
“Definitely not,” Asher replies, cupping her cheek in his palm. “Not for a very, very long time if I have it my way.”
“I don’t understand.”
“We’ll explain everything when we get home, okay?”
She looks like she wants to argue, but then her eyes track to where Camilla is standing a few paces away.
“We’ll take care of all this. Why don’t you three head home and get some rest?”
“We’ll never be able to repay you for everything you did today.” Asher pushes himself to his feet.
“Feeding Kovu’s bloodlust is payment enough,” Crew jokes, wrapping an arm around Camilla’s shoulders and pulling her into him.
She smacks his chest. “No payment necessary. We’re just happy we could help. We know all too well what it’s like to be torn apart by shitty family members.”
Asher stands and carefully takes Hannah from me. “Let’s get you home.”
I push myself to my feet and give Crew a grateful nod before following Asher from the room.
I’ve lived through a lot of shitty days, but this one is going to be very fucking hard to top.