Chapter 13Colton
Killing a man meant that I had a lot of questions to answer. It didn’t matter that my girl was across town being taken care of at the hospital. I needed to justify my actions as other officers took in the scene.
It had been too long away from Braylin by the time my Captain let me go. The first thing I did was head straight to the hospital to find my girl, but it was past visiting hours. I wasn’t able to get past the front desk to see her, no matter how much I begged.
I went back to my house in a daze. When I walked into our bedroom and saw her clothes lying on the chair in the corner of the room, I walked over on numb legs until I could reach down and pick up the shirt she had worn the day before. I brought it up to my face to inhale her sweet scent. Breathing her in, I collapsed to my knees and hung my head.
It was all my fault. I didn’t know how I hadn’t noticed Braylin had slipped away. Seeing Katy standing there had brought back all the pain and anger from her betrayal. My mind had begun to spin with the memory of finding out she had been using me for years as a shield. I had been nothing but a cover for her true relationship.
Her step-brother had been the man she truly loved the entire time we had been in a relationship. Even though I had never really loved her, I had respected her and cared for her deeply. I never suspected that she had been using me as a decoy so she and her step-brother could be in a relationship behind her parents’ backs.
It wasn’t until she became pregnant that she finally came clean to me about what had been happening for years. Since she and I had never had sex, it wasn’t hard to put two and two together. Especially since she and David had always been close, he had even moved, following us to college.
That kind of betrayal was difficult to forget, so seeing her standing there with the little girl she’d had with another man while pretending to love me had distracted me. I couldn’t imagine what Braylin had thought when she saw that little girl. Though it was easy to guess. If I had told her the whole story of what had happened between Katy and me, she never would have run off and right into the path of a man who nearly killed her.
I slowly rose from the floor, not knowing how long I had been kneeling there. I carried her shirt with me to the bed and dropped down on it. I glanced at the clock and saw I still had several hours before the hospital would allow me to see her. I lay down and stared at the ceiling, thinking of all the ways I could fix things.
After a sleepless night, I strode down the long corridor until I found the room number I had been given. I took a deep breath and quietly opened the door, hoping not to disturb the woman who had been through so much the night before.
I walked to her bedside and stared down at the woman I loved. As I took in her bruised jaw, I wished I could bring the dead back to life and shoot him all over again. I reached into my pocket and pulled the ring out that I had bought a few days after we had started seeing each other and carefully slipped it onto her finger. Seeing the diamond glimmer there under the dim light of the room eased a bit of the tension that had been coiled in my chest.
I sat down in the chair beside her bed and waited.
“Colton?”
Her quiet, confused voice broke through the sleepy haze I had fallen into. I lifted my head, holding back the wince that the movement caused in my stiff neck. I sat up fully in the uncomfortable chair that I had slouched down into and took her small, delicate hand in mine.
“Sweetheart,” I breathed out as I leaned down to kiss her finger where my ring sat. “I am so fucking sorry.”
She let out a sharp inhale and tugged on her hand. I let her go so she wouldn’t cause herself any more pain than she was probably already in.
“What are you doing here, Colton?”
I had never heard her tone so detached before, and it broke my heart. I clenched my jaw at the hint of emotional pain she was trying to disguise under her indifference.
“Shouldn’t you be with your daughter right now?”
I closed my eyes and shook my head slowly.
“That’s Katy’s step-brother’s daughter. Katy had been with him the whole time we had been together. That little girl could never be mine, sweetheart. I never had sex with Katy.”
Braylin blinked at me in shock, followed swiftly by confusion. “What?”
I sighed and reached for her hand again, unable to stop myself from touching her and making sure that she was alive and breathing. “After Katy ended up pregnant, they had to come clean. She confessed that they had been in love since their early teens, right around the time she convinced me that we should start dating. For years, she used me to keep the suspicion off of her and David.”
I looked at Braylin, making sure I stared right into her eyes so she could see the truth I was telling her. “We had never been in love. I wasn’t hurt by her betrayal, sweetheart. I was pissed the fuck off that I was played that way. When I saw her standing there, all I could do was remember that feeling of betrayal. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I’m sorry that it hurt you and caused you to leave. I’m sorry it made you go to your apartment and right into danger.”
I watched as she bit her lip while taking in all I’d told her. “What was she doing there?”
I sighed and ran my hand over my face. “She is in town to visit with her mom. Most of their family is still pissed off at the two of them, but I guess her mom was willing to talk to her for the sake of the little girl. She saw me when they were walking through the carnival and thought it would be a good time to apologize.”
I watched as Braylin’s expression turned to one of genuine sympathy for my ex. “I hope that the family gets over their anger soon.”
I shook my head in wonder at my girl’s big heart. I scooted forward in my chair until I was as close as I could get without climbing right into her bed with her. “I promise that I will never cause you a moment of doubt again for as long as we live. I swear to you that I will show you every single day how much I love and adore every inch of you. I will make you happy and fill your life with love and laughter. You and our children will know that I am always by your side.”
“Children?” Braylin gasped. “You love me?”
“Baby, I love you more than I could have ever dreamed it is possible to love another human being. You mean the world to me. It kills me that you were hurt because of me.”
She shook her head as tears filled her eyes. “It wasn’t your fault I was attacked, Colton. It was the guy from the bank who attacked me, not you. I jumped to conclusions instead of staying and asking you what was going on. I just saw that little girl and…” She closed her eyes, and I squeezed her hand gently.
“I know, sweetheart. I’m sorry. But I swear to you that she isn’t mine. The only children I ever have will be with the only woman I’ve ever been with.”
Her eyes popped back open as she took in my words and seemed to realize what they meant. “You were a… We were… I was your first?”
I chuckled and kissed her finger again. “Yeah, sweetheart. We were both virgins. I couldn’t be more pleased that you are the only one I will ever feel myself sliding into.”
Her face flushed with embarrassment and, if I wasn’t mistaken, a bit of pleasure. “I love you, too, Colton.”
I grinned at her. “I know you do. That’s why the moment they discharge you, I’m moving you into my house. Our house. You have no more than three months to plan our wedding, and don’t be surprised if you’re already three months pregnant by the time you’re walking down the aisle.”
I gently pushed her jaw up to close her mouth as she stared at me with wide eyes. Then I lifted her hand and kissed her ring again. As the diamond twinkled, it caught her eye, and her jaw dropped again.
“Is that… did you… what?”
“Marry me, sweetheart?”
I watched my girl burst into tears and went to her when her arms reached out for me. She could barely say the word through her tears, but I would forever remember the moment when she said yes .