Chapter 6
Colt
Itake in a deep breath and open my eyes when my side suddenly feels cold. My mom is lifting Holly into her arms, and I rub my face. I must have fallen asleep. “You’re leaving?”
She shakes her head and whispers, “Just taking her upstairs so she can sleep properly. You should do the same.” She nods at Denver, who is fast asleep on my other side, a blanket over us. “I like her.”
I smile. “I like her, too.”
My mom leaves with Holly in her arms, and I shift down the couch, pulling Denver against my chest. She hardly stirs, her lips slightly parted, her breathing deep and even.
I’m exhausted. My head aches. There are massive moments lost to me, but I remember being in bed with Denver after the fire. I think we made promises. I know I felt hopeful. We planned a future.
And after this, I refuse to wait for it.
“I’m going to take you away from all of this,” I whisper, running my fingers through her hair. “We’re getting out.”
She doesn’t react, still deep in sleep, but I mean every word. We’re done. We’re leaving. I’m not living this life a second longer.
Alistair’s steps are quiet as he enters the room and sits on the opposite side of the U-shaped sofa. “She out cold?”
I nod, running my hand down her back. “She must be tired. Did you speak to Taf and JJ?”
“Yeah, they said they understand you need tonight. They’ll come over whenever you’re ready.”
I want to see them, but after Holly’s reaction, the tears and the confusion, I can’t handle any more emotion. And selfishly, I wanted Denver and Holly close to me for as long as possible.
My throat is thick when I ask. “Wilder?”
He was with me before the explosion, and I remember telling him I loved him. When I woke up and was able to gather some of my thoughts, I wanted to ask my mom what happened, but I’m not ashamed to admit I was too afraid to hear her say the words.
Alistair looks at his hands. “I’m sorry, Colt.”
The shot of pain has me tightening my hold on Denver.
My baby brother, the kid I did everything to protect, is dead. He’s been gone a week, and I’ve been lying unconscious in that bed, unable to do a fucking thing about it.
I bite the inside of my lip, tears burning my eyes, and I kiss the top of Denver’s head, drawing strength from her. I wish she was awake, but it’s selfish of me to take away the little rest she seems to have had.
“And …” Alistair takes a breath. “Finn, too.”
Something dislodges in my chest. Something I need, something that I can’t acknowledge as regret. Not yet. If that emotion curls around the grief, I might totally break, and I don’t have the luxury of doing anything other than fixing this mess and getting Denver and Holly the hell out of here.
“Who?” I ask, my voice hoarse.
“Vince Capelli.”
“Let’s break some bones, shall we?”
The phone call. He’d bragged before trying to kill me.
“Are we dealing with it?”
Something dark crosses Alistair’s face. “He’s already been dealt with.”
That’s some relief, but not much. My gaze drops to Denver’s sleeping face. I know in my heart she’ll have been up, about, doing what she can, being the woman I fell in love with—impossibly strong, incredibly smart, a person I fucking admire.
“How has she been?”
“I had no choice but to put her in Finn’s place. She’s been running the family since the explosion.”
That makes sense. She’s a McEwan through marriage, after all, but I also know her well enough to know she’ll have hated every second of it. “And?”
Alistair rests his elbows on his knees. “It’s been … tough.”
My friend’s reluctance to expand further tells me everything I need to know. Alistair doesn’t like Denver, he’s made that very clear, and them having to work side by side won’t have been easy.
“How difficult did you make it for her?”
He sighs. “Colt—”
“Just be honest, Alistair.”
He runs his hand across his mouth. “She’s been the head of the McEwan family. I had to be tough on her.”
“No, you didn’t. The issues you have with her shouldn’t have made this any harder on any of us. You were in this together. Tell me everything.” He avoids my eyes. “The sooner I know, the sooner I can get started on fixing this and getting out.”
His gaze snaps to mine. “Getting out?”
“I’m done, Alistair. I was done a long time ago. I don’t want this anymore. I’m taking Denver and Holly, and we’re leaving.”
His mouth opens and closes. Finally, he exhales. “Then you should know we’ve been working with Ranger.”
It takes a second for me to quell the rising rage. “What?”
“We didn’t have a choice. You know how some of the families can be. A woman at the head? And not even a blood McEwan?” He shakes his head. “She hated it as much as I did, but we didn’t have a choice. We needed his face on this before the funeral so the family could be seen as strong.”
Another painful, sensible decision during desperate times. But the thought of Denver having to be beside Ranger, pretending their marriage is strong after all he did to her?
I should have been here. I should have been by her fucking side.
“And how did that go?”
“Most of the family heads hadn’t met him before the funeral, but they seemed to like him. He turned on the charm. If you can call it that.”
The ache in my head starts to spread while I consider our next steps. It won’t look good if we pull Denver out of the limelight, replace her with me, and then reveal that we’re in a relationship. It’ll look like I’ve taken Ranger’s place and his wife.
“Spider was at the funeral.”
I rub my temple. “Tell me he’s also been dealt with.”
Alistair shakes his head. “I sent men to follow him. None came home. That’s where Denver and I were when you woke up—stuck on the plane, on our way to see Cain.”
“Cain? Seriously?” I watch my friend, knowing it won’t have been an easy decision to contact Cain at all. “You’re sure you want to do that?”
“We need the help. I trust him.” He shrugs, but it’s not even close to casual. “I can suck it up for the backup. Listen, get some rest. Take some time. We can talk about all this in a few days.”
I wish I could argue that there is no time, but exhaustion is sweeping through my bones, and the thought of climbing those stairs feels as easy as climbing Everest. When I woke, I’d choked on the tube in my throat, and even my body’s natural reaction to the discomfort felt like running a marathon.
Showering was me sitting on the tiled floor with the water running, too proud to ask for help, even though I nearly passed out getting up again.
“I’m gonna stay down here with Denver for a while.”
Alistair nods and stands, switching out the light as he leaves, leaving only a small lamp glowing in the corner of the room. I turn to face Denver and move down the couch. She sighs and buries her face in my chest.
She moans softly. “You smell good.”
I smile, nuzzling her hair. “Don’t I always?”
“No. I’ve cuddled you almost every night and you smelled like hospital.” She takes a deep inhale. “Now you smell like you.”
It’s hard to describe how that makes me feel. Denver and I barely had hours together before our world was turned upside down. While she’s been processing everything that’s happened, that also means she’s been in a world where we’re a couple.
To me, this is entirely new. Perfect. Wonderful. Fucking incredible. That amazing kind of new that makes every moment feel like it was made for just us. Like we’re the assholes who created love, and no one can understand it better than we can.
“I like that you slept with me.”
She angles her head to look up at me, gray eyes shining in the soft orange glow of the room. “I couldn’t stay away.” She reaches up and runs her palm over my beard, taking in every inch of my face. “I don’t want to wait for our forever. I want it now.”
“Then let’s leave.”
Uncertainty flashes in her eyes. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. Fuck this. Fuck the money, the guns, everything. I want you. I only want you.” I rest my forehead against hers. “We help Alistair get a replacement. We deal with Spider. Then we leave. No year plan, no waiting. We go. Deal?”
She smiles. “And we open our café.”
“We can open anything you fucking want,” I say, and she laughs. I drink in the sound, kissing her softly. I groan against her lips. “If my body wasn’t broken, I’d fuck you senseless right now.”
She grins. “That can wait. Should we go to bed?”
“You’ll have to help me up the stairs.”
“Lean on me, Colt Harland.”
I’m breathless and aching by the time we reach the bedroom. Sweating and already close to sleep, I drop back against the pillow. “Well, this fucking sucks.” I groan when Denver presses a cold cloth to my head.
“It’s normal. You’ll feel tired, confused, crabby for a while. You might even forget stuff.”
“Remind me what your boobs look like.”
She laughs and places the damp cloth on the nightstand before straddling me and lifting her shirt.
“Oh, they’re better than I remember.” I run my hands up her sides and cup her breasts. They’re soft and warm, her nipples already hard. “Lean closer. I’m weak.” She laughs again and leans forward, pressing them into my face. “Stay here forever.”
“I might get neck ache.”
“This is what love is, Denver.” I kiss her chest.
“Long-term motorboating?” I nod, taking a nipple into my mouth, running my tongue across the hard point.
She whimpers. “You can’t do that to me, Colt Harland.
I’ve missed you too much.” I nibble across her skin, my cock already hard to the point of pain.
She grinds against me, and I wish I had the strength to tear her clothes off and fuck her.
I hiss through my teeth, and she stops abruptly. “Did I hurt you?”
“Fuck no, keep going.” I close my eyes as she rubs herself against me, breathy gasps leaving her lips.
“That’s it, my perfect fucking girl. Get off on me.
” She leans down and captures my mouth in a kiss and I grip her hips, helping her move back and forth on my cock, our clothes an annoying friction between us, but I don’t think I could stop to take them off.
Tension builds at the base of my spine, pleasure curling around my balls as she works my dick perfectly.
Her breathing increases, little pants warming my lips. “Fuck, I love you.”
She comes quietly, muffling the sound in my neck, and I follow over the edge with her. Dizziness immediately rocks my brain, and I close my eyes as she nuzzles into my chest. My eyes are still closed when I feel her move down me.
“What are you doing?”
“Cleaning you up,” she whispers, gripping my sweatpants and pulling them down.
My head drops back, a groan trapped in my throat as she swirls her tongue over me, cleaning up my cum. I’m half hard again by the time she’s finished, but I must fall asleep, because when I wake up, Denver is showered and in my hockey jersey.
“Your mom had a spare,” she says, crawling into bed beside me. “I sprayed it with your cologne.”
“You’re obsessed with me.”
“I’m Whiplash’s biggest fan.”
I laugh so loud she covers my mouth, and her grin in that moment could be my entire reason for opening my eyes again. She cuddles into my side, kissing my jaw.
“This better not be a dream.”
I smile. “It’s not a dream, Del. I’m real. You’re real. We’re together. And no one is going to pull us apart ever again.”
I’ll kill anyone who tries.