Chapter Twenty-Seven #2
“Well, this is some bullshit, huh?” he finally said.
Shell rolled her eyes and hip-checked him. “Really, that’s how you want to start?”
The big man shrugged. “Never felt like I didn’t know how to talk to my daughter. It sucks.”
Her heart clenched, and she squeezed Saint’s hand.
“I can go if you three want some time?”
“No.” Copper shook his head. “Stay, uh, please.”
Saint nodded, watching Copper with wary eyes. “I wasn’t gonna leave anyway,” he mumbled, making Beth swallow a chuckle.
“Sounds about right,” Copper muttered back.
Shell elbowed him.
After another sigh, Copper continued, “The other night, I was…”
Wrong?
Reactive?
Insensitive?
“A fucking asshole.”
That worked too.
Saint’s grip eased a fraction, as though some of the tension he carried evaporated.
“I’ve always been overprotective of Beth. After what happened to Sh—” His voice gave out. He pressed his lips together hard, staring at the ceiling, blinking rapidly.
Beth had never seen her father fight tears before. Never. Not once in her entire life.
Shell leaned into him, and he pulled her close, burying his face in her hair for just a moment before straightening.
“After what happened to Shell…” he continued, voice rough, “… I’ve been so fucking determined I wouldn’t let something like that happen to you. I think I wanted to make up for, uh… the way and the person who conceived you.”
“Dad…” Beth’s heart thudded hard against her ribcage.
Despite how he acted the other night, Copper was typically a reasonable man. He didn’t like to be wrong or fuck up, but owned it when he did. Still, he rarely let anyone view this side of him. Not only was he letting her see his vulnerable side, but he was also giving Saint a glimpse too.
And that was the best apology she could ask for.
“Let me get this shit out, Beth,” he continued with a huff.
Her lips quirked.
Copper’s focus went to Saint. “I said some real fucked-up shit to you, Saint. Called you a predator. Said you were taking advantage of my daughter.” He shook his head, disgust clear on his face, disgust aimed at himself.
“That was bullshit, and I knew it even when I was saying it. You’re a damn good man, which I’ve known for a long damn time.
Witnessing you suffer today when Beth went missing and hearing what you just said to her, I didn’t need that to know you love my daughter.
I already knew. I was just too stubborn and scared to admit it.
I’m fucking sorry, man.” He extended his hand.
“I’m proud to call you brother, and maybe one day I’ll call you son. ” He winked at Beth.
“For fuck’s sake, Dad. Pressure much?” Wasn’t getting kidnapped stressful enough? Now her dad had to hint about marriage.
Saint stood and grasped Copper’s hand. “Forgiven and forgotten, Prez.”
Copper seemed to lose a hundred pounds of weight from his shoulders. He straightened, and his eyes lit. He tugged, bringing Saint in for a back-slapping hug.
“Oh!” Shell reached into her tote bag. “Think it’s about time you put this back on.” She handed Saint’s cut over to him.
“Thank you.” He slipped the cut back on. Beth’s heart fluttered. He looked so damn hot in that HHMC cut.
“Beth? You okay?” Copper asked, frowning at the telemetry screen. “Your heart rate just jumped.”
Saint whipped around. “Fuck, it did?”
“Oh God, there are two of them.”
Shell laughed and placed a hand on her husband’s arm. “Honey, I think she just got… excited seeing Saint back in his cut.”
Copper’s face screwed up. “I don’t want to know that shit.”
Chuckling, Saint came back to his seat and took her hand once again.
At some point in the near future, she needed to sit down with her dad for an in-depth heart-to-heart.
Never once had she felt he owed her anything to make up for her birth father being a rapist piece of shit.
It shocked her that he even felt that way.
She never gave her birth father any thought.
Copper was her dad in every way that counted.
He’d given her a wonderful childhood and treated her mother like the queen she was. What more could she ask for?
She’d make sure he understood that and never stressed over it again.
“How’s Melody?” Beth asked. “Have you heard anything?”
Copper frowned. By now, someone must have filled him in on the reason Melody was taken and the drama surrounding her, spilling the news of Beth and Saint. He couldn’t be feeling too positive about her at the moment.
“Five broken ribs, a broken eye socket, and a broken nose. She’s in surgery for the facial injuries now.”
Beth winced. “Jesus.” She sighed. “She apologized to me. I have pretty complicated feelings about her right now, but no one deserves what she went through.”
Nodding, Shell said, “She’ll need support when she gets out of here. She has family in Virginia. I assume she’ll go there.”
“That’s good.”
The room got quiet again, all lost in their heavy thoughts.
“Demo?” Saint asked in a low voice, after a few moments.
Copper’s eyes sparked with delight. “We got him.”
Beth sucked in a breath.
Oh shit.
FUCK YES.
Saint’s insides lit up at that news.
He knew he could count on his brothers to jump in where he couldn’t. He’d needed to be with Beth and trusted they’d capture Demo alive.
For now.
“W-what’s going to happen to him?” Beth asked.
Saint squeezed her hand. He didn’t relish telling her he planned to kill the motherfucker slowly and painfully, but he refused to lie to her.
“Beth, that’s club business,” Copper said, voice final.
She snorted. “So you’re going to kill him?”
Shell sighed, but Copper stared Beth straight in the eye, not giving anything away. She turned to face Saint. “You’re going to do it, aren’t you?” she asked.
“Beth…” Copper stopped speaking when Shell squeezed his arm.
Saint didn’t say anything, but let her search out the truth in his gaze.
He wouldn’t be responsible for giving her that information.
Information that could be used against her in the future should the worst happen, and he be arrested.
But she was smart enough to read him. And she knew this life.
She hadn’t wanted him to kill Jason on her behalf, but this was different.
This was club business. Demo would die today regardless, and Saint deserved the kill.
“Be careful,” Beth whispered.
“I’m always careful.” He gave her a tense smile. Careful was his middle name. This would be the easiest job in the world. Easiest and most satisfying. His brothers were serving Demo to him on a silver platter. “You don’t need to worry about me.”
“He might be a little dinged up by the time you get to him, brother,” Copper broke in before they could spend the next hour going back and forth about her not needing to worry about him.
“What do you mean?”
“He fired on Zach. Grazed his shoulder. Zach’s fucking pissed. He wanted a little alone time with your guest before we let you at him.”
“Oh my God,” Beth whispered. “Is Zach okay?”
Copper nodded. “Yeah, really was just a graze. Got himself a Bluey Band-Aid and a kiss from Tori. He’s good. Just pissed.”
Saint didn’t laugh with the rest of them.
They’d come close to losing so much today.
Too close. He’d be hearing Screw tell him Beth was missing in his nightmares for years to come.
So much could have gone wrong, and while he should focus on how Beth was next to him and safe, he couldn’t stop thinking about how close he’d come to losing her.
“Hey,” Beth said, cutting through his darkening thoughts. “You okay?” Beth asked, searching his gaze.
He kissed her knuckles. “I’m perfect, baby.” The last thing she needed was to be worrying about his headspace.
Shell cleared her throat. “We’ll give you two some space. Beth, please call us if you need anything. Otherwise, we can come back when you’re being discharged.”
Beth blinked. “Oh, right.” She chuckled. “I’m living at your house.”
Sure, maybe on paper she was residing with her parents, but he’d be damned if she went there over Saint’s house when they released her. He raised an eyebrow, silently asking her to come home with him. Her cheeks turned pink as she nodded.
“I got it, Shell. Beth’s going to come stay with me when she’s discharged.”
Copper narrowed his eyes, earning a backhand to the stomach from his wife.
“Perfect,” Shell said with a wide smile. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
“What?” Copper scowled at her.
“We’re going now.” She blew them kisses. “Love you both.”
“Shell…”
“Come on, big guy. They don’t want us hanging around anymore.” She somehow muscled her much larger husband out the door without much effort, waving as she left.
Copper muttered his displeasure the whole time. Saint was pretty sure he caught something about ‘living in sin,’ which made him snort with laughter.
As soon as they left, Beth sagged against the mattress. “What a mindfuck this day has been. My head is spinning in a million directions.” She yawned as her blinks grew longer. “I’m exhausted.”
“Sleep, baby.” Saint stroked a hand over her hair. “I’ll be right here when you wake up.”
“Will you lie with me?”
“Babe…”
“Please. Just for a little while. I…” The tears came out of nowhere.
One second, she was fine, and the next, her whole body was shaking, sobs tearing out of her chest despite the pain it caused.
All the terror she’d shoved down in that warehouse, all the fear she’d counted to thirty and locked away, it came flooding back at once, drowning her.
“S-sorry,” she choked out between sobs. “I don’t… I can’t—”
She couldn’t even finish a sentence.
Couldn’t stop shaking.
Couldn’t do anything but cry.
“Fuck it.” Saint climbed in beside her as she slowly scooted to the side. He pretended not to notice her grimace of pain. If he brought it up again, she’d only get more upset. Gently as possible, he tucked her against him, kissing the top of her head. “I’ve got you, Beth.”
“I don’t know why I’m crying,” she whispered into his chest.
He grunted. “Because on top of being kidnapped and assaulted, today has been one huge mindfuck.”
“It has. I’m sorry for what you went through today,” she said.
Fuck, this woman. Lying in a hospital bed but thinking of him. “All I care about is that you are okay. Fuck everything else.”
“Was I hallucinating, or did my dad apologize to us?” Her voice grew heavy, almost slurred with fatigue.
Saint chuckled. “He did. It was a good apology too. Sincere.”
“Mmm, good. Everything is how it should be.”
Almost. He smiled. “Just one more thing.”
“What’s that?” she asked in a sleepy voice.
“Now that I’m back in the club, will you officially be my ol’ lady?”
Beth’s heart stuttered. Through everything today, the kidnapping, the violence, the terror, this was the moment that made her cry a torrent of fresh tears. Happy ones this time.
“Fuck yes, I will.” She kissed him, soft and sweet. “I love you, Saint. I’m yours.”
“And I’m yours,” he murmured against her lips. “Forever.” Beth needed sleep, not her ol’ man riling her up.
They fell asleep in minutes, wrapped in each other on that tiny hospital bed, and Saint didn’t wake until Beth’s stern evening nurse stood at the foot of the bed, glaring at them like they were caught making out when no parents were home.
He held a finger to his lips. Whatever she had to do could wait. Beth needed sleep.
The nurse rolled her eyes as she jabbed her finger in the direction of the uncomfortable chair next to the bed.
Lifting a hand in surrender, Saint eased away from Beth and off the bed. She didn’t so much as shift, so deep in sleep he could have jumped on the bed, and she wouldn’t notice.
Good.
As soon as his ass hit the seat, the nurse gave him a thumbs-up. “Thank you,” she whispered before leaving. Thankfully, she shut the door behind her.
Saint propped his feet on the edge of the bed, crossed his arms over his chest, and set about watching over his ol’ lady as she slept.
A privilege he planned to enjoy for the rest of his life.