Chapter 48 #2
“I am not sure I can forgive myself for scaring you.”
“It’s not that I was scared, exactly,” she told him. “I know that you won’t harm me. It was just . . . I wanted to stop and talk and you weren’t listening to me.”
Hayes stared at her, then he glanced away and swallowed heavily. “Fuck. You said stop and I didn’t listen. You were telling me about your mom and I wasn’t fucking listening. My mind was . . . far away . . .”
“I know you’re so protective because you don’t want anything to happen to me.
You thought I could have been harmed and it brought back those feelings of worry about May and you were thinking about how you lost her.
I get it. I love that you take care of me.
And I’m good with most of the rules. But I can’t live my life in a bubble, Hayes.
Which is what I think you’re building here.
And I don’t want to sound ungrateful or that I want you to completely stop, just ease up a bit and .
. . shit . . . I should have just taken the spanking. It would have been easier.”
There was a long moment of silence, until he reached out and gently cupped her chin, tilting her face back. She stared at him miserably.
“Maybe it would have been easier,” he told her.
“But it wouldn’t have been the truth, would it?
And the truth is what is important. Protecting you is what is important.
And that protection isn’t just physical.
I have to look after you emotionally as well.
I do want to put you in a bubble. It would make my life so much easier.
” He smiled ruefully as she snorted. “But as much as I’d like to pretend otherwise, I do understand what you’re saying.
I can protect and look after you, but I can’t . . . smother you.”
“Right. I can’t live in a bubble. Sure, nothing might touch me. But I’d be lonely and sad. That’s not the way to live a life.”
“I just can’t stand to lose you,” he said. “I don’t know if I’d survive.”
She cupped his cheek with her good hand. “I promise to do everything that I can to keep myself safe.”
He raised his eyebrows. “You thought stomping out embers in slippers was a good idea?”
“All right . . . that wasn’t smart. You might need to teach me how to use the fireplace. I’ve never had one. And bad things can happen no matter how careful you are. But you have to promise me if anything does happen that you’ll carry on.”
Hayes scowled. “Nothing can happen to you.”
Right. Maybe she was pushing him too far.
“Nothing will happen to me,” she reassured him. “But say we had children and say something did happen to me. . . you . . . you’d have to carry on for them. You would do that, right?”
He closed his eyes, looking pained. “Fuck. Your father.”
“I . . . you would have to promise me that you’d look after them if I was gone.”
Opening his eyes, he pierced her with his gaze. “I will, baby. I promise you. I’m not your father. There would be a huge hole inside me without you. But our children would know nothing but love and protection.”
Relief filled her. She smiled, her lips trembling. “I love you, Hayes.”
“I love you too, baby. But this isn’t something you have to worry about because nothing is happening to you.”
She had to grin. “I know it’s not. I know we’re going to live until we’re old and gray and you’re a cantankerous old man. Oh, wait . . .”
“Brat,” he growled at her.
Getting up, he sat next to her on the sofa then drew her onto his lap, holding her tight.
“I will admit that maybe I have taken a few things too far, but you’re not to touch that fireplace until I’ve shown you what to do and I’m certain that you are confident in using it. And it also won’t be until after your arm is better. Because doing that with one good arm is dangerous.”
“All right, I can agree to that.”
“Good girl.” Grasping hold of her chin, he turned her to face him. Then he kissed her lightly before pulling back to stare down at her.
“What is it?" she asked.
“I have something to tell you.”
Uh oh. Nothing good ever came after someone said those words to her.
Fuck.
He’d nearly fucked up.
Although he still thought that she had put herself at risk, he also understood that their ideas of risk differed a lot. And he understood why she thought the ‘no going near fire’ wasn’t actually a real rule.
What he really hated was that she’d had to use her safeword with him. That he’d been so far stuck in the past, in his head, that he hadn’t paid heed to what she’d been trying to tell him.
Yeah. He really hated that.
And he felt guilty. Thank fuck he’d listened when she’d said her safeword. He could never live with himself if he’d broken that trust between them.
“What is it?”
“Zander called. The Satan’s Sons headquarters were hit last night. Several people in masks raided it and tore the place up, shooting anyone in their path.”
“Oh my God!” she said, putting her hand over her mouth.
“Thirteen people were killed and twenty-four were badly injured. One of the people who died was Fury.”
“Who . . . who do they think did it?”
“Well, Gwen has actually made a friend of Detective Williams, remember him?”
She nodded.
“He said the leading theory is that it was the Black Scorpions. That they wanted to knock out their rivals. But there’s no real evidence.”
“Wow,” she said. “That’s . . . that’s insane. Do you think it was Lucan Mars?”
“Perhaps. The Satan’s Sons have been wiped out. Even if they didn’t kill the guys that grabbed your father from the trailer, they’re likely injured or now on the run in fear of their lives.”
She seemed to think about that for a long moment. “I didn’t want that, you know.”
Of course not. Not his Devi. Someone else might have wanted Fury dead. But not her.
“I know, baby. Zander is pissed he didn’t find Fury first; everyone thought that he’d fled Angel.”
She ran her hand over her face. “So what now?”
“The police will probably contact you to let you know what happened. Gwen is still working on your brother’s case. But she’s hopeful that the judge will at least declare a mistrial and allow him out on bail.”
Devi took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“That’s good. I mean, it would be better if there didn’t need to be a new trial.
I just wish we knew who the person was that paid Stein to lose the trial.
Who would care other than the murderer, right?
But who would murder Marcus and frame Rohan? It makes no sense.”
Fuck.
He couldn’t hold it back from her anymore. It had felt wrong in the first place even if he’d been doing it for the right reasons.
“Why do you look like that?” she asked. “Do you . . . do you have some idea of who it is? How could you know?”
He sighed. “Yeah, I know who it was that killed Marcus and paid off Stein.”
“How? Why? Why haven’t you told the police? Does Gwen know?”
“Gwen knows. She’s doing what she can to find evidence against this person.”
“But why haven’t you told the police? Who is it?”
“It was Freddy Mars.” He told her everything that happened the night that Stein met with Mars.
“Lucan demanded you leave Freddy with him? And told Stein not to mention his name to the police?” she whispered.
“Yes. And at the time, we didn’t have a lot of choice.”
“Yes, I get that. But what about now? Can’t you tell them now? Can’t Gwen tell them?”
“We’d have to confess to what happened that night. Which includes Donovan and me breaking the law. And even if we did all of that, there’s no evidence against Freddy. Stein already confessed that he doesn’t know who paid him. He’s not going to change that statement.”
“Shit. You’re right. It would be for nothing and the two of you might get arrested.
But we have to do something.” She got up and started pacing.
“That motherfucking rat bastard. I’ve never liked Freddy.
Rohan always said he was a great guy. When he went to jail he told me that Freddy would look after me.
I didn’t have the heart to tell Rohan that I never once heard from him.
I can’t believe this! They’re supposed to be best friends!
How could he stab Rohan in the back? I ought to teach him a lesson. ”
“You won’t be going near him,” Hayes told her firmly. “That’s part of the reason why I didn’t tell you.”
“What?” She turned to him. “Does Rohan know?”
“Absolutely not. Could you imagine how Rohan might react if we were to tell him that his best friend killed his other best friend and framed him to take the fall? Then bribed his lawyer to make a hash job of his defense.”
She grew pale. “He’d kill him.”
“Which is why he cannot know until we have Freddy nailed down with evidence. Understand?”
“Yes. I get that. Although he won’t be happy with me for not telling him.”
“Another reason why I didn’t tell you. I didn’t want you to have to lie to your brother and I didn’t want to worry that you would go after Freddy.
This has to be handled carefully. And if anyone can do it, it’s Gwen and Reuben.
So we have to let them do their job. Believe me, I want to find that fuckwit and pull his asshole out through his mouth.
But I can’t. We need to do this without tipping off Lucan Mars. ”
“He defended his own son, knowing what he did. Asshole. I don’t know why that surprises me.” She turned and pointed at him. “No more secrets, though. I understand why you didn’t tell me when we were in Angel. But you should have told me when we arrived here.”
“You had a lot going on, baby. And it’s my job to take care of you.” He held his hands up as she scowled. “But no more secrets. Now, come back here. I want to hold you.”
She sighed and returned to sitting on his lap.
“I don’t like how everything went down but at least the threat to me is gone, right? I can go back for the exhibition without a contingent of bodyguards.”
“Hmm.”
“Hayes!”
“Right. Maybe with just a couple of us.”
“All right, Daddy. I’ll let you bring one other bodyguard. But that’s it.”
“So bossy,” he told her.
“I learned from the best.”