Chapter Thirty
Caius
I can’t stop shivering.
Or panicking.
Or fucking crying.
Romy tries again to cover my shoulders with a blanket. The hospital is cold. Why do they keep it so damn cold?
“You have to either change or let me warm you up,” she says, voice firm. “Let me put this around you.”
Defeated, I let her care for me. I’m not sure how long we’ve been sitting in the waiting room, but it feels like an eternity. But my clothes are damp, not dry, which means it can’t have been too long.
He’s dead.
I can’t believe my father is dead.
Worse, I killed him. I didn’t want to, but he made me. When I found him with his hands around Romy’s throat, submerged in the bloody water, I lost it. The gun he stole from me was at the bottom of the pool, and there was a bullet with his name on it.
“Why won’t they give us an update?” I croak out. “That’s bad. That means it’s bad.”
“Shhh,” she whispers, hugging me to her. “That’s not true. If it were bad, we’d have news already. It’s taking so long because they’re trying to save him.”
I think about Theo when he was just a goofy preteen. That kid adored me. He always wanted to do what I wanted to do. I’m pretty sure I was the brother he always wanted.
Then somewhere along the way, everything got all fucked up.
He chose Dad’s side, kissed Romy, and tricked us into our forced separation. I want to hate him for those things. And yet I keep seeing those innocent green eyes asking if I can play another game of dominoes with him or watch an action movie together.
He hurt me and I gave up on him.
My chest aches and I rub at it through my damp shirt. “He tried to make things right. I never let him. I was never going to forgive him.”
“I know,” Romy whispers. “I know.”
Hot tears streak down my cheeks. I’m tired of swiping them away. I feel as if I failed that kid. He didn’t choose to be with Dad and our family. It wasn’t his fucking choice. But he loved hard and made the best of the situation. Theo has always been impulsive and made the wrong decisions, but his heart is good. I know this.
“He just wanted to redeem himself.” I sniffle and shudder from the cold-ass air-conditioning. “Why is it a damn morgue in here?”
Romy laughs through her tears. “I don’t know. It’s terrible, though. I’m pretty sure my breastmilk is frozen solid.”
I shuffle to lift my arm and draw her under the blanket with me. Though she’s still wet, she warms my fucking soul. I kiss the top of her head.
“When this is all over, I’m going to sleep for a week.”
She shakes her head. “You have a newborn and a six-year-old. That’s not happening, sweetheart.”
This makes me grin despite the pain clawing at my heart. “Not going to lie, I’m looking forward to relaxing with my girls again.”
“Me too. Eva says they’re good. She thinks we should come back to the hotel for a little while. Even just to change before heading back. She’s worried about us.”
I’m not worried about us.
I’m worried about my brother, who was unresponsive and turning gray by the time EMS arrived. He lost so much blood.
Bile creeps up my throat. The candy bar Romy made me eat a few moments ago curdles in my stomach.
“I can’t leave him,” I murmur. “Not until I know…”
I don’t finish that statement.
We both know what it means.
“She gave me an update on LuLu,” she says, a smile in her voice. “Her parents were at work when she went missing again. They immediately called Hadley because they knew something was off. They’re actually at the compound in Tulsa, waiting for her return.”
“Is she okay, though? Physically? Mentally?”
“Eva says she is. A little bruised from the ropes cutting into her, and her chest hurts from the CPR Nees did, but she’s okay. Just wants to see you.”
I warm a bit knowing she’s going to be okay. That girl isn’t my flesh and blood, but she may as well be. She’s the sister I never had and I love her.
We’re interrupted when a man walks over to us. He’s a doctor and wears a grim expression. I’m immediately tense and nauseous.
“We tried everything to save hi—”
His words are drowned out by the agony rushing through me.
“No!” I roar. “No, no, no, no!”
Romy grabs my jaw, forcing me to look at her. “His kidney, Caius. He lost his kidney, but he’s alive.”
I’m stunned and confused. “What?”
“I expect him to make a full recovery,” the doctor says with a chuckle. “He’s a fighter. You can see him soon.”
We spent a week and a half in Canada and are finally home. Well, home for now. There will be a new home for us elsewhere soon.
“Can we swim?” Kaitlyn asks once she’s out of the SUV. “Please, please, please, please. Uncle Theo will go with me.”
Theo winces as he struggles to get out of the vehicle. As soon as he was released from the hospital a few days ago, we started our trek back to Tulsa.
“Not quite there yet, kiddo.” Theo grunts. “Ask Nees.”
It’s not lost on me that Kaitlyn has apparently blocked out that night where me and Nees invaded their home. Romy thinks it’s all inside her head and it’ll need to come out eventually. I just hope it isn’t when she’s a teenager and suddenly hates me.
LuLu’s parents come out to greet their daughter. They’ve spoken to her on the phone every day while we were in Canada. While we were waiting for Theo to get discharged, they made good use of their time.
They’re relocating to Oklahoma.
Apparently, it’s where LuLu feels safest and they want what’s best for her. They’ll go back to California in a few days to pack up and put their house on the market. LuLu is going to stay with us for the time being.
I can smell barbecue, which makes my stomach grumble. We’ve been living off fast-food for a while now and I’m eager for Bermuda’s superb cooking.
I’m in a daze as we unload the vehicles and put our luggage away. Being trapped in the car for so long, I’m happy to be outside and park my ass in a lawn chair near the firepit. Romy, with Nova latched on her tit, sits beside me. We can hear Katilyn’s screams of joy from the pool area. Nees is like a kid himself and never tires of throwing her ass in the pool.
I reach over and take Romy’s free hand. “Glad to be back.”
“Feels like home.”
It does to me since I grew up out here. I’ve been worried if she would think so.
“Yeah?”
She laughs. “I have real friends now. Plus, LuLu is going to live here.”
“You want to make this our place too?”
“Absolutely.”
“Guess we better start looking for a house.”
She pulls her hand out of mine to fish her phone out of her pocket. “Two steps ahead of you. Those nighttime feedings can get boring. I’ve been house hunting.”
I look at the listing she’s pulled up. It’s a nice property on Lake Keystone. The home itself isn’t ostentatious, but it’s a nice size for a growing family. It also has a pool.
“There’s a pool house, but we can convert it to a mother-in-law suite. It’s perfect for Eva.” She grins at me. “What do you think?”
It’s not cheap, but we’re not exactly poor.
Between the two of us, we can afford to finally get what we want.
“You gonna marry me first?”
She laughs. “Been waiting and waiting and waiting.”
I lean over and steal a kiss from her. “The wait is over, love.”
Nova finishes nursing and we trade. Romy takes the phone and I take the baby. While I burp her, Romy flips through the pictures, showing me impressive features of the house.
“Best part is, we’re right down the road from Copper,” she explains. “It would be awesome to be close to Stormy.”
The excitement in her voice is catching.
I’m ready to build a new life for us, one we both have a part in constructing. No more lies, no more trickery, no more mindfucks.
Nova passes out on my shoulder. I motion for Romy to come sit in my lap. She happily obliges, nuzzling against the side of my neck.
“You ever think this could all be a hallucination? Like maybe we’re still in that lab, our minds being poked and prodded?”
“This is real, Caius. We’re real.”
I close my eyes and then pop them back open. I’m still here, the warm September air tickling the hair on my arms. Romy’s sweet scent mixed with our baby’s smell floods my nostrils. There’s nothing artificial or phony about this moment.
“You going to go back to college now that life is settling?” I ask, mind wondering at what our future looks like.
She sighs. “I don’t think so. Right now, I want to focus on being a mom. I’m thinking I might homeschool Kaitlyn. Didn’t your mom do that for you?”
“Yeah. She baked a lot of good shit too.”
“I’ll have you know, I became quite the little baker while we were apart. That’s one of the only good things to have come from that time.” She kisses the side of my neck. “What about you? You going to become a biker now, Johnny?”
I snort out a laugh that makes Nova whimper in her sleep. “Fuck no. You know how dangerous those things are?”
“Hadley told me she and Koyn had sex once while riding on his.”
“Not happening,” I grumble. “Get that out of your head.”
She giggles and it’s a sweet fucking sound.
“I was thinking, though,” I say slowly. “Maybe still working with these guys. We got some of the big players, our dads included, but there are more out there we missed.”
We both know that just because we got the people who hurt us specifically, it doesn’t mean there’s not a whole world of people who haven’t. They just need to be found, exposed, and punished.
“What about Theo?” she asks. “Will he stick around?”
“I want him to if you want him to.”
“He’s growing on me.”
“Same.”
We both chuckle.
“Want to dump the baby on him and fuck me on the pool table?”
I bark out an unexpected laugh. “Don’t taunt me, woman.”
“Taunt? It was an invitation, Caius.”
Turning my head, I touch the tip of my nose to hers. “I thought you couldn’t.”
“Time flies when you’re fighting bad guys.” Her grin brightens her beautiful face. “I’m ready if you are. If not, we can do it another day—hey!”
I nearly send her flying to her ass in my hurry to get up. She cracks up laughing when I stalk past her, looking for someone to pawn our baby off onto. LuLu’s mom happens to be closest.
“Watch her for a second, yeah?”
“What? Uh, sure?” She awkwardly accepts Nova, face scrunched in confusion.
“They’re going to have sex, Mom,” LuLu tells her like she’s the adult between them.
Her mother’s mouth gapes open. I don’t wait for her to change her mind.
Romy is waiting by the firepit, giggling with amusement. When I reach her, I toss her over my shoulder like I’m claiming my prize. She squeals as I smack her ass. Sunshine barks at me from somewhere but doesn’t race to save Romy.
The idea of getting to have sex with this woman today is the icing on our cake of victory.
A strange feeling courses through me.
I don’t recognize it, but I like it.
Joy.
I guess that’s my life now.
I fucking love it.