Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Della
“Come on, little mouse, it’s time to wake up.”
I hear the voice I know so well in the fuzziness of my head, but it’s hard to open my eyes. I try, but I can’t do it.
“I need you to open your eyes, baby,” Shadow says. From the gruffness of his voice, I know something’s wrong. He doesn’t sound like his usual self.
I struggle to open my eyes as he wants me to, only I fall back into the hazy abyss.
* * *
“You know you want to wake up, little mouse. I need you to open your eyes and show me the beauty of them,” Shadow’s voice filters in through the dark abyss. This time, though, it doesn’t feel as hazy.
“There are so many things I need to share with you, Della. So much I haven’t told you yet. But I need you to wake up so I can tell you how much I love you. How much you mean to me.”
Shadow loves me?
My heart skips a beat, and the beeping monitors I can hear change tempo ever so slightly.
“Yeah, baby, you heard me. I love you. Love you so damn much.” Shadow must realize I’m awake from the sound of the machines. There’s a scraping noise, then the bed next to my leg dips, and Shadow’s fingers stroke my cheek. “Open your eyes for me.”
I struggle and manage to crack open my eyes marginally at first, blink, and then open them wider. My eyes on Shadow and knowing he’s the first thing I see, I give him a weak yet happy smile.
“I love you too,” I croak out.
Never in my life have I said those words to a man who wasn’t my brother or grandfather. Even my dad, I hadn’t said those words to my dad since I was a little girl.
“Scared the shit out of me, woman.” Shadow leans in and brushes his lips over mine.
“What happened?” I ask as Shadow pulls away.
“You don’t remember?” he asks.
It takes me a minute to mull over his question. Then it hits me like a freight train. The men. Dylan being hurt.
“Is Dylan okay?” I blurt out, eyes widening in horror. “Please tell me he’s okay.”
“Dylan’s good. Arm’s in a cast, can’t ride for a while, but he’ll be all right,” Shadow answers. “He’s worried about you. Told your brother that you had them take you to save him.”
I nod, tears spilling down my cheeks. Shadow reaches out and wipes them away.
“I didn’t want them to hurt Dylan. He’s just a kid. I knew you’d find out I was taken and find me.”
“I was nearly too late,” Shadow grumbles, eyes flashing with anger. He was pissed.
“But I’m here,” I whisper, reaching for his hand.
“Yeah, you’re here, but you nearly weren’t.
We didn’t have time to call for an ambulance.
Nightmare had to work on you until we got you here.
Twenty fuckin’ minutes it took, and he worked his ass off.
Still, it wasn’t enough. You coded in surgery, Della.
Fuckin’ died on the table. If they hadn’t been able to bring you back, you wouldn’t be here. ”
“Tyler.”
“I nearly lost you, Della. I can’t fuckin’ lose you. You have no clue how much I fuckin’ love you.”
I think I might have a clue, but seeing him like this, so upset, it hurts my heart. I don’t want to see him in pain at the thought of losing me.
Lifting his hand, I place it over my heart. “You feel that?” I ask.
“Della,” he starts.
“Do you feel it?” I ask again.
“Yeah,” he answers, his tone grated, filled with so much emotion.
“Then you know I’m here. I didn’t leave you. You didn’t lose me. I’m here, Tyler. Right here. Right where you can feel me. See me. Talk to me. Listen to me. Know that I’m right here.”
“Fuck,” Shadow growls, leans in, and kisses me deeply. It hurts, but I’ll take the pain of it, so long as Shadow is right here where I can feel him touching me. He needs to be able to have this. I don’t know what all happened. I know what happened to me while I was in the hands of the men . . .
Those men. They’d been with Landry Oil. I’d heard them talking.
Shadow pulls away as I stiffen.
“Fuck, baby, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have kissed you like that,” he grumbles and starts to pull away.
“You didn’t do anything,” I tell him, stopping him from moving too far. “I just remembered what I’d heard the men who took me were talking about when they had me.”
“Talking about?”
I hold his gaze and bite my bottom lip, only to wince in pain. Ouch. That hurt.
“I need to talk to Maddox. Tell him what I heard. He needs to know,” I tell him and explain how I heard the men talking to another man who was well dressed about why he wanted the land so badly.
How years ago, they tried to get the land when my dad was still around.
How they were responsible for the death of my mother.
The car accident was meant to be for my dad.
With my granddad out of the way, they could get the land needed.
Only we’d been stupid enough to go to the club, thinking they could protect the ranch.
I give Shadow all the details that I remember, including how they’d taken their time to inflict as much pain as they could.
How they’d intend to show Maddox what happens to those who refuse to listen to them.
They wanted to hurt him as much as possible.
The plan at first was to grab Dylan and use him as bait, but when I screwed up that plan, they took me instead.
One was as good as the other. They didn’t care as long as the point was driven home.
“I wish I’d taken my time to gut them all.” Shadow snarls when I finish.
“What?” I blink at him, not sure I heard him right.
“I should’ve taken my time in killing them. Should’ve made them suffer more than I did. Would’ve, but you’re more important. You were my focus.”
“You were my focus.”
Butterflies swarm my stomach at those four words. I didn’t care about the rest of what he said when it came to those men. I didn’t care if their blood was on his hands. He did it for me. He did it to save me.
“I love you,” I whisper, squeezing his hand, needing him to know how much I love him, that I need him. He’s the most important person in my life. He was the one who made me feel safe over all others.
I love my brother. I would do anything for him. But this kind of love, how he makes me feel alive, it’s different, and I would stand beside him always.
I didn’t care how that may come. I’d do it because he was meant to be mine, as I know deep in my soul he’s the other half of it.
Shadow closes his eyes and seems to absorb those words as I say them again.
“I love you, Tyler King. Always. You mean the world to me.”
“Little mouse, you are my world,” he says, raspily, and reaches up to curl a hand around my neck. “I mean it, Della, you are my world.”
“I believe you.”
I didn’t need him to repeat it. One look at his expression says it all.
His actions speak volumes for what he’s done for me.
“When they discharge you from the hospital, I want you to come home with me, not to the ranch,” Shadow demands, his thumb stroking the side of my neck where his hand is still gripped.
“You want me to move in?” I blurt out.
“Yeah, baby, I want you in my bed every damn night.” He nods.
“You know we’ve only been together . . .”
“Della, we could have been together a day, and I’d want you in my bed.
Time is nothing when I know what I want, which if you haven’t figured it out, is you, baby.
You in our home. At least the one we have now.
Eventually, we’ll build a house on the ranch.
I know you want to live there. Be close to your brother. Help where you can.”
I do want to live on the ranch. I want to be close to my brother.
“Okay.” I nod, holding Shadow’s gaze. “I’ll move in, but we’re gonna need another rocking chair on the front porch.”
Shadow chuckles and shakes his head. “Anything you want, little mouse. I’ll get you whatever you want.”
“You should know, all I want is you.”
Shadow is the only person in the world I’d ever want to hold on to. He’s the other half of me, as the light of the sun matches the darkness of night. We fit as one as day to night.
“Before you go get my brother, will you kiss me again?”
Shadow grants me with one of his smiles, the one that I know is meant just for me, and leans in. “You never have to ask me to kiss you, baby. I’ll kiss you anytime you want.”
“Then kiss me, Tyler.”
I wanted his kiss as much as I wanted my next breath.
I wanted him at my side. I wanted forever with this man.
I knew he’d shield me from the bad. Hold me when I was sad.
Stand with me when I needed him to. When I talk to my brother about what happened and what I heard.
He’d be there to help me however he had to.