I dragged one hand across my jaw, hating everything I was about to say. “He switched paperwork in Alexei Petrov’s file. He knew who he was the minute he saw his name, he knew just enough to know they’d come after whoever was blamed for his death. He altered his medical records, removed the information about the anticoagulant that Alexei was already taking, so when you administered a dose during surgery, he bled out.”
“What?” Her voice cracked and her big, beautiful eyes began to water.
I nodded once. “He figured once you had a target on your back you’d run into his waiting arms. He hadn’t banked on you hating his guts or having my baby.”
A thousand emotions flickered in her eyes. Anger. Disbelief. Fury. Sadness. “Why isn’t he dead, Falcon?”
That question hurt like a kick to the nuts but I gave her an honest answer. “We’re giving Anton a chance to handle it first, to kill the person actually responsible for his father’s death.”
She flinched but she didn’t look away. “And then I’ll be safe from them?”
I nodded. “That’s the hope.”
Viv stood, folding her arms around her waist as she nodded. And then she paced, still not saying one fucking word.
“Viv.”
She stopped and her shoulders sagged. I couldn’t read her, but I also couldn’t look away, not when she rounded the table and stood in front of me before she flung her body at mine. “Thank you, Falcon.” She hugged me tight, face buried in my neck as tears singed my skin. “Thank you.”
I closed my arms around her, savoring the way she felt in my arms. “No thanks necessary, Viv. I’d do anything for you.”
She pulled back slowly, almost reluctantly, and looked at me, studying me for a long time. Her lips parted as if she wanted to say something, but she didn’t. Something held her back.
I wanted to ask her what she wanted to say but I was a fucking coward. What if she said she wanted to leave and take TJ with her? I wanted to tell her I loved her, that I wanted every morning to be like this one, but that wouldn’t be fair?
Would it?
Chapter Twenty-Two
Vivian
It felt ridiculous in the best possible way to wake up in a bed that wasn’t in the clubhouse, in a house that smelled like Falcon’s signature mix of leather, pine, and smoke with just a hint of something that felt like home. He’d taken me and TJ here last night, figuring that now James had admitted what he’d done, we were safe from any retribution. I knew I shouldn’t get too comfortable and I shouldn’t read too much into staying at his place, but I couldn’t help it. Hope began to creep in.
Despite learning that my ex was behind everything that happened to me over the past three years, hope for the future sneaked under my skin. Despite everything that happened, the violence and the gunshots and mayhem, I started to hope that maybe my luck was changing. That maybe Falcon felt the same way I did.
I hadn’t said the words, not yet, but I showed him with my body how much I wanted it to be true. All night we loved each other, savoring each other until the dark sky bled into daylight. He reached for me, and I reached for him, insatiable for one another. So many times I wanted to whisper that I loved him as he thrust into me, but fear held me back.
“Hey.” Falcon wrapped his arms around my waist, pressing his erection against my back. “What’s on your mind?”
You.I wanted to say that but despite everything, he hadn’t given me any indication he wanted me to stay. I knewhe wanted TJ. He’d said things that made me think his feelings had changed, but nothing explicit. “Just lost in memories of last night.”
Falcon groaned and pressed himself against me with more pressure. “I can’t stop thinking about it, Viv. The way you fucked my face while you took my cock deep in your throat? That shit is the stuff of fantasies.”
I shivered at his words. “That was really hot, wasn’t it?”
“I’ll be thinking about it for a long time to come,” he whispered, nipping my ear.
“I think we should do that again. And often.”
He pressed his forehead to my back with another groan. “I look forward to it, but for now,” his hand slid down between my legs and dipped inside my panties. “Fuck baby, you’re already soaked for me.”
I purred, grateful TJ was in the living room on his play mat. “You have that effect on me.” I let out a heavy sigh when he sank his finger deep inside of me. “Falcon, yes.” My head fell back onto his shoulder, and I gripped the edge of the counter.
“I love how you respond to my touch, Viv. How just a few strokes and I can get your sweet pussy weeping as it squeezes me tight.” He chuckled, the sound vibrated against my back. “How much you love it when I talk to you.”
“Mommy! Mommy!” TJ’s voice grew closer and closer, forcing our bodies to separate.
Falcon stepped back with a smirk just as TJ came into the room. “Mommy?”
