“No,” Diesel muttered. “We’re going but we’re not going in unprepared.” He settled back against the chair and sighed heavily. “Why the fuck does he want to meet now when he tried to snatch Falcon’s kid in broad fucking daylight?”
“Maybe he wants to make amends,” Gio answered with a smirk. “Or maybe the dude’s got a death wish.”
My hands balled into fists on top of the table while my brothers bantered back and forth. “I hope they try some shit,” I growled. “Because I’d love nothing more than to put a bullet in each of Anton’s eyes and shove them down his goddamn throat.” The room fell silent and I knew maybe I’d gone too far. It didn’t feel like enough.
Diesel held up his hands. “Well strap up and get there early, ready to talk but prepared to fight. One hour.” He gave a short nod and the room emptied out quickly, the brothers eager to say goodbye to their women just in case shit went bad.
This time, I was among those men eager to find my woman and I found Viv inside our room, pacing frantically while TJ napped in the middle of the bed. She stopped only when I closed the door behind me, taking in my expression. Her entire body went rigid. “You’re leaving.”
I nodded, slowly crossing the room because I needed to touch her. To feel her. To let the softness of her skin calm the raging beast inside of me. “Yeah.”
“Can you tell me anything?” she asked, her tone reined in with a hint of desperation. “Anton Petrov called a meeting. No fucking clue what about but after today I don’t really give a fuck.” I couldn’t be sure that I wouldn’t react emotionally when I saw his stupid fucking Russian face but for now, I had to put on a brave face for Viv.
Her look turned fierce as she folded her arms across her chest. “I want to come with you.” It wasn’t a request.
“Viv,” I began, knowing she wouldn’t like the answer. “That’s not how the Steel Demons roll. We don’t let our women come with us. You can’t.”
She sucked in a breath and shook her head, anger radiated off her. “I can’t sit here and wait around for someone to tell me you’ve been injured. Or worse.” She blinked and that’s when I saw the tears glistening in her eyes.
“Aw, fuck, Viv. Don’t cry.”
“I’m not,” she insisted even as she wiped moisture under her eyes.
A smile touched my lips as I reached out to cup her face, brushing my thumb along the edge of her jaw. “If you’re there I won’t be able to think straight, babe. I’ll be worrying about you instead of watching my six and keeping the guys safe.” That much was true, probably worse after today in the park.
Viv, never one to miss a chance to give me shit, arched her brows, chin tilted up defiantly. “You seemed to function just fine when you went after James.”
I huffed out a laugh, because she was right. “Yeah, well, I’m just that good.” But my voice softened and I pulled her close until our foreheads touched. “But if something happened to you now, Viv… shit, I don’t know who I’d become.” The lengths I was willing to go to keep her safe surprised me, but now that I knew how far I’d go, there was a peace to it.
My words made her freeze. Her mouth parted and her eyes went wide with surprise, clearly, she still had no fucking clue what she meant to me.
Tell her, asshole.
She opened her mouth, to argue, or so I assumed, but then she stopped. “Fine. But you come back to me, you hear? You do not get to disappear on me, Falcon.”
“Deal.” I placed my hand on her lower back and pulled her closer so she tilted back in the perfect angle to kiss her senseless. Her mouth tasted like mint and chocolate, and everything I ever wanted in the world. I didn’t want to release her lush lips, but I had to. There was still plenty of shit to do before we left to meet Petrov. I pulled back and then leaned in again for another quick kiss, and before I knew what I was saying, the words were out.
“I love you.”
I froze. So did Viv.
My heart hammered against my chest as I realized what I’d just done. “I said that out loud, didn’t I?”
Viv blinked, her expression still stunned. “Did you mean it?”
Did I mean it? “I did.”
She blinked again. “You did?”
“Fuck, yeah,” I said, my words grew more sure with every passing second. The weight of the words settled into my chest like there was spot in my heart just waiting for them to claim the spot. “I love you, Viv. And I want you to be my woman. My family.”
She didn’t look horrified, which was promising. “You do?”
I nodded slowly. “Yeah, just think about it. We’ll talk more later, yeah?”
Her mouth fell open in shock, and it stayed that way as I kissed her forehead, kissed my sleeping son, and backed out of the room with a wink.
Goddammit, this woman was everything to me and she really had no fucking clue.
