“Not for much longer. Anyway, since you made the deal, I’ll let you handle the Mayor. In future, if I’m gonna be babysitting, make sure they don’t fuck me over.”
“Sure.”
The call ends and I slide my phone back into my pocket. I slam the gavel down, and the room empties. Leo and I hang back.
“It’s scary how believable you are when you lie.Ialmost believed you.”
I laugh at my brother. “When it comes to her, I could make anyone believe anything.”
“I don’t doubt ya, brother.” He smiles. “Anyway, I gotta head back. I’ve got my own shit going on.”
“Thanks for riding out. I trust my brothers but it’s my brother I trust most with her.”
“No worries. If I ever need a psycho to protect Holly, you’re the first one I’d call.”
“Damn right.”
I walk him out and go to light a cigarette, but I don’t. Fuck if I’ve needed one, it’s now.
We hug it out and I watch as he rides off with my prospect following behind, making sure he makes it safely out of the city. I hang around until their lights disappear and after one last look around, I head back inside. Angel is sat at the bar with Rudi close beside him.
“I’m heading up for the night. Seriously, unless the place is burning down, or we’re being attacked, don’t fuckin’ disturb me,” I tell my VP on the way up the stairs.
I start undressing once I’m behind my own door. River is sleeping away in his cot and I pull the covers back and slip in behind my woman.
“Why were you fighting King?”
“Because he failed me.” Stroking her hair, I ask, “How are you feeling?”
She said Rudi has been giving her good meds but sometimes nothing can truly take away pain.
“I’ve felt worser pain. At least nothing is broken. In a week’s time I’ll be as good as new.”
“And how are you doing mentally?”
“It keeps playing in my head but there was nothing else I could do. She wasn’t stopping.”
“I told Jamie Boy she ran off before any of us got up this morning. You don’t have to think of her again.”
“I think it’s going to take a while.”
“Nah, she was nothing but a blip. No one remembers the blips.”
She rolls over until she is facing me.
I can barely look at her eye without the rage building back up inside me.
“There’s been so much death this year. I thought earlier, my dad and grandpa would tell me the same as you. The same as Leo told me. That it was self-defence and she fuckin’ deserved it, and it scares me because I hundred per cent agree.”
“Then there’s no reason to keep thinking about it. She’s gone. Nothing will come back on you. All you have to do is keep being the great mother you are and my wife. Tomorrow, the sun will rise, and you’ll go out and water your plants. We’ll have breakfast. It will be the same as the last morning we spent together. But the next time I ask you to stay somewhere, will you fuckin’ listen?”
Her laughter is quiet as not to wake our son. “I promise you, I will never come back until you say.”
“You better mean that, cause the ride here was a new level of Hell I’ve never experienced. I nearly stacked my bike three times and came close to shooting some trucker who nearly took me out.”
“I promise. What you say, goes.”
I smirk. “Anything?”
