No way after seeing her ashen face and terror-filled eyes, along with her tears that tore me up inside, was I letting this go. Something had happened and for her to be that upset, it wasn’t nothing.
Softly grasping her palm in mine, I started to pull heraway from the group. “We’ll be right back, just give us a minute,” I told everyone, my eyes pleading with them to let me handle things.
I breathed in relief when nobody followed us, even as River protested repeatedly that she was okay.
Moving us to a secluded corner on the other side of the room, I lifted her chin with my hand and begged her first with my eyes, then my words to tell me what was wrong. After a minute, she sighed and with trembling lips, her voice shaky, she explained what went down outside her building.
As the words left her mouth, my body vibrated with rage and my jaw clenched so tightly I thought my back molars might break. I fought to stay calm so I didn’t scare her further than she already was.
Suddenly, panic began to rise and I reached toward her stomach as my gaze scanned her body again. I hadn’t seen anything when she walked in but what if…
Before I could check for injuries, she took hold of my hand where it softly gripped her shirt. “I’m okay. He didn’t hurt me.”
I released the material and tenderly skimmed the back of my hand down her soft cheek. “Maybe not physically, but he still hurt you, sweetheart.”
She shuddered.
In broad fucking daylight, someone had the damn nerve to scare my girl. But why? That's what I had to find out. We needed to check the security cameras to see if they picked up his face or vehicle at all.
I glanced over River’s shoulder and my gaze clashed with Braxton’s. When his brows lifted, I nodded subtly, making it clear we had an issue. Abigfucking issue.
When I looked back to River, she met my gaze with tear-filled eyes.
“Let’s forget about this for now.” She placed her fingerover my lips as I opened my mouth to say something. “I don’t want to ruin my friend's special moment” She blew out a shaky breath. “Please, just let me enjoy this moment with her and everyone, then we can talk more?”
God, I wanted to say we needed to get to the bottom of shit right that second, but I couldn’t say no to the woman I loved when she was looking at me with pleading, vulnerable eyes. Maybe we could compromise?
“I don’t want too much time to lapse before someone starts to put things in motion. How about we agree to meet in the middle?”
She cocked her head.
“Let me at least tell Braxton in private so he can have the security company check the camera and give a heads up to Bronson while he is on duty. Then we don’t have to talk about it again until after London has the baby.”
She nodded. “Okay.” Resting her hands on my chest, she gave me a tiny smile. “Thank you. After it happened…” She sniffled, an aftermath of her tears that had now stopped. “All I wanted was to get to you. I knew you would protect me.”
Damn her words felt good but fuck if I wanted her to ever go through anything like that. I couldn’t even imagine the sheer terror that must have gone through her at seeing that knife. Hearing her say it took her back to the worst night of her life almost dropped me to my knees.
“I’ll always protect you, sweetheart.” I kissed her forehead. “But you’re such a warrior and so damn strong.”
She shook her head.
“Yes you are, baby.” I ran the back of my hand down the side of her cheek. “But you will always have me.”
Her eyes closed for a second and then fluttered back open.
“I can’t live without you,” she whispered, her voice full of vulnerability.
I cupped her cheeks in the palm of my hands.
“You won’t ever have to,” I told her.
“You’re fucking kidding, nothing?”
It had been tough to wait until London had the baby before truly diving into who was responsible for scaring the shit out of River and threatening her.
Everyone was aware that something bad had happened and Lake was clearly worried about her sister, something that River hated since she was so close to giving birth too, but nobody pushed my girl to talk when it was obvious she hadn’t wanted to right then.
While the ladies took turns watching the kids in the waiting room and the others visited London along with the newest addition to their family—a beautiful baby girl—I was talking with the guys, Bronson included. He’d gotten off shift, swung by River’s work, and then had come to the hospital.
