“My life doesn’t matter if I don’t have you in it.” She interrupts me. “Don’t you get that?”
Unlinking my fingers, I reach up and brush her hair back from her face, watching her pretty eyes swim in the tears that refuse to fall. “You said you wanted to spend forever with me. Do you still mean that?” I ask even though she’s stuck with me. We took vows, and she wears my ring. My name is branded on her ass, for fuck’s sake.
“To some, forever is only a matter of seconds.” She throws my previous words back into my face.
A smile tugs at my lips, and she frowns. How can I possibly find that funny? Lifting her left hand, I look at her wedding ring. “There is no amount of time that will be enough with you,” I tell her, my eyes meet hers again to see the first tear fall over her bottom lashes. I brush it away from her cheek. “But I promise to be yours until the day that I die.” Thanks to Isabella, that might be longer than I originally had.
She holds up my ring between us. “If you put this back on, you better never take it off again.”
I smile, taking it from her, and slide it on my finger. “Never,” I promise, wrapping my arms back around her so she doesn’t pull away. “Tell me, doll face. What happened?” My eyes roam her face, looking for any other sign of trauma.
She licks her lips. “Bill punched me in the face…”
“He did what?” I shout, my body instantly shaking at her words, making her flinch. My blood pressure rises to the roof immediately.
Placing her hands gently on either side of her face, she adds, “It had to look real. I couldn’t just walk into Dollhouse…”
“You were fucking there?” I snap. This isn’t getting any better. My hands go to her yoga pants and yank them down, turning her to look at her ass. I release a sigh when I see my name branded on her ass. Hudson didn’t cut it off. It was just a hallucination.
“Haidyn.” She frowns, pulling them back up. “Yes. I was lying in bed with you. Spoke to you.”
When the fuck was she in bed with me? “Char?—”
“I wasn’t going to stay behind while your brothers went to save my husband.” She places her forehead against mine and closes her eyes. “I’m glad you’re okay, Haidyn, but if you ever leave me again, I will throw another knife at you, and I will kill you myself.”
I chuckle and then flinch due to my soreness. “When I die, I want it to be by your hands, doll face.”
EIGHTY-THREE
HAIDYN
“Be careful,” my wife scolds me as we enter our bedroom at Carnage.
“I’m fine,” I assure her, although I’m having a hard time keeping my eyes open.
I was able to convince Devin and Gavin to let me sleep in my own bed with my wife tonight, but only if I allowed them to give me a shot in the ass. Whatever it is, it’s made me tired as fuck.
“You guys need my help?” Adam asks, pushing a wheelchair. Gavin and Devin tried to make me sit in it, and I told them to fuck off. They seemed satisfied enough when Adam volunteered to follow us with it.
“We’ll be fine,” I tell him.
“Thank you.” My wife smiles, encouraging his help.
He nods and backs out into the hall. “If you need me, I’m right across the hall.” Then he shuts the door, leaving us alone.
She helps me into the bathroom, and she turns the faucet on to the tub. “No. I want to take a shower.”
“Haidyn—”
“I’m taking a shower, Charlotte.” I leave no room to argue. Honestly, I’m not sure I can get back up if I sit down in the bath,but I won’t tell her that. I hate looking weak, especially in front of her.
Huffing, she shuts off the faucet and opens the shower door, turning it on while I remove the T-shirt and sweatpants before we enter the shower.
I allow her to wash me while I sway back and forth on my feet. She makes it fast, knowing that I’m fading quickly.
She helps dry me off, and I enter the bedroom to see her over by the door about to turn the light off. “Leave it on.” It has nothing to do with spending eight days in a blacked-out room and everything with wanting to see my wife.
Spinning around, she looks at me tilting her head as if to question how we will sleep with the light on, but she just nods and walks over to the bed.
