I didn’t need her to make nice with me. I didn’t need anything from her. I looked at Maureen. “I need to get back.” Shenodded and looked at the sheriff, who was already shaking his head.
“Not until he comes for you, sweetheart.”
“He won’t come here. Not tonight.” I looked at Darcy again. “Not now.” I didn’t care if my words hurt her. She’d hurt King, and Jackson.
“Then he’ll send someone else. Until then, you stay put.”
I sighed wearily. Declan was right. I couldn’t leave. Not without an escort. I wouldn’t make the same mistake again.
“Darcy, we’ve all missed you so much,” Maureen said.
Darcy smiled softly, but her eyes were still on me. When the baby moved, I reached over and picked him back up. I needed something to do. Something to take my focus off the woman in front of me. Something to stop me from screaming at her.
“You hurt him,” I blurted out, holding Bennett against my shoulder. I sniffed the baby’s head, and something snapped. I imagined King as a baby. A toddler, growing up believing his grandparents were his parents.
“Grace,” Duncan warned.
“No, she’s right.” Darcy moved closer to me. “I know I hurt him. But what I did was to protect him. He may never understand that, and he may never forgive me for that. But if I could go back, I wouldn’t change it.” Darcy looked over her shoulder at the sheriff. “It was the right thing to do.”
“And Jackson?” I asked. I didn’t know what had gotten into me, but I suddenly felt very protective of my old man’s brother. “Was that the right thing to do as well?”
“Yes.” That was all she said before she turned her back on me. “I should go. I need to get a room somewhere.”
“Nonsense,” Maureen said.
“Baby, we don’t have space here. One bedroom is for Bennett, and Colleen is in the other one.”
“Colleen can come to the clubhouse. She can have my room.”
Colleen inhaled beside me; I knew I was speaking for her. But I knew King. If he thought Darcy didn’t have a place to stay, he would offer her a room at the clubhouse, and I didn’t want her there. Not yet. I needed to talk to him first. I turned to look at Colleen. She nodded.
“Are you sure?” Maureen asked, her eyes moving between the two of us.
We both nodded, and Maureen smiled. “Okay then. Colleen, run upstairs and pack some things.” Maureen moved closer, and when she stood in front of me, she lowered her voice so only I heard her. “He’ll need you tonight.”
“I know. I need to go home.”
“Soon, honey.”
A loud knock on the front door startled the baby in my arms. When the sheriff opened it, King’s father stood in the doorway. I’d never met him. I’d never even seen him. But as he stood there, his face filled with confusion and anger, all I saw was King.
“Why?” he growled.
“Sal,” Duncan warned. The sheriff stepped back, as though he wouldn’t stop whatever was about to happen.
“Fuck you, Duncan. She kept my son from me,” he snarled.
“I keptmy sonfrom your father,” Darcy snapped back. Sal took a step toward her, and I passed the baby to Maureen.
“Grace,” Mac cautioned, but I ignored him as I stepped in front of King’s father.
“Hi, I’m Grace.”
Sal peeked down at me, then his eyes went lower as he noticed my cut. “You’re my son’s woman.”
“I am. And I understand why you’re angry.”
Sal scoffed as he sent daggers back toward Darcy. “My mother kept me from my father. Well, more so kept my father from me. I knew him when I was a kid, but I thought he wasmy uncle. He showed up tonight.” I bit my lip again. “I haven’t spoken to him. Instead, I kicked him in the balls.”
