“Sin…”
“I said we’re playing it by the book.” He stands, Victoria rising with him. “Doesn’t mean the book can’t have some creative interpretation.”
They leave before I can question him further.
Marley and I sit in silence, her head finding its way back to my shoulder. Outside, I hear the muffled sounds of the hospital, phones ringing at the nurses’ station, the squeak of gurney wheels, and low conversations.
“She has to wake up so I can thank her for raising you into the man you are. So, I can tell her that I’m going to take care of you, just like I promised her I would.”
My throat closes up completely. The memory of Marley meeting Queenie at her birthday party, the way Queenie had taken one look at us together and known, the way she’d told Marley to take care of me, the way Marley had promised without hesitation.
“She loved you the second she met you,” I rasp out. “Told me not to be an idiot. To hold onto you tight.”
“I remember.” Marley’s hand tightens on mine. “And I’m holding on. I’m not letting go, Nitro. Not through this, not through anything.”
“Even though I lied to you? Even though Derek used that lie to destroy everything?”
“Yes, you hurt me.” Her voice is firm. “But you protected yourself, and I understand why you did it. You wanted to be sure I loved you for who you are, not for your money. And I do.” She lifts her head to look at me. “I love you for the man who plays flute for retirement village residents, drives Uber to feel normal, and broke into a burning building to save his grandmother. That’s who you are, Damon. Not the billions, not the business empire.You…”
I cup her face, my thumb brushing away the tears on her cheek. “I love you, baby. So, fucking much.”
“I love you too.” She leans into my touch. “All of you. The biker, the billionaire, the musician, the grandson. Every single part.”
I lean in, pressing my dry, parched lips to hers, soft and tender despite the roughness of my damaged throat, despite the antiseptic taste in my mouth, despite everything falling apart around us.
She kisses me back, and for just a moment, the world narrows to this, to us, to the bond that’s been forged through fake dating turned real, through secrets revealed and forgiveness given, through a birthday party where she met my family and fit right in.
When we pull apart, Queenie’s monitor beeps its steady rhythm, and I reach into my jeans pocket and pull out her bracelet. “I have something of yours… if you want it?”
She glances down, seeing it in my hand, and a small gasp escapes her. Her eyes well as she extends her wrist. “I should have never taken it off.”
Smiling, I lean in, fastening it around her gorgeous wrist, back where it is meant to be, then placing a tender kiss on her forehead. She stares down at her bracelet, her fingers gently caressing it as if it were a lost friend, and looks up at me. “I’m so sorry for reacting as I did… it was just a shock finding out about you, but I could have behaved better. If I did, then maybe none of this would have happened.”
My hand slides up, caressing her face. “You’re here now. That’s all that matters. The rest is white noise.” I glance over my shoulder at Queenie. “And she’s tough.”
“She’s going to pull through,” Marley says with absolute certainty. “She’s too stubborn to leave us. She told me herself, she’s too stubborn to die.”
A broken laugh escapes me because Queenie absolutely did say that. Multiple times. It’s one of her favorite phrases.
“Yeah,” I agree, holding Marley closer. “She is.”
And sitting here with the woman I love, watching over the woman who raised me, surrounded by my brothers in the hallway beyond, I let myself believe it.
Queeniewillwake up.
Wewillprove that Derek set the fire.
The truthwillcome out.
And wewillget through this together.
Because that’s what love is.
What family is.
Not perfection.
Not easy answers.
