When the car idled, I sat up and saw we were at the clubhouse. The lights were on, but it wasn’t a bustle of energy like I expected, how I remembered it to be.
“Prez shut down non-important operations for us,” Maverick offered. He must have seen my confusion.
“It seems so normal.”
Both Reaper and Maverick chuckled.
“It is normal, babe. For us, anyway. Come on. You need to get into a shower and rest.”
I didn’t want to argue with him there. A shower sounded divine.
Maverick got out of the car first, and helped me to sit at the edge, before he knelt and undid my shoes. Rubbing the balls of my feet with his knuckles, I groaned at the instant relief it provided.
“Do you want me to carry you?” he asked. I shook my head, and pushed up onto my flat feet. I could feel the grass under me, and bunched my toes so I could grab it.
It felt…good.
Stable.
Maverick wrapped his arm around me and helped to guide me toward the clubhouse from the car. When we stepped inside, Isaw just a handful of the brothers, and Rowan, who smiled at me sweetly.
I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out. Cherry came out of nowhere, with a warm smile. “Do you need anything? Water? Soaking hot bath?”
“No, thank you.”
“Actually, that bath sounds good,” Maverick told her. She nodded eagerly, and ran off to complete the task. Now that I thought about it, a bath would be heavenly. Somehow he knew me better than I knew myself.
“Mama!”
My senses locked onto the familiar scream, and my knees buckled before my eyes were scanning the room for him.
There.
At the back of the room, near the pool table, was my son. The whole reason I kept my soul intact and didn’t let Hardy break me.
Van came running from the back of the clubhouse, his little red eyes doing me in, as I fell to my knees and wrapped my arms around him. His little hands grabbed at me as he squished his little body to me, his shoulder cutting off my breath, but I could endure that pain.
“Daddy told me he bring you back.”
I pulled back, fear shoving through me like a freight train. His little watery eyes were doing me in, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the fear of Hardy being alive. That it was all a dream.
Van looked up at Maverick then. He swept Van’s hair off his forehead. “That’s right, mate. I brought her home.”
Daddy?
Slowly, I looked up at Maverick, who offered a warm smile, before he pulled Van up into his arms, and helped me to stand. He slid an arm around my waist, his fingers digging in slightly, to show me I was where I was meant to be. He had me.
He had us.
“He called you Daddy.”
Maverick nodded. “He did. Not the first time, if you recall.”
Van was happily resting his little head on Maverick’s shoulder, his hand firmly gripping my fingers, almost as if he’d never let me go. It felt so good to be home with him, safe from the terror of Hardy.
“Do you want me to take him?” I heard Mari ask from beside me. I hadn’t even seen her when we came in. I nodded, kissing Van on the temple, and smoothing his hair back.
“No,” he groaned when Mari took him off Maverick. “Mama!”
