Stopping at a light, Boone glanced back at me. His dark eyes instantly erased my bad memories. The thought of carrying his child one day left me smiling.
Boone pulled my SUV into the garage. Lula quickly appeared at the door and hurried to help Elle out before turning to Lyric and me. My sister-in-law’s hugs felt good. No one had ever consoled me after one of Chris’s beatings. I had no friends, and my mom preferred not to hear about the bad parts of my marriage.
Elle hugged me next. Or maybe I was consoling her. Either way, we held on to each other while Lyric told Lula a slightly embellished version of what happened.
Ford, Shay, and Sutter appeared at the outside garage door.
“Mom?” Sutter asked in a fearful tone.
Elle smiled at me before hurrying over to her family. I watched them console her as she began to cry again.
“I’m so emotional,” she whined as they formed a hug circle around her.
Boone’s hands on my shoulders felt like a hot bath after a long day. I turned to him and sank into his embrace.
“Lyric went inside,” he murmured in his most tender voice. “You can tell me the truth. Are you hurt?”
Lifting my gaze, I shook my head. “I barely did anything. I thought I was tougher.”
“Those guys are trained killers,” Boone muttered and finally revealed his rage. “They should have never even looked at you, let alone put their hands on you.”
“They were mostly focused on the foxes,” I said and then whimpered, “I thought they were going to kill them.”
“Those Baton Rouge rejects thought joining the Jokers would fix their anger at the Black Rainbow. Now that it hasn’t, they’re like rabid animals.”
I understood the threat behind Boone’s words. Today wasn’t over. The three Jokers had bigger problems than their injuries. Zodiac and Dan had behaved too calmly at the grocery store, like they were putting on a show for the witnesses.
The reality was, I didn’t want to know what happened to those men. I never considered what Dan did to the shooter or even Chris. I’d dealt with enough ugliness in my life without adding more dirty details to my mental load.
“Will you stay?”
“Of course,” Boone said and stroked my cheek. “I have to help put Band-Aids on your ass.”
Snickering, I wrapped my arms around him and tightened my hold. I was relieved when Boone kissed me. Earlier, I’d felt powerless and trapped in a chaotic world. In Boone’s arms, I remembered everything good in my life and how I was willing to suffer to keep it.
BOONE
My dad grew up in a normal suburban family. If life had gone differently for him, Blackjack might have ended up an average guy with a dull wife and boring kids. Instead, one day, he stumbled upon a disgusting crime and chose to react with violence. His life would never be normal again.
Blackjack used to claim that he was a bitter man with no heart for anyone until he met my mom. Yarrow was weird and wrong, and he couldn’t get enough.
Blackjack learned to hide his feelings if they might upset Yarrow. Sometimes, she lost her way as the past dragged her back into the darkness. Yarrow would poke at my dad, almost wanting him to break. Blackjack ignored her attempts and kept her centered on the present.
“Your dad is really smart,” Yarrow told me more than once when I was growing up. “The world would be better if everyone were smart like him.”
I channeled Blackjack’s cool exterior as Nova grew flustered in the family room. She looked like a spooked animal. Lyric saw her mom spiraling and began to cry.
“I hurt my hand,” I told Lyric and swooped her into my arms.
The girl was momentarily startled. I sensed she wasn’t used to men besides Exile holding her. She frowned at me until I showed her a nonexistent injury on the back of my hand.
“Can you help me fix this?”
Lyric studied me like I might be an idiot, yet her tears were over. She finally looked at my hand and nodded.
“You have a bruise,” Lyric said and ran her little finger over the skin. “The Band-Aids are in the pantry.”
“I don’t know where Lula’s pantry is,” I lied. “Can you show me?”
