Page 20 of Dark Savior

My heart in my throat, I asked, “You remember, kitten?”

A broken sound ripped from her chest, giving me all the answers I needed. I crouched so we were eye-level with each other and rested my forehead against hers. “I’ll make them pay,” I quietly promised her. “I give you my word, kitten. They’ll pay for everything they did to you and everything they took from us.”

Unshed tears glimmered in her eyes as she nodded, her fingers stroking over my cheek and through my beard. I pressed my lips to hers before standing back up and nodding once at the nurse. I stood by Rachel’s side, my thumb stroking over her shoulder as the nurse bandaged her arm and reinserted the IV, this time into the back of her hand. The doctor asked Rachel a series of questions, and by the end of it all, Rachel’s eyelids were drooping, the pain medicine dragging her back under.

I helped her back under the covers, but when I made to sit back down in the chair I’d been occupying before she’d screamed and woken me up, she grabbed my hand, tugging me a little closer. Taking the silent order for what it was, I toed off my boots and curled up on my side next to her on the tiny hospital bed, draping my hand over her thigh to avoid her surgery wound.

“Go to sleep, kitten,” I whispered. “I’m here, and I’m not leaving you again.”

Rachel was released a few days later, but instead of taking her to the clubhouse, I took her to my place. It was a place I rarely used—only had it for when I desperately needed time to myself. But I’d asked Brittany to clean it up before Rachel was released so dust wouldn’t be covering every surface. God only knew the last time I’d dusted anything in that house. Or cleaned. Hell, I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d been out here.

“This is your place?” Rachel asked, watching as we finally turned off the highway and up the driveway to a double-wide mobile home on five acres of land. Farmland surrounded me on all other sides, which meant while there wasn’t much privacy, there also wasn’t anywhere for anyone to easily hide and try to take her from me again.

“Yeah,” I told her. “Bought it a couple of years ago.” I shifted my truck into park and slid out before striding around the hood of the truck to open her door and help her out. She was slow as she made her way up to the porch, and despite me wanting to carry her up the steps, she put her foot down and demanded she be allowed to walk up them.

I knew walking would be vital in her recovery—she’d had a splenectomy and a hysterectomy—but I didn’t like seeing her in so much pain and discomfort.

She made it as far as the living room before wanting to sit down and rest. I left her be and headed into the kitchen to begin scrounging around for something to make for dinner. When I poked my head back into the living room to see if she wanted burgers or steak, she was asleep. A throw blanket I hadn’t remembered owning but figured Brittany had left behind while she was here cleaning was wrapped around her.

I sighed and stared at her for a good minute, my heart resting in my throat.

Rachel had no idea how fucking infinitely precious she was to me. And I intended to protect her like she was a fucking queen. Like she was the rarest gem in the entire fucking world.

I might only be one man, but I was a deadly one. And anyone coming for her would soon find out just how deadly I was.

I would not be making the same mistakes again.

11

Callan

The next couple of weeks passed in silence. In blissful peace, something my woman desperately needed after all the hell she’d recently been through. Rachel continued to heal, more and more of her memories slowly coming back to her. Most seemed to be back, and whatever she still drew blanks on, I did my best to fill in for her since it seemed to be everything that had happened pretty recently.

I hated that she was missing some of the memories we shared, and I could tell she felt the same way. It frustrated her—upset her.

She’d already lost so much, and now, our memories had been ripped from her, too.

Rachel stepped into the kitchen just as I was finishing up her cup of coffee. My gut still clenched when I saw the cast around her wrist. “You’re spoiling me,” she mumbled as she took the mug from me, her voice husky with sleep. She’d been doing a lot of that lately. Sleep had been vital in her recovery so far, but I was also pretty sure she was finding it easier to sleep than to remain awake and face her new reality.

A reality in which we’d lost a baby. A reality in which she lost some of our more precious memories. A reality in which we’d never be able to have children of our own.

I cupped the back of her head and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I almost lost you, kitten. I have plans to spoil you so fucking much, you never want to leave me.”

A smirk tilted her lips as she looked up at me from beneath her lashes. It was a sassy look, a teasing, taunting one, though I knew she was in no condition to be doing anything sexual.

“Spoil me by taking out the assholes who did this to me.” She tried to play off the whole thing with dark humor, but I knew it bothered her as much as it did me. We lost Henry—our prospect—and Genesis was suffering a broken leg, recovering from a severe concussion, and learning how to navigate life without three of her fingers. They’d been too smashed to heal properly.

But on top of all that, we’d lost our chance to ever have a family of our own. We’d lost a baby we’d never even gotten the chance to know about. And Rachel had lost valuable memories.

I would gladly wipe the entire Souls of Grim MC off the face of the fucking earth for what they’d done to Rachel. To all of us.

“That’s the plan, kitten,” I assured her just as my phone began to ring. I sighed and pulled it out of my pocket, frowning at Carter’s name on my screen. He’d left us alone for the most part the past couple of weeks, knowing Rachel and I both needed space from the club. And while he’d checked in with me from time to time to see how his little sister was doing and to see how we were holding up, he’d never called this early in the morning.

Something was going on. Fuck. Which meant the club was calling—the last fucking thing I wanted to be dealing with.

Sighing, I swiped my thumb across the screen to answer his call. “Yeah,” I grunted, leaning back against the kitchen counter behind me. Rachel slipped onto a bar stool, her eyes locked on my face as she waited to find out what her brother wanted. She tentatively sipped at her hot coffee, her thin fingers wrapped around the mug.

“Need you and Rachel here at the clubhouse,” he told me. “I’ve got a run planned, and my sister doesn’t need to be alone while we’re gone.”