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He refuses to meet my eyes.

“You love me?”

He sucks in a breath and finally looks up. “So goddamn much, baby. I’m so crazy fucking in love with you.”

Warmth blooms in my chest and my belly does a little flip as a smile slowly creeps across my face and a few more tears drip down my cheeks.

“I love you, Dalton.”

“You do?” he asks, hope sparking in his eyes.

I nod. “Yes, I do. I think I have for a while.”

He sucks in a breath and we both freeze, our gazes holding for a breath before we both lean in and press our lips together. I close my eyes and melt into his kiss. We’re both too bruised and broken right now to give this moment the kiss it deserves but when Dalton pulls back, he presses his forehead to mine.

“I’m so sorry for everything that has happened to you, baby.”

I shake my head. “Don’t you dare apologize.”

“If I hadn’t—”

“I don’t want to hear it,” I tell him, cutting him off. “All you did was help a woman and her child escape a monster. What this guy decided to do after that isn’t on you. And as far as us, we couldn’t have stopped this even if we tried, baby. From the moment I met you, everything just felt so easy, so right.”

A scoff tears itself from his lips. “He did this to you to hurt me, Lennon.”

“And that’s on him. You are the man who helped Raya and Joey escape. You are the man who did everything he could to get them set up in a new life. You are the man who stepped up to help me when I was a total stranger. That’s the man you are and it’s a man that I am so damn proud to call mine.”

“Lennon—” he starts but I put my hand over his mouth, shaking my head.

“You can’t control other people’s actions, baby. I know you would love to but you can’t and this guilt is going to eat you alive and stop you from living or ever finding happiness.” I offer him a smile. “And I’m pretty damn invested in your happiness so if you can’t let it go for you then let it go for me.”

He grabs my hand and pulls it away from his mouth, a broken look in his eyes that makes me want to cry. “I don’t know how.”

“First, stop blaming yourself for choices Derek made. If he put all this together the way you think he did, this wasn’t a spur of the moment act of revenge. He had a plan. A fucking elaborate one. He put all the pieces in place and used people to do all his dirty work. He waited in the wings for everything to fall just where he wanted it to. That’s not you causing this, Dalton. That’s a man who was willing to go to terrifying lengths to hurt you.”

He stares at me for a long moment, his eyes searching my face as his thumb gently brushes over the back of my hand.

“I hear what you’re saying,” he says, releasing a breath and dropping his gaze. “But I don’t know how, baby.”

“Then, we’ll figure it out.”

His gaze lifts to mine.

“Together,” I add, hoping he can see the promises I’m making him. I love him and I’m not going anywhere. We may not know what we’re doing but we’ll figure it out at each other’s side. Something in his expression breaks and he leans forward, pressing his forehead to mine. He sighs and his body sags into the mattress.

We’re both battered, bruised and exhausted.

But we’re here.

Together.

And that’s exactly how we’ll stay.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Lennon

“Please eat some more, baby,” Dalton says, picking up the half-eaten sandwich from the tray the nurse brought in a little while ago. I stare at it and wrinkle my nose.