“I love you, Skull.”
“I love you too, mi cielo. I’ll show you tonight. I find I’m missing my woman,” I tell her and I’m not joking. I’ve not been between those thighs in at least two nights. She was so upset since Annabelle’s death, and I couldn’t bring myself to do anything other than hold her and let her know I love her.
“Finally.”
“Hey, if you didn’t like it, you could’ve jumped my bones,” I tell her, deadly serious.
“I’ll make note of that.”
“See that you do. You call me if you need me, and keep Briar and K-Rex with you all the time. I don’t know Cade’s men, but I trust Briar and K-Rex to make sure you’re fine.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I think I like when you talk like that, Beth.”
“Don’t get used to it,” she laughs.
“Talk to you this evening, mi cielo.”
“This evening,” she agrees. “Love you, sweetheart.”
“You too,” I tell her with a smile, hanging up the phone.
I have a surprise for her this evening and I’m hoping she doesn’t turn me down. When I pick her up, I’m going to run by an ex-member’s house. The dude is crazy as fuck, but he has a license, and I’m marrying Beth.
I want her as my wife as well as my old lady. Part of it is because if Colin manages to get his hands on her, I don’t want him to be able to claim her. I know the fucker will try. This way, he’ll have to get rid of a husband before he can. Our surveillance has shown that he’s been meeting with a wedding planner about his wedding with Beth. Fuck that shit.
I haven’t told Beth; she’s got enough on her plate. Besides, it’s not all about that. I know she said she couldn’t have kids, but I was serious with her. I’m not going to rest until it happens. I have a vision of her nursing my child and I want that so fucking much. I won’t stop until it happens, and when it does, we will be married. No child of mine will be born out of wedlock. I might make up my own rules, but my madre would come back from the dead and scalp me if I didn’t follow the rules she held dear.
Tonight, Beth will be mine in all ways that matter. Colin can suck it.
I’m alone in Beast’s room. I can’t remember that ever happening. K-Rex is right outside the door and Briar just left to go talk with Cade’s men. Still, for the first time I can remember in forever, I’m actually alone. I’m above ground… and alone. I would almost celebrate, but instead I feel vulnerable and scared, and I hate that.
I’m using the laptop Skull bought me to finish my studies. I’ll be taking my GED in a few days. There’s no way I could finish high school the old-fashioned way, but Skull knew how important it was to me, so he’s helping me work around that and achieve it in a different way. I wish I’d met him under different circumstances.
The phone rings again. It’s only been an hour since Skull checked on me. Surely he knows I’ll call him the minute I know anything about Beast.
“Skull, sweetheart, I told you I’d call you the minute I knew anything about Beast,” I say, answering the phone.
“Elizabeth.”
My heart freezes. Only one person ever calls me Elizabeth. And, if it had been ten minutes, ten hours, or ten hundred years, I would know that voice… I used to adore that voice.
“Dad.”
“I’ve missed you, sunshine.”
I say nothing. There’s nothing to say. How can he miss someone he gave away?
There’s silence for a few minutes, then I hear his heavy sigh. “I need to see you, sunshine.”
“I can’t right now. There are things going on. It’s just not possible,” I tell him. It’s truthful, but what I leave out is that even if nothing was going on, I never want to see him. I don’t even want to look at him. How could he think I would? He took my sister away from me. He chose her over me. There’s a list of offenses he’s committed and I’m not about to forgive any of them.
“Elizabeth—” he starts.
I don’t let him finish. “I’m sorry. I have to go. I don’t know how you tracked me, but please pretend you never did,” I say, and I’m pulling the phone away from my ear when I hear him say the one thing that would make me stop.
“Skull’s life depends on this, Elizabeth. You need to talk to me.”
I get this sick feeling in my stomach. How can Skull’s life depend on it? Why would this war involve my father in any way? I try and breathe through my panic and pull the phone back to my ear.
“I’m listening.”
“Not over the phone. It’s not safe. You will need to come to me.”
“There’s no way to arrange that. Skull, unlike some men, makes sure the people he loves are safe. He has men with me all the time, especially when he can’t be here himself.”
My father sighs, and I know my verbal strike hit its target. Too bad I can’t feel any joy from it.