“You need to wake up, Kitten, you need to find your strength and you need to pull through because there is a little boy sitting in the NICU who needs his mommy. He’s beautiful, Lauren, so beautiful. You did such a good job, baby.”
I swiped my free hand across my face, fighting back the emotions threatening to surface. I was starting to cry more than a goddamn bitch in a soap opera but I owned that shit too, proud to cry, proud to know I was capable of some sort of feeling. Proud because every tear that threatened and every single one I exposed all meant that I was owning my feelings of how much Kitten and Pea meant to me.
Bones would be proud.
“I love him,” I whispered. “It’s the craziest thing I ever felt and nothing compares. I mean it Lauren, one look at that little boy, knowing he is ours, did something to me. He filled all the parts of me that were empty. He’s everything I never knew I wanted, everything I never knew I needed. He’s just…he’s everything,” I wiped my cheek, and switched the hand that held hers. “Thank you, Kitten. Thank you for giving me my heart.”
I gave her hand a soft squeeze before reaching up with my free hand and smoothing back her dark hair that fell over her forehead.
“Guess what else I realized?” I paused, unable to tear my eyes away from her. “God, you’re pretty. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of looking at your face. Even when we’re old and you have lines on your face and you’re jealous because I don’t,” I teased, desperate for us to be Kitten and Tiger again.
“All kidding aside, I realized I have loved you for a long time. I love you so much more than I ever knew I was capable of loving someone. But it’s you Lauren, it’s all you, all my love is yours. I’m not a second chances kind of guy, they don’t come around that often for me but that won’t stop me from asking you for this second chance. Wake up, Kitten, give me another shot and I promise you I’ll never need another one. I’ll be the guy you deserve, I’ll be the family guy first and the motorcycle man second,” I declared, brushing my lips back and forth against her hand.
“Wake up so I can make all your dreams come true,” I murmured against her skin.
A knock sounded on the glass door causing me to look over my shoulder toward Jack who held up a bag. I looked back at Lauren, kissed her hand before gently placing it back on the bed.
“I’ll be right back,” I promised, as I stood up and slid the door open and stepped out of her room. “That my stuff?” I said, tipping my head toward the duffel bag he was holding.
“Yeah, Pipe put everything in there,” he explained, glancing over my shoulder at Lauren.
“How is she?”
“Hanging in there,” I said, taking the bag from him.
“I saw the baby, the nurse says he’s doing good,” Jack continued, before he pinned me with a sharp gaze. “I know your head is focused on your family, as it should be but I want you to know I’m taking care of this, going to make them all pay, every last motherfucker that has a dragon tattooed to their back.”
“We should’ve taken them out before they had a chance to ever touch my family,” I said, knowing my voice sounded bitter but I wouldn’t apologize for it either. “You and the club can go buck-fucking-wild on the Dragons, but Wu—he’s mine, not the clubs. This shit is personal,” I said, glancing over my shoulder at Kitten, driving my point home before turning back to Jack. “You understand personal don’t you?”
“I do,” he agreed.
I took the duffel bag from him.
“Then I have your word that you don’t strike until I can leave here and do what I gotta do,” I clarified.
“If that’s what you want, man, but I’m telling you I’ve got this,” he protested.
“No, Jack, you don’t,” I cut him off, turning around and leaving no room for him to argue with me as I walked back into Kitten’s room.
I dropped the bag onto the chair, unzipping it and digging around until I pulled out the black plastic bag I had asked Pipe to get. I took what I wanted, walking to the foot of the bed and lifted the sheet, exposing Lauren’s toes that were painted bright pink. I wrapped one hand around each foot and shook my head.
“Your feet are always so cold,” I said, taking the socks I had removed from the bag, the ones that had kittens all over them, and pulled them onto her feet.
“There,” I said, bringing the sheet down over her feet before walking back around to her side. “Those should help keep you warm,” I whispered, sitting down in the chair before I laid my head on her bed and clutched her hand with both of mine.
“Please wake up, Lauren,” I murmured as I closed my eyes and brought her hand to my lips. “I need you.”