I’d been in the middle of an argument with my aunt, cousin, and father when I’d seen my car careen past us out of the corner of my eye.
I’d turned just in time to see my car— with my sister and my woman inside—hit the dumpster.
My scream of agony had forced the limo driver to pull over, and the moment we’d slowed enough for me to bail out, I had.
I’d sprinted toward the car, my heart in my throat.
By the time I’d finally arrived, my car had been surrounded.
My sister had been standing beside the wrecked car, a small cut on her forehead from what I assumed was glass.
Knowing instinctively that she was okay, I’d turned my attention to my woman, only to see a bullet hole through the windshield where her face would be.
Kettle had been leaning into the car, his big body blocking my view; I hadn’t realized that she was okay at the time I’d called her name.
Agony and heartache had laced my words, and I knew everyone around me could tell how much she’d meant to me in that moment.
And then Kettle had moved and I’d seen her.
I’d seen the blood on her face.
I’d seen the agony etched over her face as pain tore through her.
What I hadn’t seen, thank God, was a bullet hole.
The next two hours had been a blur of activity as my fellow Dixie Wardens had rallied around me, making sure that my woman had all the care that she could and would need.
Now, here I sat, finally watching her sleep peacefully, wondering if I was doing the right thing.
“You’re doing the right thing.”
I looked up to find Ghost standing there.
“How do you know?” I asked, my voice thick with what I realized were tears.
I hadn’t cried in five years—since I’d found out that I’d killed not just one innocent, but many innocents—and I realized that this was way worse than that.
Sure, I’d fucked up by putting those men down years ago, and I would always live with that black mark on my soul.
But this, knowing that I’d put Verity in the crosshairs of a madman over something I’d done was enough to kill me.
“Because if you were wrong, if your decision was wrong, you wouldn’t be wondering if you were doing the right thing,” he explained. “If there was one thing I could wish for right now, it’d be to have my life back. To rewind to five years ago when my daughter was a baby, and my wife had no clue what kind of a man she’d married.”
Twelve hours ago, had he said this, my curiosity would’ve been piqued. Now, with Verity lying so still in the hospital bed, I realized that I didn’t care about anyone but her. And that likely made me an ass, but I literally couldn’t deal with anyone else’s shit. I could barely deal with my own.
“She could die,” I said bluntly. “What do I do if she does die?”
“She won’t,” he said. “There are eighteen Dixie Wardens in this hospital ward, and four about half a day from being patched in. They all, along with me, have your woman’s safety at heart. They won’t—I won’t—let anything happen to her. I swear to Christ.”
His sincerity made my heart relax minutely, and I closed my eyes and leaned my head down, letting my forehead fall down to come to a rest next to Verity’s hand. The same hand that was now broken.
Fucking Beckett.
“Don’t make the same mistake as me, man,” Ghost said to my lowered head. “Take it from me. I’ve regretted it every day for eighteen hundred and fifty-two days. And I’ve watched her find a man last week. My heart’s in fucking shreds right now, but I made my bed. Make sure you don’t make yours, too.”
With that he left, and the door closed softly behind him with a whispered click.
My eyes squeezed tightly closed before I got up, placed a single kiss on her face, and walked out of the room.
Ghost was right.
I wasn’t going to give her up. Not now, not ever.
And as I sat down in a chair in a hospital waiting room with The Dixie Wardens at my sides, I realized three things.
One, I had a great group of men at my back.
Two, Elais Beckett was a dead man.
Three, I should’ve never doubted the severity of Ronan’s anger.
***
Four hours later
“You’re sure this is it?” I asked. “How do you have this information so fast?”
I was standing about a hundred yards from a hotel room that Silas had found two towns over. There was a man that fit the last known description of Elais Beckett who was seen going into this hotel room with another male in his late sixties.
“Silas has so many fucking secrets that he could fill a goddamned water tower full of them. Just be happy he found the information, and whatever you do, don’t ask questions about how or what he had to do to get that information.”
That was Big Papa, reprimanding me like I was some misbehaving child.
I ignored him and turned my attention back to the hotel room.
“A man called me. He said he was a friend of yours,” Silas said. “Said his name was ‘Ro.’”
He’d told me that before, and I didn’t really know a ‘Ro.’ I did, however, know a Ronan.
“If that’s Ronan, my grandfather’s man, in there, we can’t go in there with guns blazing because he might retaliate before he realizes that it’s us,” I said. “I’ve tried calling him four times now. Either he has his phone off, or he’s ignoring my call.”
It was more likely that he was ignoring my call. He never had his phone off due to the fact that he had a daughter who he loved with all his heart, and if she called, he would drop everything—even Elais Beckett—and go to her.
Though, she hadn’t called him in over two years. They’d had a falling out about his behavior and his way of life, and she’d written him off.
That didn’t mean that he didn’t wait for her call.
“Tried the hotel room phone yet?” Aaron asked.
“What the hell are y’all even doing here?” I asked. “Y’all could lose your jobs.”
Aaron and Big Papa looked at me like I was crazy.
“Right now, we’re Dixie Wardens, not police officers,” Big Papa finally explained. “And you’re not getting rid of us. Stop your bitching and moaning and get in there. I have to be at work in four hours.”
Alrighty, then.
That was exactly what I did.
I walked up to the door, knocked and was unsurprised when Ronan answered the door.
“About time you got here,” he grumbled. “I had to practically draw you a fuckin’ map.”
I turned to find Silas, Kettle, Sean, Aaron, Big Papa, Ghost, and Sebastian at my back, staring at the man that’d help raise me with about as much worry as I had on my face.
“Well, I’m here now,” I said. “What do you have for me?”
Ronan stepped back, opened the door wide, and we all froze, our eyes uncomprehending at what, exactly, we were seeing.
Then Big Papa groaned.
“There’s a time and place for things like that, and that’s on Halloween, or a fucking big screen,” someone else added.
Sean, I thought.
“You’re a paramedic, right?”