Chapter 35

Killian Savage

As soon as I pull up in Tori's new car, a truck pulls in after me. The truck's engine vibrates my space inside the car, and I huff a little. I had noticed that the truck had been following me for a few blocks, but I knew whose car it was just by the color alone.

I hop out of the car I just bought my girl, and as soon as I turn toward the truck, I'm greeted by a brilliant smile from Tegan, who's in the passenger seat. Cole, on the other hand, has a neutral expression. By the dark circles under his eyes, he looks exhausted, but I remember those days. Those days of worrying about what he'll be like as a father, about the new financial hurdles he'll have to jump and parenting rivers he'll have to cross, are clearly here. He'll get through it just like I did.

Shutting the car's door, I lean my side against the car's window and wait for them to exit their vehicle. It doesn't take long for them to reach me, but instead of giving them a formal greeting, I stare at the wooden canister in Tegan's arms. "What is that?" I ask right away.

Tegan and Cole look down into her arms as if they forgot they even had it. "That woman's ashes," Tegan answers. Her smile fades a little at the seriousness of what she holds. "Pierce asked me to give it to Tori."

I give one curt nod.

Cole looks toward Tori's house to see if he can spot the woman inside. If all is still as I left it, Tori is napping on the couch. She has no idea that I left to meet Derek to pick up this car and drop off his loaner. If she had, she would have called by now.

After all that had happened, Derek lent a helping hand and picked the car up for me in the bigger city. He didn't owe me anything, and truth be told, I'm the one who owes him an explanation for the shit storm I brought to his town, but he said nothing on the matter.

Everyone knows about what happened at the Lillian's farm a week ago. People gathered to take care of the women, make sure they were fed and clothed, and had help finding their loved ones back on the coast. The children, the ones they birthed, went with them. They went through an evaluation to see if they'd be fit to be mothers after all they'd been through, but they passed.

Susan, the woman who was taken from Mount Pleasant, received the most warmth at her return. After a quick test at the hospital, it was confirmed that she is pregnant by that fuckwad, but she took the news surprisingly well. Pierce had taken her under his wing, making sure she's cared for. If you ask me, he directed his smitten behavior from Tori to her. I could see something forming there when we were all in the hospital, but I left well enough alone because there were worse match-ups .

Besides, Susan is going to need all the love and care the world has to offer. All those women are. My girl included.

"How is she doing?" Cole asks. They'd been keeping their visits short so as to not overwhelm Tori, but I can tell they're itching for things to return to normal. Tegan's been running the shop, and thanks to Kent getting arrested for his crimes and the community wanting to support Tori, the business has been doing better than it had been. Or so Tori has reported to me, thanks to Tegan's daily updates.

I look at the house with him. The world, my girl's world, is a whole lot better without those assholes in it. "She's sleeping better than the last time you asked. Today is the first day that I left her alone, and since I didn't get a call from her, I'm guessing she's either asleep or she's getting more used to being alone in the house."

I turn back to Cole and watch as his head bobs in a nod. Tegan's lips are twisted downward. I know that she doesn't like her friend's state of mind, but I also know that she knows it takes time to heal those sorts of wounds.

While we've been holed up in the house, I heard all about Tegan's incident last year. It's a miracle she's still sane after what she endured. It's also a miracle that Cole lets her out of his sight to go to work. I wonder if I'll ever get to that point, where I trust the people around us to do no harm to the woman I love.

Tegan huffs and passes me the urn. "Here," she whispers.

I scowl and take the urn into the crook of my arm. "Don't you want to come in?" I ask because the gravel is crunching underfoot as they're turning to leave.

Tegan shakes her head. "She needs you more than me right now. And with that?" She tips her head toward the urn. She gives another shake of her head. "I can't give her what she needs right now. "

The front door opens, and a sleepy-looking Tori pops her head out. Her face is set into a scowl until she takes us in. Then a small smile shows, and it's the most real smile I've seen since the moment I brought her home from the hospital.

She steps out and loosely crosses her arms over her chest. "Hey," she calls to us.

Tegan smiles back at her and adds an extra chipperness to her tone when she responds, "We were just leaving."

"So soon?" she asks.

"Cole's taking me baby supplies shopping," she answers back, and I don't know if it's a lie or if it's the truth, but they head back to the truck and climb inside anyway. With one last wave, they pull out of the driveway and disappear down the road.

When I look at her, Tori is already on her way over to me. She's looking at the car with interest. "Did something happen to Derek's car?"

"No," I say, patting the roof of her new car gently. "This is yours."

She flicks her gaze to me, eyebrows raised. "Mine?"

I nod and test a smile because I honestly don't know how she's going to react. Someone like Tori likes to be independent, and she's had to be for most of her life, but she has me now. She does not realize that nothing she could say or do would make me not take care of her. We may never get married because it's what we both don't want, but I have every intention of staying with her for the rest of my life. My drifting days are over; I'm building roots. I'm not going anywhere.

Her eyes narrow and I brace myself for some attitude. "It looks brand new."

"That's because it is."

"How'd you afford it? "

I scratch the back of my neck, feeling a little guilty. "My past life paid well."

She takes a moment to consider me before blowing out a breath. "That explains everything."

My eyebrows raise. "What's that supposed to mean?"

She shrugs a little. "How you could afford to live on the road and all that. But those days are over, right?"

I can see the insecurity in her expression, hear it in her voice, so I head around the car and tuck her into the arm that's not holding the urn and rumble, "We've talked about this."

"I know," she whispers. "But say it again."

I chuckle a little. "I love you, and I'm not leaving."

Her shoulders sag in relief, and if that's what it takes to make her feel safe again, I'll tell her every hour, every day, for the rest of my life.

We stand there for a minute or two, her arms wrapped around my middle and her cheek on my chest, before she even notices the urn. She raises her head from my chest and pokes the urn. "What's that?"

"The woman," I mutter carefully.

"Oh," she says, eyes wide. When she breathes out, she adds, "That feels like a lifetime ago."

Pierce and his men were never able to find where she belonged, let alone her name. Josiah's father didn't know either, not that he'd tell us anything at this point. He's more crazy than he is sane, and I get the feeling he never asked who a woman was, never questioned his son when he wanted someone taken. Her identity will always remain a mystery, and I don't know if that's more damaging or freeing for Tori.

Either way, I ask, "What do you want to do with her ashes?"

She raises her gaze away from the urn and to me. Gently, she peels away from me and takes the urn into her hands. "I want to scatter them in the field."

My raised eyebrows are my only visual of the question I don't voice.

She shrugs a little. "She deserves peace, and since that's our peaceful place, I figured that'd she like that."

"Are you sure?" I ask because I don't see us ever not visiting that field again even though it's near the place where she was held hostage. In fact, we were just there yesterday. We hadn't gotten out of the car, but we sat there for a while and talked. And when we ran out of things to talk about, we fucked in the seat. I was a little surprised by that, considering everything Tori has been through, but her sexual appetite never changed. In fact, her need to feel loved in that way has only increased. I plan to give it to her as much as she asks, never pushing it, never asking for anything in return.

In a small voice, she says, "She deserves to have people watch over her. What better people than us? And-And I thought we could bury the picture of your family there too. Put them to final rest."

I swallow thickly at the emotion in her tone, at the conviction to see after a woman she killed, and at the loving way she wants to put my family at peace. It may have been an accident, and my family may have been out of her control, but I know both our wounds will take a while to heal. If it takes spreading her ashes over the place we call ours, if it takes burying my family in the dirt of our spot, then I'll give that to us. "Okay," I rumble. "When?"

"How about now?"

I look up at the sky to check the weather and find nothing but white and puffy clouds and a sun that shines brilliantly over a state that's seen record rain. Fitting, I suppose, that now that the town's darkness is gone, so is the bad weather. "Sure," I answer.

I move to go back around the car and hop into the driver's side, but she stops me with a hand on my elbow. I pause in my step, and with a quick look over my shoulder, I take in her pinched expression. It's enough to make me turn toward her.

I know exactly what she needs. I can read that expression better than my own these days.

Taking the urn, I set it on the roof of the car and then gather her in my arms. I snake a hand up her back, tangle my fingers in her hair, and tip her head so that I can capture her mouth properly.

The kiss is slow and reassuring, exactly what she needs, and she responds in the same way, sighing contentedly into my mouth. Even though she's emotionally damaged right now, I do find my own sort of comfort in moments like these. I almost let her die to save her, almost took her from my life so she didn't live the unthinkable things for the rest of hers. Would I do it again? Yes. But that doesn't mean I don't still feel the moment of loss I felt in that basement. It doesn't mean it doesn't creep into my thoughts, a constant reminder that the Lillian almost took everything from me again.

So I linger in the kiss, letting her direct it in any way she needs. Her fingers snake under my jacket then under my shirt, and they clutch the muscles along my back. She holds on as she takes what she needs from me, and when she's finally had her fill, she pulls away from me.

Lips swollen, foreheads touching, she whispers, "Say it again."

I smile a little. "I love you, Tori. I'm not going anywhere."

And I mean every damn word.