60. Charleigh

SIXTY

CHARLEIGH

I blinked my eyes open to the golden haze that saturated the room. It was quiet, and the rods of sunlight that slanted in through the bedroom window appeared alive. Dancing as they played through the motes that dusted the air.

My thoughts were fuzzy and disjointed, but in an instant, I recognized one thing.

The soft pants that puffed from the child's mouth where he was fast asleep beside me. Both blue stuffed puppies were tucked to his chest, his little arm holding them close as he slept.

He was on his side, his precious face turned toward me. My fingers trembled as I reached out and brushed them down his chubby cheek.

Love swelled. Swelled to overflowing.

Nolan.

My son.

"He wouldn't leave your side." That low voice rumbled from across the room, and I jerked, then shifted enough to find River standing in the doorway. His giant body was leaned against the jamb, all that ferocity shearing through his features.

My heart that was already filled to overflowing leapt .

I attempted to sit up, then yelped as a smack of pain pierced through my middle.

River's hands shot out like he could reach all the way across the room and keep me pinned to the bed. "Don't try to get up."

I rolled until I was flat on my back and staring up at the ceiling. I gently placed my hand over the throbbing in my side.

It wasn't until then that I realized there was an IV attached to my left wrist.

I could feel the bandages covering the spot where Frederick had stabbed me. Images sprang to my mind, those last moments when I'd rammed the blade into his side, me grappling for Nolan, the knife that had impaled my side.

The moment when I would have been happy to surrender if it meant that Nolan had this .

I looked back at the child.

At the peace that smoothed his features into tranquility.

I was sure he had to be traumatized in some way, being taken from Miss Liberty's, and I had no idea what Frederick had put him through in the hours he'd held him hostage, but at least he was here.

In the safety of his home. The only one he'd really known.

The bed sank on the other side of me, and I slowly rolled toward River. He had his knee tucked up on the bed so he could fully face me, and his hand came to my cheek. Thunderclouds toiled in the depths of his eyes, though his thumb stroked softly along the apple of my cheek.

"How are you feeling?" The coarse words were accompanied by him searching my face, his gaze traveling down my body as if he were terrified a new injury might have sprouted in the time I'd been asleep.

I stared up at him. At his vicious beauty that etched him in severity. His sharp jaw and defined cheeks and the stars that played along his hairline.

I inhaled his volatility. The taste of violence and destruction on my tongue. This man so dangerously sweet.

My throat was tight, and my mouth was dry, but I somehow managed to whisper my truth. "Happy."

So happy I didn't know how to make sense of all that I felt. Everything I'd known had been ripped apart like the shredding of a contract that had been made null and void.

And in its place was this.

This.

River kept brushing his thumb gently across my skin, his expression carved of possession and relief. "I was so fuckin' scared. Didn't know he'd gotten to you until you fell to the ground."

"I heard you," I told him around the thickness. "I heard you calling for me. Asking me to run back to you. Well, demanding it because I don't think you've ever asked nicely for anything."

A shaky smile pulled at one side of my mouth.

River grunted an amused sound that still was pained. "Refused to let you leave me. Refused to let you leave us ."

Emotion burned in my chest, and I reached out and dragged my fingertips over the scruff that lined his jaw. "I still can't believe you saved him. That you took him in. That he's been with you all this time. That you've loved him like this."

He slipped off the side of the bed and onto his knees, and he took my hand in both of his. He brushed his lips over my knuckles, his voice scraping on the hushed admission. "Sovereign Sanctum wanted me to place him with another family. With one of the women we'd helped start anew. But from the second I held him…"

His head shook as he drifted in the memory. "I knew I couldn't let him go. Knew I was bonded to him in some way. Even though keeping him made things a thousand times more difficult for my crew. At the time, I chalked it up to believing I owed him for letting you down. For not being able to bring you to safety. For failing you and your family. So, I devoted my life to him. He became my purpose."

He kissed across my knuckles again. His chest expanded as he inhaled. "But now I have to wonder if maybe I wasn't purposed to hold him for you. To protect him until you could return to him."

My nails scratched up his cheek. "And maybe I was purposed to find both of you."

"I would do anything for him. For you."

"I know…just the same as I would fo r both of you."

Darkness crowded his expression. "We almost lost you."

"I would have gladly made that sacrifice, just the same as I know you would have made it for us."

"Charleigh, fuck, I'm?—"

I knew it was going to be an apology, as if this selfless, beautiful man was responsible for the actions of Frederick. So, I pressed my fingertips to his lips to stop him, and I murmured, "There's no room for guilt here because the only thing I have left is love. I've lost so many days, River. So many days. I don't want to lose any more."

On a heaving breath, he leaned forward and pressed his forehead to mine. His big palm splayed out over the entirety of the left side of my face.

Energy whispered and lashed.

That connection that had found us from the beginning.

And one I knew would be with us until the end.

"Don't worry, Little Runner. We've got from here to eternity."