53. Cody

FIFTY-THREE

I blinked my eyes open to the murky darkness of the room, though the sun might as well have been blazing in through the window with the power of Hailey's presence that burned in the small space.

Through the haziness, I searched, and I found her curled up in a big pink pleather chair that sat next to the hospital bed where I had to be hooked up to at least ten different machines, the quiet beeping and the soft heave of her breaths the only sound in the room.

It was sometime in the night, I realized, and flashes of what had gone down came battering back into me.

Maddie getting kidnapped.

The shots that had punctured my flesh.

The shootout on the drive to Wagner Ranch.

And Lolly.

Lolly.

Grief wrapped me in ten-thousand-pound chains.

Bows of sorrow and relief knitting me in a vise as I gazed at the woman who was right there, still at my side, safe and whole and undoubtedly cut through by the torment of what she'd lost. Of what she now knew.

As if she felt the weight of my stare, those blue, blue eyes opened to me. They were bold and bright in the night.

A gasp wheezed from her when she saw I was awake, and she bolted off the chair. In a flash, she was standing over me, my hands wrapped in hers.

"Cody." My name broke on her lips.

"Shortcake." My voice was rough and filled with regret. With shame and apology.

Her words fell frantic. "I was so scared. I thought…I thought…"

I lifted my arm, awkwardly since I had tubes stuck in my wrist, and I cupped her precious face. I gazed up through the torment at that beauty that never failed to knock me from my feet. "I told you I wasn't going anywhere."

The frenzied edge bled into softness, and she reached out and ran those tender fingers through my hair. "I knew you would find us."

"I'm sorry that I didn't do it sooner. That I didn't do it better. That I didn't get to?—"

"I'm the one who's sorry, Cody. Sorry that I dragged you into all of this."

"I was in it long before you know, Hailey. I—" There was no more hiding or denying it. I'd no longer carry that disgusting secret.

She pressed trembling fingers to my lips. "I know, Cody. I know everything. I know what you got involved in that summer. And I also know what you tried to stop. Why you left so suddenly."

She splayed that shaking hand right over the clock imprinted on my chest. I pressed it closer to me, the pressure allowing me to feel the beat of my heart against her hand.

"I got this tattoo marking the moment your father told me I could never set foot in Langmire or see you again. Broke my fucking heart walking away from you that night. Never knew I could feel that way about anyone, even though I never even had you," I confessed.

"It broke mine, too," she whispered.

Ghosts played through her expression, and I could tell that she was struggling, words on her tongue that she didn't know how to release.

"What is it?" I pressed.

"My father…he killed Brooke when she overheard him giving the order for Brent to kill you."

Hailey's grief banged against the walls. Heavy and harsh. A tear got loose of her eye, and I gathered the moisture with my thumb.

That fucking monster.

I still couldn't believe it.

Couldn't believe that one man could be so dirty.

That he could be so vile.

"I'm so goddamn sorry, Hailey. I'm so sorry for every single thing you've been put through. I wanted to protect you from it all."

"You did." She sniffled. "He's the one to blame. He's the one who orchestrated everything. Set it all into motion. I hate him, Cody. Hate him for stealing the most important people from me. Brooke. Lolly."

She choked over that, a sob ripping through the desolation.

Agony thrummed. Sorrow suffocating.

She held tighter to my hands.

"And he tried to steal you, too. But he can't have you, Cody. Not when you're mine."

She inhaled a quivering breath, and another tear fell. "You saved us."

"I think Lolly did a lot of that saving, too." The words were gravel. Awe and grief.

Wistfulness danced through her features, her face soaking wet as she nodded. "Yeah. The two people who ever truly loved me came for us. Stood for us. Fought for us."

"She was so damned brave…just like you." I murmured it.

"Says the man who suffered three gunshot wounds for us." The softest tease played in her soggy words.

My thumb brushed her cheek. "I would have taken them all."

Her throat bobbed heavily when she swallowed. "I know you would have."

"And I'll be standing for you for all my days, Hailey. For as long as these feet will carry me. Well, just as soon as I get free of this mess."

I wiggled the hand that had the tubes and wires stuck to it, giving her the slightest smirk, trying to find some light in the darkness that hovered in the room.

A promise that she was going to be okay.

Hailey let go of a watery giggle. "I think you would even then."

"Yeah, you'd like that, wouldn't you? Me hauling off down the hall, ripping these tubes from my arms, wearing this hospital gown with my bare butt on full display out the back."

"It is a nice butt," she said, sniffling through a laugh.

I stared at her through the dense, laden silence.

A thousand emotions banged between us.

Hurt.

Grief.

In the middle of it was hope and relief, and even as hard as it was going to be, I knew we were going to be okay.

That this was a new start.

A new beginning as we rebuilt after the devastation.

I wiped a few more of the tears that fell from her face. "Come here, darlin'. I need to feel you next to me."

She hesitated. "You're hurt."

"And you are the only balm I need."

Hailey wavered for only a second before she carefully crawled up onto the small bed and tucked herself into my arms. My soul was soothed the second she rested her cheek on my chest.

Inhaling, she sank into my hold. For a few moments, we lay there in both pain and content. Our worlds shaken, new wounds that slayed, while I was sure a million others were being healed.

"How is Maddie?" I finally asked, the question low.

"She was scared but uninjured."

I swallowed around the lump in my throat. Around the regret lodged there. The horror of finding that deviant in her room and being unable to stop him. "Where is she?"

I felt Hailey's smile seep through the hospital gown to my skin.

"Your entire family was here all day. Ryder and Dakota. Ezra and Savannah. Caleb and Paisley. Kayla. Your mother." Reverence filled the last.

My chest clutched, and Hailey snuggled closer like she felt the weight of my shame. No question, by now, my mother knew what I'd done. The lies I'd told her about where I'd gotten that money.

"Your mom held your hand the entire day while Maddie and I were in the emergency room being observed. She spent the day praising you for being brave. For fighting for us. For fighting for them. She loves you, Cody. And when Maddie was released, she took her home with her to rest so I could stay with you."

"Only thing I want is to be right for all of you."

Hailey scratched her nails through my short beard. Tenderly. Soft scrapes of love. "You're more than right, Cody. You're everything we needed. Our missing piece."

"Good to hear, darlin', because you aren't getting rid of me."

A bit of that lightness weaved through the atmosphere, and I could feel those plush lips twitch. "Cocky Cowboy."

Grinning, I fiddled with a long lock of her hair. "Well, I guess since I'm your cowboy and you're going to be getting a whole lot of my cock, then it fits."

Hailey rolled those sweet, beautiful eyes. Eyes that swept and flowed and rippled with crystalline beauty.

My sanctuary.

My home.

Snuggling in deeper, she murmured, "I'm going to hold you to that, you know."

A rough chuckle skated out. "All too happy to oblige, Shortcake."

"I didn't think you'd mind."

"Nah, don't mind a bit."

She drifted after that, exhaustion weighing her down, finally free of the shackles that had held her chained. No question, it could fuck a person up when the two men who should have loved and protected her with everything they had instead had kept her prisoner to their wicked games.

But it was over.

It was over.

And having her tucked up against me that way? With her heart beating in sync with mine? Her breaths even and her body whole?

I swore that the hands on the clock tattooed on my chest started to tick again. Because I was no longer living on borrowed time.

No.

I was living for them.

I laid there wide awake, breathing her in while she slept in my arms.

Inhaling her aura.

Strawberries and cream.

And I held her until morning.

Just like I was going to do for the rest of my life.