62. Weston

I stand there, dumbstruck, as Deacon leaps into his car and peels away. My first thought is to hunt his ass down and gut him like a fish. But Hunter moans and a second later, I hear him collapse to the ground behind me.

”Hunt!”

I lunge to him, dropping to my knees and clamping my hands down to put pressure on his wound.

”Shit, shit, shit.” I’m trying to remember what the fuck to do in situations like this, but they don’t train you on how to keep your head straight when it’s your best friend bleeding out in your arms.

We’ve been through too damn much, him and I. I’ll be damned if I’m letting that fucking asshole Carrington rip Hunter away from me.

If anyone’s gonna kill Hunter in this life, it’s me.

”It’s… it’s…” Hunter keeps trying to talk, even as my hands stain with the heat of his blood. ”It’s just a flesh wound.”

I growl, ”I”m gonna kick your ass when you”re healed just for how stupid that sounds.”

He half-grins, teeth bloody. ”I thought it was f… funny.”

Renee kneels beside me, her hand pressed on Hunter”s forehead. ”You got this, Hunter,” she murmurs desperately. ”Stay with us. We”re here for you.”

It doesn”t take long for the ambulance and cops to show up. All this shit happened so fast, but I guess when you tell someone a crazed maniac kidnapped a pregnant woman and held her hostage on an abandoned bridge, people tend to perk up and pay some kind of attention.

Go fucking figure.

Hunter gets loaded into one ambulance, paramedics buzzing around him like flies. Renee goes in another. I”m torn—but the choice is made for me.

”Go with her,” Hunter croaks, voice strained and creaky. ”I ain”t dyin”.”

I roll my eyes, but I don”t argue with him. I can’t do anything else for him now—only the doctors can. Renee, though… I need to know that she”s alright and no amount of faith in the medical system is going to make me trust that she is unless I see it with my own eyes.

”Really, I”m okay,” she insists as I slip into the back of her ambulance.

”Surface level, you are,” a medic agrees. “But we”re going to need to get you to the hospital to make sure you and your baby don”t have anything internally going on.”

She immediately starts gnawing anxiously at her lip, and I slip my hand into hers. ”Hey,” I tell her. ”I”m here. We”ll get through this together.”

”But Hunter—Hunter”s the one who really got hurt.” It”s the first time I notice the tears in her eyes. ”If he—What if he”s really hurt and it”s all because of my?—”

”P.” I give her a soft but stern voice. ”Stop. Don”t think like that. Hunter… I owe him my life and a hell of a thanks for looking after my wife and kid. I know he”s gonna pull through.”

Renee nods and sighs. ”Damn right he will,” she mutters. ”Or I’ll go find him in the afterlife and kick his ass myself.”

When we get to the hospital, Hunter is sent straight to surgery and Renee is put in a private room. I talk to the admin and arrange for Hunter”s recovery room to be right by hers.

It doesn”t take long to confirm that she and our baby are fine. Some bruising, but nothing internal. She”ll be kept for monitoring—a precaution, but one I insist on—but in a couple days, we”ll be cleared to hightail it out of this place. Hopefully, forever.

Things are wrapping up nicely—for the most part.

”You should sit down, Weston,” Renee calls from her hospital bed.

I”m standing by the window, looking out. It”s almost midnight now, with the city lights lighting up the underside of some thick storm clouds.

I shake my head. ”He”s still out there.”

I don”t have to elaborate on who.

”He won”t be for long,” she says. ”The cops”ll find him.”

I scoff. ”Your father probably will first.”

Then it”s her turn to scoff. ”I doubt it.”

“He”s the reason we found you to begin with.”

”He—wait, what? He is?”

I turn to her, and the confusion is evident on her face. ”Yeah. I rang him up and told him the situation. Apparently, Deacon drives a DuBois Corp car? We”re not gonna talk about how that makes your old man sound like he”s Lex Luthor, but the point is, he was able to track Deacon down with GPS. If Deacon hasn”t ditched the wheels—and frankly, I don”t think he”s bright enough to—your father probably has eyes on him and enough cash to throw around to make the cops actually do their job.”

”I just… I can”t believe he helped.” She stares intently at me. ”I can”t believe you asked.”

I shrug. ”I was desperate enough to go to the Devil for help if that’s what it took. I… I get why you did that now. There was just too much at stake. Too much to lose.”

Renee swallows. ”Hey… can you come here for a sec, Weston?”

The vulnerability in her voice breaks me out of my brooding over Deacon”s continued freedom. I go to her, slipping into the bed at her side, and pull her to my chest, where she rests her head. I pet my fingers through her hair and just hold her.

It sinks in.

I could have lost her tonight.

I could have lost both of them.

You don”t know until it nearly happens just how much it would hurt to lose someone you love the way I love her. When it”s put in front of your face, when the universe threatens to tear your woman and your baby out of your arms, a lot of shit starts falling into perspective.

I tip Renee”s head up and capture her lips in a deep kiss. Her taste, her scent—all of it alive and well right here in my arms… It drives a fire in my gut. I tangle my fingers in her hair, clutching her, pulling her close.

I will never let something like this happen again.

”I love you, Princess P,” I breathe out against her mouth.

”I love you, too,” she whispers back. ”Forever. For always.”