38. Bring A Deck Of Cards

Chapter 38

Bring A Deck Of Cards

Megan

H earing the lightness in Hunter’s voice shouldn’t make me this happy, but it does. It feels as if we’ve been surrounded by negative drama since the moment we met, and it’s honestly a relief to take a moment and sit in peace.

When the door closes behind him, I let out a huge breath and closed my eyes. My hand gently comes to rest on my stomach, and I whisper to the small child growing inside of me, “I have no idea what I’m doing, little one, but things are going to be so different for you. You’re going to be so loved, and you won’t suffer a day in your life. I promise.”

My eyes suddenly fill with tears that I can’t control. I remember the look on Hunter’s face when he realized I'd been shot. His face showed a myriad of emotions: shock, anger, fear, and grief.

I understood in that moment as my eyelids started to feel uncontrollably heavy that regardless of the words he’s said or hasn’t said to me, that he has strong feelings for me. At that moment, I understood that he cared whether I lived or died. I was important to him.

Even though we’ve shared some very intimate moments, I never truly expected Hunter to ever reveal how he truly feels about me. In my experience, that’s not what men do. But I’m learning slowly but surely that I have to start thinking outside of my limited experience.

Not all families are toxic. Look at how much Hunter has gone through to find his sister. Not all men are liars and useless. Everything this man has done for me so far has been an expression of his love, even if he didn’t know it was. Even if I didn’t realize it either.

And now we’re having a child together.

A whole ass human being.

And I can’t believe he’s beyond thrilled about it. I think I'm starting to get there too.

My lips curve in happiness.

The door opens, and when Hunter walks back inside the room, he looks carefully at me. “What is it?”

“I will forgive you for tricking me into moving in with you,” I tell him. “I shouldn’t be angry around the baby.”

Hunter’s lips twitch. “I don’t think you should be making promises you can’t keep.”

“And I don’t think you should be trying to get a reaction out of me all the time.” I narrow my eyes at him. “It’s juvenile.”

“I can’t help it.” Hunter sits down in the chair next to my bed, filling out a form attached to a clipboard. “You look beautiful when you’re mad at me, when you’re frightened for me, and especially when you come for me.”

My cheeks quickly grow hot, and I close my eyes, trying to stop thinking about the last time I was brought to climax by him.

A sudden pain from the bullet wound in my belly quickly returns my thoughts back to the last twenty-four hours of hell I’ve just been through.

“How did you find us?” I ask him, closing my eyes so he hopefully won’t see the pain I’m in. It will only make him feel guiltier than he already does.

“I saw the earrings you dropped,” Hunter replies after a long pause.

When I open my eyes, he’s watching me closely. “I heard Lena’s version of events, but I want to know what happened from you as well.”

“After a conversation with a guest about one of my pieces, I was feeling hungry, so Lena and I headed to the buffet. Somebody pointed a gun at my back and told me to walk. I tried to give Lena a reason to go and look for you but she saw the gun, then she looked the guy right in his face, so he decided he wanted her as well.”

“Was it Jonathan?”

“I don’t think so, no. I really don’t understand how nobody noticed us, but as we walked away from the buffet, I took the steak knife I was holding and just stuck it inside my dress, between my cleavage.”

“That was dangerous, Megan.”

He gently strokes my arm with the back of his knuckles.

“I’m not a stranger to knives,” I say, reminding him of what happened with Samuel and my boyfriend.

“That was a different circumstance. Continue the story.”

“I was scanning the room for you or anyone who may have been on the security detail but I didn’t see anyone, so as we continued to walk, I took the opportunity to slip off both my earrings. I knew you’d figure out that something was wrong. I just wanted to leave you clues. And the rest, well, you know what happened.”

“Lena said you were an absolute rock for her. That you helped her keep her shit together.”

“I’ve been in worse situations in my own house. I was just trying to give her coping strategies that I used myself. Keep calm. Don’t show any emotion. And if necessary, figure out a way to buy time.”

That’s how I survived all those years.

“And finally, I figured it out,” Hunter murmurs.

“Better late than never, right?“

“Do you remember exactly what Jonathan said down in that basement to you or anyone else? Did he say anything odd, something that stuck out to you?”

“Odd?” I echo, trying to wrack my brain. “Well, he mentioned that someone was late. He kept checking his watch and calling somebody. And then he looked at one of the men and told him that they still had to follow instructions.”

“What was odd about that to you?”

“I don’t know, I thought he was the mastermind behind everything that’s happened to you lately, but it seemed like he was answering to someone else. But to be honest, you can’t take anything that I’m saying as the gospel because I was so close to peeing on myself I couldn’t think straight.”

“I can’t believe he shot a pregnant woman.”

“He didn’t know I was pregnant.”

“That’s not the point, Megan.”

“I know we agreed to baby steps, but what exactly happened to him?”

“I told you.”

“I need more details.”

“My team tried to question him,” Hunter says grimly. “But he had another gun and shot himself right in the head.”

“So, after all the effort he went through to make your life a living hell, he decides to kill himself?” I feel disappointed. “That’s hell of anticlimactic.”

“You don’t have to worry about any of this anymore.” Hunter smiles. “All I want you to think about is our baby.”

I smile at him tiredly and then sigh, looking up at the ceiling, “I want to be a good mother, Hunter.”

“You will be.” The confidence in his voice makes me look at him.

“When I was young, if things got too out of hand at home and I had to get stitches, Veronica would bring me to the hospital where she worked and give me the stitches herself. They were so painful, and I had to get them so frequently that I became terrified of hospitals. She didn’t use anything to numb the skin, and if I cried or called any attention to myself, she would poke me with the needle. That’s my example of a mother.”

Hunter’s hand covers mine as he looks at me with gentle eyes. “They’re gone. All of them. Your family, those people who abused you, will never have the opportunity to hurt you again.”

I purse my lips, nodding, “Yeah.”

“I watch you work and interact with people at the Blue Whiskey every day, Megan, and they all adore you. You will be a good mother because you are a good person.”

“That might have been one of the sweetest things you've ever said to me, Hunter,” I say, my eyes tearing up.

Hunter uses a single finger to push aside a few locks of my hair and then peppers soft kisses on the side of my face, swallowing my tears.

“I can be sweet,” he jests.

“Hey, you never told me what you discussed earlier with the doctor.”

“Oh, I just asked him the basics.”

“Like what?”

“How much longer you have in here, and when it’s safe to make love again.”

“Seriously?”

“What?” He feigns ignorance.

“You asked my doctor about sex?”

“The moment I realized at the art show that I’d somehow lost you, and worse, that you’d been taken, I probably lost about three years of my life.”

“And so–”

“And so every moment together is precious.”

“We’re spending a moment together right now.”

“Let me rephrase that then. Every moment I spend inside of you is especially precious. I want to make sure we capitalize on those.”

He grazes his fingertips along one of my thighs, and my core instantly clenches like muscle memory.

“You’re unbelievable,” I say, crossing my legs at the ankles.

“Honesty is the cornerstone of our relationship,” he grins, noticing the change in my posture.

Then he bends down and gives me a brief kiss on my lips.

“I have to go home and check on Lena. I’ve dumped her way too much on Christian. I’ll be back in an hour or two. In the meantime, Lars will stay with you.”

“The threat is gone. Why are you forcing that poor man to babysit me?”

“You don’t get it, do you? I practically had to force Lars from camping out here 24-7. That old man has a soft spot for you, and you’d be hurting his feelings if you don’t allow him to sit by your bedside for a while.”

I realize there’s still a lot of ground to cover in this relationship. Living together. His friends. The club. And our new baby. But for once, I’m not afraid to explore it all with this man by my side.

“Tell him to bring a deck of cards.”

“Cards?”

“I heard him tell Parker that he was a card shark. I want to learn how to play poker.”

Hunter chuckles as he gives me a final peck on my forehead.

“He’ll love that.”