Page 64 of Keeper

I need her to know I’m coming back tonight, so she doesn’t try to stay with Alex to keep up appearances. Not yet. I need her.

“Always.”

Watching her walk away is harder than it usually is, and that’s saying something. I’ve never wanted to be around someone every minute of every day, and now that I finally know how that feels, I’m not allowed to.

It comes with the territory of being the bastard, but unlike all the things in my past, this is the one thing I will fight for.

She’s been used and tossed aside too many times, and that bullshit ends with me. I don’t care what it takes because in the end... that woman will be mine.

Twenty-Three

My emotions are allover the place as I wait for Draven to come back. Alex reacted the way I assumed he would when I told him the news, and Ephraim relaxed. I’m sure he thinks he’s won. That despite any rumors he may have heard from the staff, Alex got the job done.

He’s got himself another heir, another generation to carry on the good Creed name. I’ve never met anyone who could be so right and so wrong at the same time.

But his ignorance won’t last forever. This is real life, not some fairy tale my father used to read me. Something will happen, he will find out, and everything will fall apart no matter what we do to stop it.

Every decision I’ve made recently has been to save my own life, but it only lasts for a moment. Sooner or later, despite all of our wishing, our hopes and our dreams, we’ll have to face the consequences of our stolen hours and falsehoods.

Or I’ll have to make someone else suffer them for us.

The concept leaves me shaking until I hear the sliding glass door open and see Draven sneak in. He’s here, that’s all that matters right now. He’s here and he’s ours and at least for tonight, he won’t let anything happen.

“Hi.”

The lock clicks as he spins around to offer me a smile. “Hi, beautiful.” He closes the distance to give me a kiss, then bends down to do the same to my belly. “How’s my mini keeper? Playing nice today or making you nauseous again?”

“It’s hard to tell. I’m always nauseous on days I have to see your dad.”

Dray chuckles. “That’s fair. How’d he react? I figure he’s pretty happy to have a legitimate excuse to pass me up in the will so everything goes to his heir’s heir.”

“He seemed relieved.” Reaching out, I take his hand and guide him onto the bed with me. “I know we never really talked about it, but Alex told me about your mom. Do you... think he’d be different if she were still here?”

With a small frown, Draven climbs onto the bed and pulls me to him, exhaling a deep breath before he responds. “Maybe? It’s hard for me to see him being different, but Alex seems to think so. I wasn’t even a year old when it happened, so the man he is today is the only man I’ve ever known. I’ve been told he loved her, but if he did, he’d have lit that bitch on fire for even considering hurting the woman he loved, right? Anything less than that isn’t love. It’s infatuation. He loves himself, his image.”

I wish I could argue with him, or tell him anything at all that might help. But he’s right. If Ephraim truly loved Ella, Verna wouldn’t be alive. At the very least, she wouldn’t be here. “It seems most men become paralyzed when the people they love are threatened. Look at Alex. Maybe Ephraim...” I trail off, shaking my head. “He saved you and that’s the only credit I’ll ever give him.”

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