Page 7 of Kingston

He said something to the man at his side, but there were too many other noises for me to hear what he said.There was no mistaking that the man on the right was related to him.They had the same dark hair, the same blue eyes.He was older than the other man, with the slightest shades of gray peppering his dark hair.I’d seen them both before at Aggie’s and around Creswell Springs, but only from a distance.Every time, they had been wearing the same leather vests that they were currently sporting.Or, as I’d been educated, their club cuts.

These two men were members of the Angel’s Halo MC.

Despite not being able to hear what they were saying, I could tell they were upset.The older man raked his hands through his hair, shaking his head at whatever the other man was saying.A mixture of distress and anger clouded their faces, and my stomach knotted, wondering who was inside that room that they were so concerned for.

A zing of awareness climbed my arms, spreading along my entire body.Shifting my head slowly, I knew who I was going to see even before my gaze landed on Kingston Hannigan.

He stood by the nurses station, his hair disheveled, his face set in hard lines, but his green eyes were locked on me.Everything inside me froze as his eyes turned wild, scanning me from head to toe, turning even wilder when they brushed over the still-screaming toddler in my arms.

All those fears I’d had of Kingston pressing charges for attacking him that day disappeared the longer I stood there.Maybe if I hadn’t panicked that day, things would have turned out differently.I might have been able to talk him out of pressing charges, apologized for my actions, and continued with the arrangements I’d had going on with both Quinn and the Lively family.

Instead, I’d let my temper take over for the very first time, and I’d ruined everything.

But as I met those incredible green eyes that caused my stomach to dip and tighten in ways I’d only read about in fairy tales, I realized that maybe I’d been scared for more than one reason.With each rapid beat of my heart, it hit me that he was more dangerous than I’d first thought.Because for the first time in my life, I didn’t want to run away from a man.

What I really wanted was to run straight into his arms, just like I’d wanted to that day at Aggie’s diner once I’d seen his face.

I ached to run to him and beg him to make it all better.

ChapterFive

Kingston

Everything that had beenfront and center in my mind shifted the instant my eyes landed on Demi.

After finding Sammy’s smashed car earlier that day, leaving nothing behind but bloody airbags, the entire MC had been rushing to find her and Nishia.Finding the women had been our top priority.

Now that we had them back, anyone who wasn’t cleaning up Clint Morgan’s brains that were splattered around the cabin where he and his lackey had been keeping Sammy and Nishia was at the hospital.I’d followed as soon as Uncle Hawk gave me the order, worried about both girls.The EMTs had diagnosed them both with concussions back at the crime scene, but Sammy’s had supposedly been worse than Nishia’s.

I adored Sammy on the same level I did my cousins River and Nova, would have walked through hell for all three of them, and I was focused solely on her when I first walked into the emergency department.My cousin Jack had gone with the women in the ambulance, while Elias and a few other brothers followed right behind.As I walked toward Reid and Chance, I was about to ask for an update when I heard the screaming baby.But from the moment I caught sight of that strawberry-blond hair, nothing and no one else mattered but her.

No.That was a lie.

Nothing mattered butthem.

Demi and her little girl.

Shifting directions, I ate up the distance that separated us, each step closer to her relieving the pressure that had been building inside my chest from the moment she’d run from me weeks before.She watched me, unblinking, her chin trembling as I drew closer and closer.

Her face was paler than I remembered, dark shadows like bruises beneath her pretty eyes.Admittedly, she’d been pissed as fuck the last time I’d seen her, but there was no mistaking the exhaustion that seemed to weigh her down as she struggled to hold on to the wiggling, crying little girl in her arms.

With effort, I unlocked my gaze from hers and focused on her daughter.Tears stained her little pink face.Her hair, a few shades lighter than her mother’s, was pulled into a cute, braided ponytail.She tried to hide her face against her mom’s chest, but she was obviously scared by all the noise of the emergency department and the strangers running around the place.

I wasn’t a kid person.They didn’t gravitate toward me naturally, and I’d done my best to avoid them for the majority of my life.Even the ones I was related to.Being a dad hadn’t been high on my list of priorities.My ex had dropped hints about wanting a baby a few times, but the idea of being a parent with her had given me hives.

Which should have told me that what we had wasn’t going to go anywhere.If I felt for Avery what my cousins felt for their significant others, I would have wanted to put a baby in her just to lock her down.Instead, I’d ignored the red flags that were waving at me that she wasn’t for me and wasted both our time.

Avery was the last thing on my mind, however, as I looked down into those tear-filled eyes, brimming with so much fear and pain, my heart melted.Paternal instincts I didn’t know existed inside me came roaring to life, and I pressed my palm to the little girl’s back as soon as I reached her and her mother.

Demi flinched at my closeness, causing another dormant monster I didn’t know lived inside me to awaken.I grasped her shoulder, begging her with my eyes not to run, before speaking softly to her daughter.“What’s wrong, princess?”

Her brow scrunched up along with her nose, reminding me of her mom in a way that only had me falling harder for both of them.She didn’t answer me, but at least she stopped screaming, which seemed to cause Demi to relax a little.I stroked my hand over the kid’s back.“Are you not feeling well?”

“Hurts,” she said with a little sob-hiccup that killed me.Dropping her head onto her mom’s chest, she tugged on her exposed ear.Lowering my head, I took a look.There was something draining from it, and with a sinking sensation in my stomach, I realized how much pain she was really in.

“I think her eardrum ruptured,” Demi explained in a small voice, heartbreakingly opposite of our first meeting.Seeing her so tired, so mentally and emotionally beaten up, was a kick to the gut.I wanted my fiery hell-raiser back.

Whatever was going on, I’d make it better for her.

---