Page 119 of Ghost

I circle the couch and sit facing him. While Ghost has gone to see him every day, I haven’t seen him since he was bleeding out in the van after taking a bullet for me.

“Don’t do that,” Legacy says, shaking his head at me.

“Don’t do what?”

“Don’t feel guilty. It’s all over your face.”

“I’m the reason this happened to you.”

He drags his hand through his hair. “Luna, this comes with the gig. When you’re around here long enough, you’ll understand that. I’d have done this for any of my brothers because that’s what this patch means to me.”

“If Ghost had lost you—”

“Then he’d have you and Bea.” Legacy looks at Bea. “And she’d have had him. Do I want any of that to happen? No. But that’s how this family works around here. You’re a part of that now, so you need to understand that.”

Tears sting my eyes. “I didn’t mean to bring you all into it. But they had pictures of Austin and Bea. If they got hurt because of me—”

“Luna,” he cuts me off. “The fact that you put yourself in danger because you were trying to protect them is why I don’t regret what happened for a second. You were protecting them, and I was protecting you. That’s what we do for family.”

“Family…”

Legacy looks to the door, where Ghost is carrying another one of his bags in.

“Yes, family. You may or may not see it, but you saved my brother, Luna. He was a shell of himself until he met you. I couldn’t watch him go back to that. And you didn’t deserve whatever punishment you were bringing on yourself by turning yourself over.”

“So you don’t blame me?” Tears sting my eyes. “You don’t hate me for what happened?”

“Never.” He looks up as Ghost walks into the room. “I’m thankful for you, and so is Bea. You’re family now.”

My throat burns as I hold back tears because I truly believe what Legacy is telling me. He doesn’t trust anyone, but he thinks I’m good for Ghost. And I want to be that.

“Now, get out of here and enjoy your honeymoon phase or whatever the fuck people in happy relationships do.”

“We can stay if you need us to,” Ghost offers.

But Legacy waves his hand at him. “I’ll be fine. I need some time with Bea to talk to her about Margaret.”

“Is she getting worse?”

Legacy nods, and my heart hurts knowing how close Bea is to her nanny.

“Don’t worry about us. I’ve got it,” Legacy says.

“I’ll take care of you, Daddy.” Bea runs over and jumps onto his lap, and he smiles through the pain that flashes in his eyes.

“I know you will.” He kisses her forehead. “But it’s my job to take care of you. So you let me worry about that.”

She nestles against him.

“Call us if you need anything.” Ghost snags my hand, pulling me up off the couch. “Don’t hurt yourself getting better.”

“I’ll call. All right?”

Something about how he says it leads me to believe he won’t, but we don’t have much of a choice.

Gathering the last of our things, we leave Legacy and Bea. And when we step outside, Ghost pauses on the front porch.

“Would you ever want to live out here?” he asks, wrapping his arms around me.

---