Page 105 of Slayin Villain
“What the hell are you doing?”I snapped, rushing to grab his arm.
“Coffee,” he grunted.“Needed to stretch my legs.”
“You need to stay in bed.Doctor’s orders.”
He grumbled but let me help him back to the couch.I fluffed his pillow.He caught my wrist.
“You don’t have to stay,” he said, voice quieter now.“You’ve done more than enough.”
I looked at him.Really looked.
This broken man.This stubborn, stupid, beautiful mess of a man.The father of my child.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I said.“But you’ve got one shot left to get this right, Villain.One.Don’t screw it up.”
His eyes locked on mine.“I won’t.”
As I tucked the blanket around him and brushed my fingers down the side of his face, my phone buzzed on the counter.
I walked over and checked it.
A new message.
Sweet Tea: Ember just left Cece’s.Don’t know where she’s headed.Not answering.
I stared at the screen, heart sinking.
Because something told me… She wasn’t finished yet.
Chapter 47
Villain
I hadn’t even finished the damn antibiotics before chaos called again.
Rachel had just stepped out to grab something from the store, prenatal vitamins or more pickles or maybe both, and I was left alone on the couch, leg throbbing, head still stitched from Rome’s ambush.The painkillers made my mind swim, but I couldn’t sit still.Something was coming.I could feel it in my bones like a storm rolling up the holler.
The knock on the door wasn’t polite.
It was the kind of knock that meant trouble.
When I opened it, Pagan stood there looking like someone pissed in his bourbon.“We got a problem,” he said.
I followed him over to Cece’s.She was pacing, Eve was calm but deadly in her stillness, and Irish looked like he was ready to throw someone off the porch.Ember settled on the edge of the couch, hunched forward like she’d folded in on herself.She had bruises peeking from her collar, a busted lip, and a distant look that chilled me to the marrow.
“She’s not talkin’,” Cece said, shaking her head.“But she needs to.”
“She will,” Kingpin said, walking in behind me.“Go on now, darlin’.Tell the truth.”
Ember looked up at us, her eyes glassy, voice hoarse.
“Rome had me tied up in the back of a van,” she said.“Said if I didn’t come willingly, he’d make me.Said the baby was his, and I was never leavin’ him again.”
A silence fell so thick I could hear the tick of Cece’s old clock on the mantle.
“He was gonna run with me,” she whispered.“Somewhere far.Said we’d start over.”
Cece sat down beside her, touched her hand gently.“And then?”
