AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Why couldn’t I do it?” December asked me in the night, my arm around her, her face on my chest. She looked up at me. “Why couldn’t I just walk away from him?”
She’d asked me this in the shower, wondering why, when she had found my father, she hadn’t been able to just leave him to his own demise. We’d come to find out, my father had been shot in the rib cage three times and the murder weapon had never been found. The gun at the scene had been December’s, unused, and our team had taken it with plans to dispose of it.
December buried her face in my neck, so warm, soft. She danced delicate fingers over my chest, each touch always giving me life. She pinched her eyes shut. “I even tried to help him.”
Jax had told me about that, how she’d gone in and tried to stop the bleeding. That was why she’d had all my father’s blood all over her. She’d been trying to help him, and even after she couldn’t, she’d stayed.
“Because you didn’t want him to die alone.” My wife’s lashes fanned in my direction after what I said, and I cupped her face, her eyes closing. I pressed my lips to her hair. “Because you’re a good person, and you can’t watch people suffer.”
I honestly didn’t know what would have happened had she found my father first. She told me how she’d threatened him, how she’d met with him and warned him. She’d said if he messed with our family, she’d come for him herself, and that was exactly what she had done. Would she have been able to go through with it? I didn’t know, but gratefully, she wouldn’t ever have to find out. She’d been kept out of this for a reason, all our wives had been. If someone had to get blood on their hands, it’d be my brothers and me. It was our sacrifice and cross to bear. My father may have helped bring me into this world, but I had no problem taking him out of it. The world and our families were better off without him.
“That’s why you gave him another chance too,” she said, her smile small. She touched my face, her fingers gliding over my stubble. “Because you’re a good person.”
She used to have to tell me that all the time, nearly every night when she did. She used to have to remind me, and it had taken me a long time before I’d actually started believing her. My father and his abuse had left me with so much rage over the years. He’d blamed me for things and his own suffering my entire life. The loss of my mother and sister had broken my father, and he’d chosen to turn into that monster he ultimately became.
But that didn’t have to be my story.
I had a wife I adored and a wonderful son. I had a built-in family of friends, and a new story I’d been at the forefront of creating. I’d chosen a different path. Em and I both had. We could have suffered under the brevity of our pain.
We’d chosen to rise.
Chapter Fifty-One
Brielle
I woke up when someone touched my cheek.
Ramses.
I shifted, but our son was between us, Ares’s head on my shoulder. We must have both fallen asleep on the couch.
I played with his curls, smiling when his father eased over. Ramses kissed me with heat, here with us now, safe.
“What happened?” I whispered, trying not to wake our son. Ares had refused to go to sleep once he’d found out the men were moving in on Dorian’s grandpa. He’d overhead the mothers talking, and he wouldn’t leave me alone tonight. He was like his dad in that way, always trying to take care of me.
Ramses studied our son, adjusting the blanket over us both. “It’s done,” he said, my heart leaping. Ramses nodded. “We don’t have to worry about him anymore.”
He went on to tell me how, as well as the blanks in between. Someone had gone after Callum Prinze under our noses and saved this family from more bloodshed. From how it sounded, this had all started with revenge, and though I hadn’t wanted this fight to end in more, I didn’t think Dorian’s grandfather had given us much of a choice.
“I can only sum up that he had a lot of enemies, and it was probably one of them,” Ramses concluded, his expression hard, but it softened when it returned to our son. This family had gone through a lot, but this was always there to come back to, our peace. Ramses’s eyes warmed, his hand on Ares’s head. “Whatever the case, it’s safe now.”
Safe.
My husband told me more about it in the quiet. His night had been a hard one, a long one. Ares woke up as Ramses finished, but his father somehow convinced him to wait until morning to talk in detail about things. We just told our son everything was safe, and that we’d be able to bring Sloane home when the day came. Ares wanted to call her, but I convinced him to wait. It was late, and they both needed to sleep.
It was hard to listen to my own words and not call my daughter in the middle of the night, but I forced myself to. Instead, I made sure Ares got to bed, which relieved my husband to go take a shower before heading there himself. Ramses had put on a tough face that he hadn’t let tonight affect him, but he looked tired, and he needed to relax.
I told Ares I loved him before closing the door, and when I found the room I’d been staying in, I heard more than one voice inside.
My heart lifted hearing hers.
“Ares said you just got back,” Sloane said. “I told him to text me when you did. I hope you don’t mind I called. I know you’re probably going to bed.”
In the two seconds since I’d left him, my son had managed to text his twin. I shook my head but couldn’t fight the smile on my face.
“Of course I don’t mind,” Ramses said, his voice thick, emotional. I eased a look into the room and saw him sitting on the bed. He must have gotten his shower done, his hair wild and perfect like I liked it. He had his phone up, and our daughter’s face was on the screen. “I love hearing from you, and everything’s fine. I’m fine, and you didn’t have to call.”
I started to go inside the room but stopped. My head touching the door frame, I enjoyed watching the two of them together.
