Crossing the room, I lean down, dipping my head until we’re nose to nose. “You have no idea what your trust means to me.” Her not asking further questions, trusting that I would talk to her, knowing that I couldn’t do something right then and there, yeah, it meant something all right. More than something. More like everything. I’m in love with Hope.
“I figure you’ll tell me if it’s something I need to know,” she says, her voice no more than a breath of air.
“I’ll tell you,” I agree. “First, I’ve got to do some digging.” I won’t lie to her. Not ever. To be mine, she needs to know the world she’s stepping into.
Hope reaches up and strokes her fingers against my cheek and whispers, “Tell me when you can.”
“Will do.” Kissing her, I pull away. “Rest,mo chathú.”
“Okay.” Lying back down, Hope curls into my side of the bed, arms wrapping around my pillow.
The motions are another hit to my chest, proving just how much she’s meant to be mine and why I’ve fallen for her.
It’s not easy, leaving the room, but I do on quiet feet. I grab my laptop from the living room and head to the kitchen, start a pot of coffee, and get to work. I need to find as much information as I can before the morning. As much as I’ve dug in the past days, it seems never to be enough. But after Ron’s latest stunt, I won’t let him keep it up. It’s past time he learns a lesson in messing with what’s mine.
“Come again?” Hope asks, twisting in the passenger seat, facing me.
We’d just dropped Promise off at school under Azrael’s watch, and I had just finished telling her about the phone call with Reaper last night, well, early this morning.
“He really said that to Harvester?” she demands before I can repeat myself.
“He did.” I nod. I watched the security feed from my laptop this morning and ran facial software against the ‘Officer Watkins’. I found a match, and it wasn’t a good one. Officer Watkins real name is Sonny Atkins. A lowlife who works for a man named Rodney Pratt. Pratt deals in human trafficking.
I didn’t tell her this part as I don’t want her to freak out on me more than she is bound to with what I’ve shared.
“He claimed he could get me for kidnapping?” she snaps and continues. “What a piece of work. I mean, seriously. Why can’t he get it through his head that the courts gave me custody of my sister? I have the life insurance money that I put into a trust for my sister for when she’s eighteen and can use it. I don’t liveoff it. I work to support Promise. I work to give her the life she deserves.”
I hadn’t known about her putting the money into a trust for her sister until this morning, when I was digging and couldn’t help but be filled with pride at just how much Hope works to provide for her sister. She sacrifices all that she does to give her a good life. It’s time my woman started getting to the things she loves most.
“We’ll deal with him,” I tell her, reaching over the console. “I can promise you that. He’s goin’ to get what’s coming his way.”
“I wish he’d just disappear from my life and never return.” She huffs and rights herself in the seat, crossing her arms over her chest. “Is it so hard for him to leave me and Promise alone?”
“I’ll make sure he leaves you two alone, even if it means making him disappear from your life myself.”
“I don’t want you to do anything that could land you in prison,” she whispers, breath hitching.
I stay silent until we’re at the clubhouse and I’m parked. Shutting my truck off, I climb out, stalk around the hood, and make it to Hope’s door before she can get out. I crowd her space, hands going around her waist.
“Love that you don’t want that for me,” I tell her briskly. “Want everything with you, Hope, everything I can get. What you need to understand is that I’ll make sure this bastard learns a lesson and stays the fuck away from you. I won’t let him touch you or Promise. I’ll gladly kill him and come to you with his blood on my hands. If that meant prison time, I’d take it knowing I did it for you. However, that’s something you don’t have to worry about. It won’t come to that, I swear to you, with my brothers at my back, you’ve got nothing to be leery of. We’ve got this.”
Tears slip freely down Hope’s cheeks, and I reach up to wipe them away.
“You trust me?” I ask.
“Y-yes,” she utters, breath hitching.
“Good.” I grin and slide my fingers in her hair, pull her to me, only to take her mouth heatedly.
Eabha makes a loud squeal from her car seat, breaking the moment with her anger at being in her seat still, though we were parked. She didn’t like being in the thing longer than she had to be.
“We better get her out before she starts crying,” Hope murmurs against my lips.
“Yeah, my girl can be quite demanding.”
“She’s just like her daddy.” Giggling, Hope uses my body to slide out of the truck. “Best get her out.”
With another kiss, I let her go and move to the back door to get Eabha out, earning a bright smile from my little girl. Yeah, she’s a daddy’s girl for sure. I’m not afraid to say she’s got me wrapped around her tiny little fingers just as her onesie claims me to be.
