Page 84 of Promise of Punishment

“I told you this day would come.” He gloated. “Now we both have no balls.”

“They’ll be here,” I reassure Fable. “Emery is pregnant too and suffering morning sickness. It’s probably why they’re late.”

“She’s pregnant?”

“Yes.” My phone buzzes. I take it from my pocket.

Lachlan: Almost there.

I show Fable the text. “See.”

“Are you nervous?” Fable whispers, her gaze on the open jet door as if waiting for a ghost to appear.

I touch her chin and guide her to look at me. “Lachlan’s going to give me shit because he gets off on teasing me about falling in love. I used to tell him it wasn’t possible. It wasn’t at the time, but only because you weren’t in my life.”

Her citrine eyes fill with tears.

I sweep my hand along her cheek. “Emery is going to be sweet. You’ll like her. She’s very sweet when she’s not being sassy to her husband. He deserves it most of the time. You’ll like my sister too.” We’re meeting her at the manor, per my request. “Tessa’s a bit reserved, but she has a good heart. I’ve always taken care of her, as you know.”

Once we returned to Hellfire, Fable slept better than she had in the hospital, even though the room was more like a luxurious hotel than a medical suite.

I’ll never forget the first time I woke her up with breakfast in my bed. Seeing her in it was a vision—black silk bedding, with Fable in a red satin nightgown. My heart swelled with pride like I’ve never known.

Since then, I’ve had many mornings like that. Sometimes we do things we did when I was a Lord in disguise, and she was my secret obsession. Sometimes we go to lunch or dinner in the city, and I force her to shop. Sometimes I surprise her with day trips to abandoned places or gardens that are so wild it could pass for one. Other times we talk for hours in bed, like we did the morning after I confessed what I did to her dad. Once, it led me to share what I discovered about her grandmother and how she was funding Fable’s dad’s attempts to kill her. I explained I had a guy interrogate Vera Farrington—left out it was in her bedroom at knife point—and that she didn’t know what her son was using the money for. Trae believed her, or he wouldn’t have left her alive. Then I added that I’d happily kill her grandmother if she so desired, though I’d hope to put that side of me to rest now that I’m to be a father.

Nothing I said scared Fable. She knows the horrors of monsters and the evil they can do. She wanted to know the specifics about the night I made my first kill. I’d told her enough before, though I always left out the darker details, not wanting to upset her. But Fable is proof of the saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” She might be dainty on the outside, but on the inside, she’s a powerhouse. So I told her everything, including the demon that was born in me the night I bludgeoned Lord Hamilton to death to save Tessa.

Fable cried and held me.

“I’m so sorry that happened to you and your sister. So very sorry, Wes. You deserved better. And Tessa is lucky to have a brother like you. It could have been so much worse.”

We both fell silent for a while. She brushed my hair through her tiny fingers, and I was back in that garden with my angel. How such a horrible event could lead to a sweet memory and an even sweeter woman is beyond me.

I take her hand in mine and consider pulling her onto my lap, just so I can hold her and remind myself she’s real.

Her gaze drifts around the jet, taking in the cream leather seating area and tables between, the couch across the way, the large TV, the bar, the door to the bedroom in back, and the flight attendant in the galley.

“Will they think it’s weird that I used to be the help?” she asks, stirring my anger.

I hate when she talks about herself like this. I turn on the chair and cup her cheeks. “Hear me now, Fable Farrington, soon to be Lady Fable Sarina Hale. You are my savior. I would not be here in this world if it weren’t for you. No one will treat you as anything but the incredible person you are. And if they don’t, I’ll kill them.”

She giggles, even as more unshed tears cling to her long black lashes.

Noises stir outside the door, and footsteps sound on the metal stairs.

Fable glances over my shoulder at the door. “They’re here.”

I kiss her hard, then gently, and stand with her hand tucked in mine. Emery enters first, wearing blue pants and a matching sweater, her hair in a sleek ponytail. Her skin is paler than usual, but when she sees us, she smiles.

“Hi. Sorry, this is all my fault. Baby Ashford is torturing me with all-day sickness. Morning, afternoon, night. He’s not happy being in my belly.” She clutches ginger ale and a bag of saltines.

Lachlan appears behind her with a blanket and a big satin pillow. “Sit, love, before you get sick again.”

“I’m working on it.” She wipes her forehead, like she’s barely keeping her food down.

Fable rushes over to Emery. “Can I help you?”

Of course she would want to help. Not because she was a housekeeper but because it’s who she is.