Page 77 of Bleed Me

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Bam! Bam! Bam! My gun fired off without a hitch. I hit every target Torque had set up. “Damn, kid,” he praised. “Your eye is getting tight! Not one shot gone to waste.”

“Thank you for working with me.”

The military man studied me. “It helps, doesn’t it? Give you something else to focus on?”

It did, in so many ways. Every gun they set in my hands felt… right. It was as if the trigger was a friend of mine. Like my bike. “Spoken as if knowing firsthand.”

Torque tapped the shotgun he held against the lower part of his right jeaned leg. It clinked. It motherfucking pinged, metal to metal.

How had I never noticed? I was stupefied. “No shit?”

“Unfortunately. Lost it in Iraq.”

“Fuck me.”

He shrugged. “I guess I should hate guns after such a time, but they bring me needed comfort.”

I sighed. “Like a friend.”

He grinned. “That’s right. Like a safe friend.” He chuckled. “Speaking of safe, how's it going with Sapphire.”

“Just waiting for the results.”

Justice and her researching ways made it possible for me to learn if Sapphire was indeed carrying my child. We went to a specialty clinic that was able to take her blood and a swab from my mouth. It’s crazy, but there are some fancy technicians that grab baby’s DNA found in the mother’s blood and separate it from hers! That’s what they did with Saph. Then they compared that DNA to mine.

Approximately seven days later, the results were in.

Grace Lee Dalton.

I was shocked when Sapphire insisted our baby carry my last name. Maybe she was so happy her baby would have a daddy, one that wanted to be a part of her life.

Up to this point, I was fearful of bringing a kid into the world. I was mentally unstable, to put it lightly, and didn’t want to fuck up another life that was attached to me. The guilt over losing Jenny, even though I had yet to remember how, was overpowering at times.

But small miracles do exist. I’ve seen them.

Honored that Saph asked me to go to doctor visits, I still wasn’t too excited for all this. Especially since Justice decided to sit these events out. I think it was too much of a reminder of what she could never have. Her not there felt like moving forward while peering over my shoulder to see that I was leaving behind a part of me. I hated it. But then the sonogram happened. It was… badass. Ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump went the sweetest heartbeat in the whole world. Grace was even sucking her ridiculously teeny thumb. I was head over heels in love after the amazing sight. “Babe, I’m telling you, Grace is a genius.”

Folding laundry—okay, bunching up clothes into piles and shoving the piles into already overstuffed drawers—in our room, Justice chuckled. “Because she sucked her thumb?”

“You mock me, but you’ll see. I’m talkin’ rocket science shit happenin’ in that womb, babe.”

As weeks passed by, Justice slowly became more interested—invested—in the baby to come. There were mornings she woke with a new outlook, a more positive one. I couldn’t help but suspect Dick was involved. According to Justice, he was the only one coming forward. The other three had settled. It made sense since I was finding some inner peace. Justice even sounded slightly saddened that his visits were becoming few and far between.

Lynx grumbled when I told him I was buying a house for Sapphire. “Giver, why are you being such a pain in my dick over this? It's my fault. You wouldn’t even be going through this had one of mine not fucked with her birth control.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. I think Grace is meant to be. I’m going to love the fuck out of this kid, Prez. I mean, anything she wants. It’s going to be gross how many toys she’ll have. And that means a house. I want her to have her own home for all the shit I’m gonna get her.”

A smile grew on my President’s face. “Is God gettin’ it right for once, kid?”

“Yeah, somethin’ like that.”

“I’ll tell you what. You buy Saph a house, and I pay for medical. Fair?”

I guess we both had guilt to work out. “Do I have a choice?”

He spun on his barstool and winked at Elle. “Only choice you have is what you want my beauty here to stick in your shot glass so we can celebrate.”