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She would’ve fallen to the ground if Colt’s strong arms hadn’t come around her. I immediately ran to her, but she pulled out of Colt’s embrace to face me.
“Get the hell away from me!” she screamed.
I halted.
She turned and sprinted up the porch steps, pushing between Darcy and Joni, and disappearing inside.
My heart broke for her.
The brothers’ faces were somber, and tears began to cascade down the cheeks of the Old Ladies. I looked to Boxer. “Who else,” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. Rachel’s heartache tore at me, splitting open the guilt I’d attempted to contain.
“Bishop, too.” Boxer said, tone bleak, and then he pitched his voice lower. “We got Dante. He’s out cold right now.” He gestured to the van that was parked behind the brigade of motorcycles.
“He came at a price,” I said quietly. “A terrible price.”
I flung myself into his arms again, wanting him to take away the pain, but I also wanted to take away his.
“Where’s my wife?” Colt asked gruffly.
“Inside with your newborn daughter,” Joni said. She’d moved from the porch to Zip and was now nestled in his side.
Colt looked shell-shocked. “My what?”
“Mia went into labor a few days ago,” I said. “I went with her to the hospital. Both mother and baby are doing fine.”
Colt paused and then dashed up the steps into the cabin.
“Fuck, I need a drink,” Zip muttered.
“Same,” Knight said. The president of the Coeur d’Alene chapter looked beaten and sad. He’d been close with his VP and their chapter suffered a great loss.
The men with children went inside to see them, leaving the rest of us to fend for ourselves.
Boxer and I headed to the pit where he lit a fire.
“She’s going to blame me,” I said when Boxer took a seat next to me.
Boxer drank from the bottle of bourbon and then handed it to me. “It had to be this way, Linden. We couldn’t let the cartel get away with kidnapping women and children, let alone going after one of our own. We knew there was a possibility of losing a brother. Losing several. But that was the risk we had to take.”
I took a sip from the bourbon bottle and then handed it back to him. “I know. I just—Christ. Reap didn’t deserve this. Neither did Rach. She’s pregnant, Boxer. How is she going to get through this?”
“She has us. And we’ll be there for her.” He paused for a moment. “He died in my arms.”
I closed my eyes.
“I held him as he took his last breath. The blood at his lips. The light leaving his eyes. He knew he was dying, and his last word was his wife’s name.” He lifted the bottle and took a hearty swig.
“Bishop?”
“Knife to the ribs by one of Dante’s men. Knight went apeshit. Like full on apeshit. I’ve never seen him that way.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing.
“So, Mia had her kid.”
“Yeah.”
“Of course she did.” He shook his head and downed more bourbon.
