AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A bullet? What the hell was he talking about?
I awkwardly sucked on the straw, dribbling some down my chin, which the nurse wiped away. I felt like a damn child. I struggled to clear my throat. “Ruth?”
Then I blinked. Reece. I’d meant to ask for Reece, my brother.
But as soon as her name came out of my mouth, I remembered. Not everything—but I remembered I’d gone after her. And then something…something bad had happened.
“Ruth?” I asked again, more urgently, frantic almost. I tried to sit up but was barely able to, my energy was so drained. And the pain in my abdomen roared at the attempt.
“No, no, sit back,” the doctor urged, grabbing my shoulder and pushing me back down. “Nurse, go get his brother.”
I watched the nurse hurry out of the room helplessly. “Ruth,” I managed again before my head collapsed back on the pillow.
I felt woozy, like I was about to pass out again, when I heard voices.
The door opened. “I told you, I’m his fiancée, goddammit. I don’t care if visiting hours are over. He was shot because of me and you are letting me in there. Reece, tell her.”
I knew that voice. A rush of relief so hard hit me that I didn’t fight the goddamn tears that suddenly filled my eyes. She was here. She was safe. Nothing else mattered. I didn’t care how the fuck we’d gotten here.
I heard the harsh slapping of bootheels against linoleum, a quick bang bang bang bang, and then her scent was surrounding me.
Ruth. She hugged my neck and I inhaled her.
Oh my God. Oh fuck. It had all been real.
She was real and she was here and we were safe.
She pulled back long enough to look me in the eyes, our foreheads touching. I met her hazel eyes, still blurry and confused about all that brought us here. But I knew what I wanted, forever and ever.
So I got it across in as few words as possible to spare my still sore throat: “Let’s elope.”
Her worry turned to laughter as she covered my face with kisses.
Epilogue
RUTH
“So we just did that,” I giggled, throwing my arms around my husband’s neck as he backed me into our Vegas hotel room two and a half months later.
“You bet your ass we just did, Mrs. Walker,” Jeremiah said as he shoved me up against the wall, kicking the door shut with his foot and bracing his hands on the wall on either side of my head. “And now I intend to consummate the vows we just made before Elvis so you know I damn well mean it.”
He plucked the cheap little tiara with attached veil out of my hair and then dug his fingers in, dragging my head back. He followed with his mouth, missing my lips and latching onto my throat instead.
Oh God, yes.
The past two months had been incredible. Maybe that was mean to say, because the physical therapy and rehab Jer had gone through hadn’t always been easy. It was only last week he’d been able to get on a horse again and walk more than a couple blocks without getting winded.
It hadn’t mattered, or maybe it had allowed us to connect on an even deeper level intimacy wise.
He’d finally let me in. He told me things he’d never told anyone else, not even Reece. He told me about what happened to him when he was desperate on the streets, how he was essentially kidnapped and held captive by that evil bitch, how he barely escaped. How when kids like him disappeared, no one ever went looking.
No wonder he had a hard time letting anyone close, or ever letting down his walls. At first he was monotone as he told it all to me, but by the end, he’d broken down weeping, burying his face in my breasts. Like a child in need of comfort from the mother who had never been there for him.
And I’d held him so close and whispered to him that I had him, that I loved him, and that I’d never let anything bad happen to him ever again. A foolish promise to make but one I was still determined to bring true. This precious man was everything to me. He’d been so strong for so long and I wanted him to know that now he could put down that heavy burden. He could lay it down now and rest in my arms.
But Jeremiah never was one to rest for long, or to allow himself to be out of control. And I understood better than ever after he gave me his deepest secrets.
So I gave myself to him with a trust I’d never been able to give to anyone before. Because Buck’s revelations about my father had freed me from the man’s legacy. I wouldn’t allow that man or his opinions of me to torture me any longer. He no longer had any control over me.
