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He’s injured, and I rush to him. “Romeo,” I call out.
He turns, a slow smile appears as he opens his arms for me, and I dive into them. He releases a groan of pain as I land in his arms, and I go to step back. “Shit, sorry! Are you okay? You’re covered in blood,” I ask, but he pulls me closer, his hands all over me.
“I need to hold onto you for a moment,” he murmurs, his head nuzzled in my neck.
I stop fighting and let him do exactly that. My arms slide up his back, and I hold on. “How badly hurt are you? What can I do?”
He continues to nuzzle into me, his lips gently kissing my neck. “You’re already doing it, angel.”
“I told you before you left that I would tell you when you returned that I love you. So, I love you, Romeo. Thank fuck you came back to me.”
He grins, pressing a tender kiss to the tip of my nose. “There was no way in hell I wasn’t coming back to you, Ingrid.”
I exhale. “Did we lose anyone?”
He clears his throat and pulls back, looking into my eyes. “We did, and we have multiple injuries.”
My breath catches as I look around. “Who did we lose?”
His hand gently caresses my face, and I feel like it’s to ease the blow that is coming. “Houston lost their prospect, Keith, and Six was killed too.”
My eyes bug out of my head as I let out a gasp. “Oh my God! Those poor brothers.”
South narrows his eyes, his expression somber.
“Oh no, there’s more, isn’t there?”
He nods, holding me to him tighter. “Baby, he went out fighting. But I’m so sorry… Grudge didn’t make it.”
My vision blurs as the world starts spinning. I sink into South’s arms and let out some strange muffled noise. “No! No, this can’t be real. He can’t be gone.”
South clings to me, placing tender kisses on my shoulder. “I’m so sorry, baby. I know how important he was to you.”
Tears flow like rivers down my face, and my stomach twists as Hurricane and Bayou step to my side.
Hurricane grabs me from South and pulls me into a tight embrace. “I am so, so fuckin’ sorry, Mom.”
I clench my eyes. This is the first time Hurricane has called me mom, which makes this moment bittersweet.
I slowly glance up, looking into his eyes and whimper, “Do you have his body?”
Hurricane nods. “We do, don’t worry. We’ll give Grudge the send-off he deserves. I promise you. But for now, let’s celebrate him tonight… he would want that.”
Nodding, I let Hurricane go and wipe under my eyes. I check Bayou and Hurricane up and down to determine if they’re injured. The one thing I cannot control is my frantic beating heart. “Are you both okay?”
They nod.
“A lot went down out there, but we finally took Anton and the Bratva down. Houston is hurtin’, and now I have the job of tellin’ Zero that his baby brother and president didn’t make it, and his VP, the new president, is fuckin’ injured,” Hurricane states.
My eyes shoot to South, his nostrils flaring like there’s more to this story, but I let it go because they all look so tired and need to be patched up.
“Okay, go talk to Zero. South, I need you to get your leg looked at. Bayou, you good?” I ask.
Bayou dips his chin. “I’m good. Couple of holes in me, but I’ll survive.”
“Let’s head inside,” I tell my boys, and we all turn, walking for the clubhouse.
Novah rushes out for Bayou, jumping into his arms. I can’t hear what he’s saying, but if I had to guess, he is telling her off for not resting.
