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“That boyfriend of yours needs to let you recover. He’s making a scene out in the waiting room.”
“I’m fairly certain the only one making a scene was you, Jack.” My mother’s tone was harsher than I’d ever heard it. “I actually spoke to him. He’s extremely worried about you, and he spent the night in those chairs because he wanted to be close if anything happened. He’s not the bad guy here.”
My father’s eyes widened. “Am I the bad guy again? Did I cause her to get her arm broken in two places and slam her headagainst that filthy alley? I’m the one protecting our daughter, Rose. And you better get on board.”
My mother moved closer, her jaw clenched and shoulders ramrod straight as she stared at my father. “I’ve always protected our children. You are the one who needs to get on board. And Romeo Knight is not my enemy, nor is he a danger to Demi. He loves our daughter fiercely, and he would protect her at all costs. I don’t believe you can say the same.”
I couldn’t believe the tension between them, and a part of me wondered, for the first time since everything had come out, if they’d ever be able to repair their relationship.
Maybe all the secrets that had been uncovered were too much for my mom to forgive.
“I’ve admitted that I made mistakes. Hell, I’m not even living in my own home, and I’m doing my best to fix that. But you can’t keep throwing it in my face if you want to move forward. A crime was committed last night, and I am here to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
I shook my head as anger coursed through my veins. “Then go after the guys who jumped him. I love him, and he loves me, and I don’t care if you are on board with that. You don’t get to tell me who to love, nor do you get to push him out of my life. You may have the power to get him removed from the hospital, but I’ll get released, and I’ll fix things with him the minute I’m out of here.”
My father crossed his arms over his chest and glared at me. “You’re not going anywhere until they run those tests and we make sure you’re okay.”
“You can drag this out as long as you want to. It won’t change a thing.”
And that was the honest truth.
Because I will never stop loving Romeo.
twenty-nine
. . .
Romeo
Everyone was on edge.We’d gotten to Las Vegas a day later than planned since I’d waited at the hospital until Peyton let me know that Demi was cleared on all her tests. She’d be released within a few hours, and Lincoln had the plane ready to go.
Joey and Butch were losing their shit that we needed to get our asses there. The weigh-in was in a few hours, and we’d just gotten to the hotel. I was exhausted because I’d barely slept the last two nights, as I’d spent them in a chair in the waiting room of the hospital.
It wasn’t the way I planned to go into this fight, but if I were being honest, nothing was going as expected anymore.
The fight was not at the forefront of my thoughts.
I was struggling to manage my anger toward Leo Burns. We’d been able to keep what happened out of the press. It surprised me that he’d not made any of it public. He was still just running his mouth about me going down in round one. But he’d have to cut off my limbs if he thought he’d take me down in round one now. It wasn’t happening. I was going to ruin that motherfucker so he’d never fight again.
He’d come for me and ended up hurting my girl.
He’d need a fucking truck to run me over right now if he hoped to take me down that quickly.
I was assuming his piece-of-shit friends who’d jumped me had reported back and let him know they’d hit a fucking woman.
It haunted me that I hadn’t gone after them, but Demi had needed me, and I hadn’t had a choice at the time. But five minutes alone in an alley now—it would be a different story.
The first time they jumped me, I had not wanted to get hurt before the fight.
Now, I didn’t give a fuck about the fight. I wanted to break every bone in their bodies. One by one. Drop them to their knees and make them apologize to her for what they’d done.
Kingston opened the duffle bag and handed me the black tracksuit that I’d be wearing to the weigh-in.
All the guys were wearing black joggers and hoodies that saidTeam Golden Boyon the back.
They’d wear something similar tomorrow, as well.
We’d had fun picking this shit out weeks ago, but now, none of it mattered.
