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“Fallon, here’s the truth… I would die to protect you.”
“No!” burst from her before she could stop it. She dug her fingers into her hair and grabbed a handful, pulling. Was she awake? Was this real life? “Don’t say that!” She sniffled because now, not only were tears streaming down her face, dripping off her chin, her nose had started to run.
“Why?”
“Because you don’t mean it,” she insisted.
“Mighta lied to you that night but ain’t lyin’ about this. Promise to never lie to you again. Even if the truth’s gonna hurt.”
“Whip…” she whispered. A sob was trying to roll up her throat, but it got caught along the way.
“Would never think twice about it, babe. If it was you or me, I’d always choose you.”
“No, Whip. That doesn’t make sense.”
“Don’t it? While you were here… You saw it. You said it yourself… About how my brothers love and cherish their women. That also means they protect them, too. The Fury protects the people they love. Again, we do what we gotta do. No matter what it is. And that’s one thing I’d do for you.”
The man she had fallen in love with, despite their differences, just confessed he would die for her simply because he loved her and wanted to protect her.
He’d sacrifice his life for the woman he loved. What would the woman he loved be willing to sacrifice for him?
Chapter Twenty-Three
She spent hours with the women. Hours talking. Hours listening.
It started with Autumn and her story. Fallon was certain sordid details had been omitted but she’d been given enough info to fill in the blanks on her own.
Her heart ached for the woman. For everything she suffered through at the hands of the Shirleys and the Guardians of Freedom.
But it also swelled with how the Fury came together to help her. With how Sig, a broken man himself, rescued a broken woman he nicknamed “Red.” How he took care of her until she could function again.
How he loved her intensely when no one thought he’d be capable of that emotion.
How he and the club were supportive while she was pregnant with Levi. How they protected her from the evil she escaped. How they risked everything and rescued her a second time when the Shirleys stole her back. How they were understanding when it came to her decision to allow the Brysons to adopt her baby.
How they welcomed Red as part of the Fury family when her own had betrayed her.
And now, how they welcomed her three young half-brothers into their lives, into their family, into their “village” to help raise them.
Taking in Ezrah, Noah and Cyrus was a risk they were willing to make because, by way of Red, they were family. They freed those boys from a life of harmful cult-like behavior and thinking. They planned to nurture and protect them as their very own until they were old enough to take care of themselves.
Jemma spoke about what happened to her that day in the public parking lot in town when Dyna, Cage’s daughter, was stolen from her and used to bait the men up the mountain. To draw them into a deadly trap.
She heard it all in the attempt for the sisterhood to help her understand the Fury’s fears and their actions. Tears were shed. Hugs were given. And later laughter when they began to share the happy moments they cherished that made being a part of the Fury, being an ol’ lady, all worthwhile, in an attempt to relieve the heavy cloud overhead, in an attempt to beat back the ugliness.
In a way, that time spent inside The Barn was healing for all of them.
Even Fallon.
She now understood the threat the Shirleys had been. To the club. To the women. To the Fury children.
Not to mention, to the surrounding community.
She wished Whip had been honest with her from the beginning but now understood why he hadn’t been.
She wasn’t one of them.
She wasn’t a part of that sisterhood.
She wasn’t a part of that tight-knit community.
She had been just passing through. An outsider.
No one expected her to stay.
More importantly, no one expected her to come back.
But here she was.
Whip hadn’t asked her to spend that time with the sisterhood. Instead, to help her understand the situation and her conflicted feelings, she had asked him if they were willing to spend that time with her.
They agreed. However, the sisterhood didn’t do it for her. They did it for Whip, their brother. Not one of blood but of Fury.
The women understood her concerns. Her shock at what the Fury was capable of.
But Whip was right. So damn right.
Each and every one of those women supported their men one hundred percent along with the decisions they were pushed to make.
Seeing them with their babies—Stella with Rush, Jemma with Dyna, Reese with Dane, Red with Cyrus, and a pregnant Cassie—she realized how much those men had to lose. And those weren’t all the Fury kids, just the ones too young to understand the stories being told.
