“Can we do it later? She needs medical attention,” Adam said.
I lifted my head. “No,” I replied. “Let’s do it now. The past has haunted me long enough.”
Adam pressed a kiss to the side of my head. “You sure, sweetheart?”
“I’m sure,” I told him. “Will you stay with me?” I asked.
The question sounded innocent, yet it was anything but. Yes, I wanted him to stay while I recounted the nightmare I’d just endured, but that wasn’t all.
I wanted to know if even after all of this, was he still willing to love me?
Adam looked at me like we weren’t sitting in the center of a crime scene, like there wasn’t a cop waiting to take our statement. He looked at me like I was the only girl in the entire room. His eyes held no disgust for how he found me and the fact there were teeth marks on my breast. He didn’t seem to be appalled I’d shot someone.
And I didn’t care that he’d literally just killed two men.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he murmured, brushing the hair out of my face. “Not ever.”
“I love you, Adam,” I whispered. “I love you so much.”
He sucked in a breath and his chocolate eyes fastened on mine. “You’ve been through a lot,” he murmured, stroking my hair again.
I caught his wrist and gave it a gentle squeeze. “I mean it. I do love you, and I’m never going to stop.”
“I love you too, Roxie,” he said, and I could see it in his eyes.
“I’m ready,” I told Lincoln, who was pretending not to listen to our conversation. He pulled out a pen.
When I was done recounting everything that happened just moments ago, I was exhausted, shaky, and in pain.
But for the first time in a long time, I wasn’t scared.
I knew I had a long road of healing ahead, but with Adam by my side, I knew it would be okay.
And my past?
I was finally able to let it go.
EPILOGUE
Adam
I heard her keys in the door all the way into the bedroom. She wasn’t really being loud; I was just so in tune with her I couldn’t not hear her enter the condo.
I stepped out into the living room in time to see her at the kitchen island, dropping her keys and what looked like a bunch of paperwork and some kind of booklet.
Her dark hair was hanging down her back, and the boots that rose to just below her knee totally turned me on.
“Hey,” I said, and she looked up.
Her smile was almost blinding when she turned it on me. “Hey.”
She crossed the room, and I opened my arms to her and she came into them willingly. “I like your outfit,” she said, letting her fingers travel over my lower back to tug at the towel I had wrapped around my waist.
“I just got out of the shower,” I said as she pressed against me a little closer.
I closed my eyes and willed my body to keep it cool, but my cock had other ideas. She felt so damn good up against my skin, and the way she was plastering herself against me was totally testing my self-control.
Who was I kidding?
The past couple weeks had been testing my self-control.
It had been almost two months since I made love to Roxie, since before she was assaulted and almost raped at the club. Because of the violence with which she was attacked and the injuries she sustained (broken ribs, bruises, puncture wound due to bite marks, a concussion…), we took sex off the table.
I still wanted her more than ever, but her body and mind needed time to heal. Her bruises were faded, the bite marks on her chest were healed, and the concussion had long since passed. Basically, her physical injuries were mended, but her mind wasn’t quite there yet. I think at first she was worried I might be upset if she wasn’t ready to have sex, but just having her in my life was enough for me.
She still stayed here most nights, and she always curled into my arms, sometimes our make-out sessions got a little heated, and some days she seemed like she needed more space. I never pushed, but I was always here when she needed me.
She still had nightmares sometimes. They were becoming less and less, but there were still times she would wake up screaming or I’d have to wake her because she was crying.
It made me glad I killed the son of a bitch who tried to rape her and the asshole who set it up.
No charges were pressed against me for shooting and killing Craig and the rapist because it was determined it was all self-defense. Craig shot at me, which gave me the right to shoot back. Plus, he was on property he’d been legally ordered to avoid.
The man I didn’t kill, the one with the camera, was currently sitting in jail, charged as an accessory. I hoped he rotted there.
After the investigation, it was strongly suggested that Roxie and I seek counseling for everything we went through. I encouraged Roxie to go, but I didn’t go.
The thing was I didn’t feel sorry for what I did. Maybe that said something dark about my character, but it wasn’t as if I killed two innocent bystanders. One was a rapist. I mean, his dick was literally hanging out when the coroner carted him away. And I had to look at his teeth marks on Roxie’s flesh for weeks.
And Craig…
Well, I kept my word to Roxie. I didn’t go after him. He came after me, and I finished it. The end.
In my mind, I took two lives, but they were lives that did nothing but create misery. And at least this way, Roxie wouldn’t have to look over her shoulder every time she left the house.
I pulled back and looked down at her. “How did registration go?”
“It was good,” she said, going over to the window to stare out. “There were a lot of people there and I was nervous, but I did it.”
“Yeah?”
She looked over her shoulder and gave me a big grin. “Yep. I’m officially a college student. In two years, I’ll be a registered nurse.”
I scooped her up and spun her around in a circle. “Damn, you are gonna look so hot in a nurse’s outfit.”
She threw back her head and laughed.
“I’m proud of you, sweetheart,” I told her when her laughter died away.
“I’m proud of me, too.”
“And you’re sure you want to keep working at the club? Think you can handle both the class schedule and nights at the Hatter?” I asked. It still amazed me that she even went back there to work. It took her a couple weeks, but then she faced her fears and went back to the club. She said she wouldn’t let one bad incident take away all the good memories she had there.
Of course, I had security out the ass now. She was never alone there. Never.