Moses opens his mouth to stop me, but I shake my head and keep going.
“No, I have to say this. If this is all the time we get, these were truly the best days of my life. I love you, Moses. No matter what happens next. I always loved you. I always will.”
“Goddamn it, mama.” His hands shake as he pulls me closer to his face. “Don’t you think those thoughts. This isn’t all the time we get. I refuse to let that happen. So you get it through your stubborn head—you’re coming back to me, and Rory is coming home safe. Understand? Don’t let anything else into that mind of yours. Believe this.”
Both of our bodies shake with the intensity of the emotions rolling off him.
“I believe you,” I tell him. “And I love you. Now, let’s save that baby.”
When he crushes his mouth to mine, I taste everything I’ve ever needed in that kiss, because it’s all Moses.
Forty-One
Keira
“I’m only doing this because you want it this way,” my husband, a merciless force of nature, says to me as he grips me by the shoulders.
I reach out and curl my palms around his arms. “I know you are. And we have to. Because how the hell am I supposed to live with myself if I traded my best friend’s life for my daughter’s?”
“It’s not even a fucking trade,” Lachlan says, his words coming out like a low growl. “And if it comes down to it, there’s no question whose life matters more to me.”
Tears spring to my eyes, and I blink them back, because he means it truly and completely. But I can’t think like that, because that’s not who I am.
It’s how we balance each other out. I’m Lachlan Mount’s humanity when he’s on the hunt for blood, and that’s a role I’m strong enough to play. But not when it comes to the man who took my child. To him, I will be lady justice, and I’ll make sure he dies for daring to lay a finger on her.
Because that’s what Lachlan Mount gave to me. Unbridled strength and power.
My voice is strong and even when I speak. “As soon as I have Rory and you see that motherfucker, you shoot him in the fucking face for daring to touch our girl. Swear it to me.”
Against all odds, a ghost of a smile flickers across his face. “My fierce hellion. I knew you’d be a lioness for our children, and I was fucking right. Go get our baby girl. I’ve got a bullet with that son of a bitch’s name on it.” His eyes are black as coal, but promise burns within them.
“I love you, Lachlan.”
He yanks me against him, wrapping his arms around me, pinning me against his body. “I fucking love you, Keira Mount. You are my life. And Rory is my heart. And, God fucking damn it, I have Magnolia to thank for all of it, despite how livid I am.” He pulls away and glares down at me as he shakes his head. “I’ll try my damnedest to save both of them, but I make no promises. Rory comes first.”
“Rory comes first, but I’m begging you to save them both.” I don’t plead often, but if there was ever a moment, it’s now. “Please.”
Forty-Two
Magnolia
Keira and I lock arms and thread our fingers together as we take our first steps across the sidewalk and into the French Market at five minutes to twelve. Sizzling sausage and sweet dough saturate the air with delicious scents, but at the moment, they turn my stomach.
“I’m so sorry,” I tell her for the thousandth time in the last thirty minutes.
“Stop it,” she says, her eyes more determined and wilder than I’ve ever seen. “This is the work of a sick, twisted madman. His fate is sealed. He’s a dead man walking now. But you didn’t deserve for that woman to hire his brother to try to kill you. You didn’t force his brother to take the job. You didn’t want to have to defend yourself the night you killed him. This isnotyour fault.” She stops and turns to me, her green eyes boring into mine.
“If I hadn’t lived the life I’ve lived, there wouldn’t be anyone paying someone to kill me.”
Keira drops my hand and grasps me by the shoulders. “For the last time,you don’t get to be a martyr here.This isn’t on you. I don’t blame you. I blame a fucking psycho who killed my friends—in my own home—and stole my flesh and blood. He’s going to die today because that’s whathedeserves. You’re going to live a long and happy life. Trustme, Magnolia.”
Keira shakes me, like she’s not sure it’s getting through my thick skull, but it is.
“I want to believe you.”
“Fuck thatwantingbullshit. I don’t have time for it today. We can argue about it later, if you like.”
She gives me a nod, and I can’t help but mirror her and give her one right back.