Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 105803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
I stay and talk to him about our future together. About all the things we have left to do. Of all the places he’s going to take me when he wakes up.
I tell him about the sunny days we’ll spend loving each other, and the long nights of hot sex we’ll have, because damn I’m married to the sexiest man alive.
I tell him about the babies we’ll have. Mini versions of him. Beautiful and strong just like their daddy.
I keep talking to him, even when I start to cry because he feels so far away. I tell him how loved he is and how we are going to do all of those things and more. I tell him that I don’t want to do it without him. That I know a world with him in it, and a world without him, and I know which one is not worth existing in.
Every day I bring him up to speed on what’s happening with the club. How I’m not facing any charges over Gaston’s death because the sheriff declared it self-defense and the DA agreed.
I tell him how Gaston was sent to the morgue where his body remains unclaimed, and how in a few days he’ll be cremated, and his ashes will be disposed of without acknowledgement. There will be nothing left of him. Just an ugly scar in our memories.
But still Beast doesn’t respond, or move, or improve enough for the doctors to bring him out of his coma.
Some days I feel like he’s already gone. That I’ve lost him for good and it’s only a matter of time before the doctors tells me there is nothing else they can do for him. On those days, I have to run to the bathroom and vomit, and heave violently until there is nothing left to bring up.
On the better days, I feel certain he is going to live and no one can convince me otherwise.
Today, like every day, I take his hand in mine and kiss it a thousand times, willing him to live, begging him to come back to me.
“You need to go home and get some rest,” Lars says, walking into the room and standing behind me.
Since Beast has been in here, Lars has been a constant presence. Always nearby but never encroaching on my time with his president.
The rest of the Knights visit too. So do the club girls and the old ladies. Some days, Mya sits with me, and gently holds my hand and strokes my fingers, comforting me in any way she can. And Annika, she’s never far away, always ready to stand beside me with her hand on my shoulder.
But it all goes by in a blur as I sit here, physically aching for Beast to open his eyes and smile up at me.
“I’m fine right here,” I say to Lars, knowing what’s coming next.
It’s a thing that’s developed between Lars and me over the last couple of weeks. He’ll ask when I slept last, and I’ll lie to him.
He takes a step closer. “When was the last time you got some sleep?”
Bingo.
“Yesterday,” I reply, avoiding eye contact.
“No, it was the day before.”
“If you knew, then why did you ask?”
He crouches down so we’re eye level. “They’re not bringing Beast out of his coma today. You know that. So I’m going to need you to go home and get some sleep.” He subtly sniffs the air. “And maybe take a shower.”
I shoot daggers at him from my eyes. “Why do you care so much if I sleep or not?”
“Because you’re our first lady, and I’m going to protect you whether you like it or not.”
“That’s goes for me too,” Viking says, appearing in the doorway.
Lars brings my attention back to him. “Besides, when your old man wakes up and hears how you spent all these days and nights in here, he’ll bust my balls for not making you go home and rest.”
Exhausted, I nod. “I suppose you’re right. I’ll go home and freshen up.”
But I don’t move to leave right away. Because leaving Beast requires me to give myself an internal pep talk just so I can walk away.
Standing, I lean down to press a kiss to his cheek, feeling physically sick about leaving.
“I’ll keep an eye on him,” Lars says with a wink.
With a nod, I reluctantly leave the room but don’t get far before I see Beast’s doctor. I take the chance to ask him for an update.
He looks grim. “I had hoped he would be well enough to bring him out of his coma by now. But your husband’s condition hasn’t improved. He lost a lot of blood and his internal organs paid heavily.”
I’m only vaguely aware of Lars and Viking joining us. Then Bear and Axe and Ryder, who seem to materialize out of nowhere.