Red (Hell’s Jury MC #5)

37. Chapter 37

CHAPTER 37

Stella

I wake with a start, not sure where I am. The room’s dark but there’s a light on in the hall. Sorcha is snuggled next to me, sleeping hard.

We’re home, I remember. Safe and sound. Lachlan saved us. I want to call for him, but I don’t want to wake Sorcha. Instead, I sit up and swing my feet to the floor. I hurt everywhere, but as I gingerly feel my various body parts, I realize I’m gonna survive.

When I stand, my head disagrees. I lean a hand against the wall to let the dizziness pass, then use it as support to grope my way out of the bedroom and down the stairs. “Lachlan,” I call softly.

He bolts out of the kitchen like he’s an Olympic sprinter. “What are you doin’ out of bed?”

I smile at him. “I ran out of sleep. It’s been a long day, but by human standards it’s still early.”

He runs his hand down the side of my head. “Can I hug you?”

“Yes please,” I say as I walk into his arms.

Then I burst into tears.

“Baby,” he says, his voice cracking as he rocks me. “I’m so sorry.”

“I was so scared,” I sob. “For both of us. I thought they were gonna kill me. Sorcha was all they needed. And if I was dead, who would look after her?”

I’m barely coherent but it doesn’t matter. Lachlan seems to understand. He guides me to the couch and pulls me onto his lap as he sits. “I’m sorry, Stella.” His voice cracks. “Please don’t leave me.” I can hear his desperation.

That stems my flow of tears. “Why would you think I’d do that?” I sniffle. “You saved my life.”

He pulls me into him. “I also put you in danger.”

“How?”

“Those two pricks have been fucking with the club for months. And we were busy with other bullshit, so we treated them like they were annoying flies. They killed my mom.”

Chills race through me. “ They killed your mom?”

“Yeah. I told you there was someone in the club passin’ on information. I guess she told them about you.”

I don’t know how I know, but he’s omitting something. I decide not to press him. Maybe I don’t need to know all the details. “What happened wasn’t your fault. You’re with me. We’re together. It made me a target.”

“It made you a target because of my involvement with Hell’s Jury.”

I stretch my head from side to side trying to loosen up the tension in my shoulders. “It’s gonna take some time to get over this, Lachlan. I’m not gonna lie, but I need your support and so does Sorcha. Please don’t leave me because you feel guilty.”

“I’ll never leave you, baby. I’m gonna spend the rest of my life makin’ it up to you.”

The doorbell rings. I groan. “Please don’t let it be mom.”

“She was already here. I sent her away and ordered pizza.”

Lachlan opens the door and takes the pizza. One huge box of delicious that makes my stomach growl. Me being hungry after all that happened makes me realize that I’m stronger than I think I am. I know I’ll have nightmares. Sorcha and I might need therapy, but those bastards are not gonna make this house a prison. I’m gonna do what I used to do and how I used to do it.

I think about the fight Lachlan and I had this morning. It seems so far away. Like it happened days ago. That’s one thing I’ll change. Running in the dark. If I don’t, I’ll be looking over my shoulder all the time. There’s a gym at the university that opens early. I’ll warm up there before basketball. If I’m still on the team.

“I’m gonna get kicked off the team,” I say as I limp behind Lachlan into the kitchen.

“You won’t. I’ll make it right.” He grabs some of mom’s paper plates and sets them on the table. “What do you want to drink?”

“Water.” I’m already sliding a piece of the loaded extra cheese pizza on to my plate. I take a bite and wince from the pain in my jaw. But I also almost swoon. This is life. Pizza, a great guy and a sweet little girl. It almost makes me cry, but with joy this time.

“What are you guys eating?” Sorcha’s soft voice penetrates the gloom of the kitchen.

Lachlan scoops her into his arms and squeezes her. “Pizza!”

She squirms. “Too tight, Lachlan!”

He sits on a chair and sets her on his lap. “Better?”

“Yeah,” she replies, but she’s distracted by the slice of pizza on his plate.

I reach over and gently squeeze her hand. “Want some?”

She looks at me speculatively. “No. I hate pizza.”

“You what?” Lachlan says, startled. “You don’t hate pizza. You love it.”

“You must be hungry,” I tell her. “At least take a bite.”

“But it’s Opposite Day!”

I laugh. “Opposite Day ended when the sun set.”

“Oh, good.” She snatches up Lachlan’s pizza and takes a big bite, chews it up, swallows, and then gobbles down the rest of it. “I need some water,” she says when she’s done.

I pass my glass over. “You drink that, I’ll get some more.”

One slice is enough for Sorcha, though she picks some the toppings off her second piece. I fill up on three pieces, which leaves five for Lachlan. By the time we’re done, the only thing left is an empty box.

Over the meal, we have an ordinary conversation that Sorcha leads, talking about getting her teeth cleaned by the gramma, then having ice cream with me. “I like sleeping in your bed with you guys,” she says. “Can I stay?”

“Tonight, yes,” Lachlan replies. “And as soon as we get you a bed, it will be every night.”

She cradles his cheeks and kisses him on the lips, then her eyes well up as she says to me, “I’m glad you’re not deaded.”

Her tears get mine going. “Me too.”

“They wouldn’t have deaded me. They thought I loved them.”

She climbs off Lachlan’s lap and onto mine. She gives me the same smack on the lips that she gave him. “But I don’t love them. I hate them.”

I try to reassure her. “Lachlan came and rescued us.”

She nods. “Like a handsome prince.”

I grin at Lachlan. “You got that right, little sister.”

Then she sprinkles little kisses on my puffy cheek and bruising jaw.

We leave the mess on the table. Lachlan grabs another beer as I take Sorcha upstairs to bathe. After she’s toweled off, I slide one of my T-shirts over her head. Obviously, it drapes around her, but at least it won’t fall straight off.

“I like it,” she says as she stretches it out in front of her, looking down. “Do I get to keep it?”

“Yep,” I say. “As a nightie.”

Downstairs, the three of us sit on the couch and talk. Our topics meander back and forth, between the mundane and the trauma of the day. Sorcha keeps coming back to three things. She hates the men, she’s glad I didn’t die, and she’s so happy Lachlan rescued us.

After an hour, she starts yawing, then her eyes shut and she falls into a deep sleep, her head on Lachlan’s lap. We sit side by side in silence for a couple of minutes, then he stands. “Stay here. I’ll tuck her in.”

When he returns, he says, “She’s dead to world. I don’t think a herd of elephants would wake her up.”

Emotion wells up in me. “It’s been a hard day.”

He lingers for a minute, then says, “I’m gonna finish my shower. Be back in a couple.”

The sound of running water settles my brain enough that I can think dispassionately. Lachlan omitted something from the conversation we had earlier. The unknown detail makes my stomach churn. Is it the deal breaker? The one thing I can’t live with no matter how much I love him?

I need to know, but not tonight. Maybe not tomorrow either. I want a few more days of happiness before the bubble bursts.

When he returns from upstairs, he’s naked except for a towel wrapped around his waist. He sits next to me, then pulls me into his arms. “I know you’re hurting but I need you tonight. I need to feel you. Be inside you. I almost lost you today.” He chokes. “My life would lose all meaning without you in it.”

“I need you too,” I whisper. “I need you more than you can know.”

Our kisses are gentle, probing, like it’s the first time we’ve ever touched each other. He runs his lips down my neck, licks the hollow of it, then slides my T-shirt over my head. “I love everything about you,” he says softly as he gently bites a nipple. “Your tits are beautiful. Your legs.” He stokes my hair. “Your pretty curls. The way your brain works. The commitment you have to the things you love. Like me and Sorcha.” He chokes. “God, Stella, don’t ever leave me.”

“I won’t,” I promise, hoping that’s true.

He lays me down on the couch and presses his erection against my pelvis. I moan softly as he slides his fingers through my wetness, then concentrates on my clit, rubbing it gently at first, then with more urgency.

“I gotta be inside you, baby.”

“I need you inside me.”

He stretches me as he gently enters me. I wrap my legs around his hips and grind my clit against him. The hardness of his cock inside me makes me feel desperate. I want to fuse with him. Be one with him. I can’t lose him, I think as tears slide from my eyes.

He thrusts harder and faster, holding himself over me. Keeping his eyes glued to mine. He freezes when he sees my tears. “Am I hurting you?”

“No,” I lie. My body’s not ready for sex, even this gently, but my heart needs him.

“It’s okay to cry,” he whispers as he starts moving again.

Our bodies sync, stroke for stroke, breath for breath until I start to peak. “I’m gonna come,” I whisper as I hold him tighter.

“Hang on,” he rasps. Then, “Now, Come now.”

Those words tip me over the edge. I cry out at the same time he breathes, “Fuck.”

We lay together after, my ear against his heart, listening to the beating slow. How could I live without him? He’s my world.

I shower again, then Lachlan and I tuck ourselves close to Sorcha. Sometime in the night she wakes screaming from a nightmare and I’m almost relieved. She interrupted one of my own.