I was falling, tumbling, rolling down a dark and empty abyss. Everything felt hazy and foggy, and I could barely stand the idea of even opening my eyes. My arms and legs were sluggish, my breathing was heavy, but I knew that I had to go back.

I had to see Hunter again.

Forcing my eyes gradually open, I abandoned that dark pit in my head. As painful light started to filter in, I murmured, moving to slowly cover my face.

“Sarah? Princess?”

That voice…

Hunter.

My eyes snapped open, and I gasped a deep breath of air. I felt strong hands on me and I fought them, barely able to rein myself in as I started to burst into uncontrollable tears.

“Babe, I’m here, it’s okay…”

It was his voice.

My rapid heartbeat began to settle, and I stopped trying to shove him off of me as I broke down in my darling Hunter’s rugged, warm embrace.

As I started to pull myself together, I realized that I was in a hospital. Some tubes were connected to me, some of which I’d dislodged in my frantic panic attack.

There was someone else here now, a nurse. She was talking to Hunter, looking at me in concern. He was saying things to her…

Don’t let them take him away from me.

But she didn’t. Instead, she left the room, and Hunter returned his attention to cradling me and running his fingers through my hair. I stared up, taking notice of the bandages wrapping his shoulder tightly.

A few minutes later, the nurse returned with a doctor, and they reconnected the tubes and monitored my vital signs before trying to speak to me. I could barely understand their questions, but Hunter helped. The doctor jotted down some answers on a clipboard, looking stern and unhelpful, but he eventually left after speaking to us about something that sounded serious.

“What was that about?” I asked when the two of them had left us alone.

Hunter sighed heavily.

“You suffered some pretty strong trauma there, Princess,” he told me. “Do you remember anything from last night?”

“Last… night?” I did remember something.

A dangerous woman who could have killed us all…

A blinding light from the Heavens…

Hunter, trying to reach me…

My head began to sharply hurt again, and I clutched it in my hands. “It hurts, Hunter…”

“I know, Princess,” he told me tenderly. “But you’re okay now. It’s all over. You hit your head pretty damn hard on the way down.”

“How long have I been out?”

He smiled. “Almost twenty-four hours. You were always such a heavy sleeper, even when we were kids… always liked that about you.

I couldn’t help but smile back.

“Sark… Soro…”

“Soroka Sarkonov,” he replied calmly, his face etched with pain. “My older sister, Hannah…”

“What… what happened?”

He ran his fingers through my hair again. “Hannah’s alive, but I’m pretty sure that she’s going to be in the hospital a whole lot longer than you are.”

“I shot her…”

“Yes, and you saved us all.”

“Sort of starting to realize that,” I smiled, but my brief happiness came quickly to a cold fear in my gut.

“Our baby!”

“Don’t worry Sarah… The doctor says the baby is fine. He even showed me the heartbeat,” Hunter replied soothingly.

“What about us? Are we okay?” I asked. It was something of a loaded question, and Hunter knew it.

We were mixed up in some deep shit now, more than even before. International arms dealing, a Chinese ballistic missile in a cargo crate… the boys shot down a goddamn cargo helicopter, for Christ’s sake!

“Relax, Princess. We’re okay,” he reassured me. “Funny enough, I spent most of the morning talking with the CIA. While they were never public about her, they had been trailing Sarkonov for half her career, always one step behind…

“Let’s just say they’re thankful for what they call our service. The suits in the agency are offering us all immunity if we agree to testify against her.”

“So, I guess this means I’m not going to be getting the rest of my payment for finding the cargo container,” I replied half-jokingly, trying to ease the conversation.

“Guess not,” Hunter replied distantly.

A painful look was plastered across his face.

I wanted to hold him… to tell him it was going to be okay. He’d been through so much over the last few days, and to find out his sister had been working against him all this time…

To find out she was willing to kill me to get her way…

It was about another sixteen hours before I was formally released from the hospital. Since I was still a little too weak for a motorcycle ride, Hunter chose to bring us back to our temporary headquarters by something a little more traditional: the services of a beaten-up, yellow taxi.

The rest of the Devil’s Dragons were pleased to see me back, safe and sound. They were drinking and celebrating, but I needed time to process what happened before I could get back to business as usual.

Hunter made me a comfortable spot on our makeshift bed. We stayed there quietly for a few minutes, just basking in a little peaceful silence.

More accurately, the closest thing to silence you could get, with the club outside our doors carrying on.

Finally, I pierced the silence.

“Are you okay, Hunter?”

He gave a slight shrug. “Bullet grazed my shoulder. Sixteen stitches and some antibiotics. I’ll be fine.”

“You know that I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about your sister,” I said, my voice turning graver.

“I just… I should have seen it, Sarah. I should have seen her pulling the strings behind the scenes. Finding out Hannah was Soroka Sarkonov has thrown my whole life into question.

“How long has she been steering my life from the shadows? My life in this club, my alliances with the Outlaws – and you, coming back to me… How much of this was just my sister treating me like a fucking puppet?” Hunter asked, his confidence shaken.

“None of that matters, Hunter… You’re the president of your club, and a leader to your men. Those men didn’t follow Hannah into battle. They followed you,” I replied. “They’ll always follow you.”

Hunter gazed at my small belly bump and then glanced back up at me. When I nodded, he gave it a slight rub through my shirt.

“My money’s on a boy,” he said softly.

I blinked twice. “What makes you so sure?”

“Because he’s a badass. Kid’s made it through more shit over the last couple of days than most people see in a lifetime.”

“I don’t know. Last I checked, a girl made it through the same shit,” I replied with a grin.

Hunter met my grin with his own, shelving his darkness for a moment. “Well, boy or girl, I feel bad for anyone who ever stands in their way.”

“Good,” I said. “They’re going to need to be strong. The world is a dangerous place, full of dangerous people.”

Hunter paused, studying the lines on my face. “That’s what bothers me,” he finally conceded. “We stopped Hannah from doing something terrible, but I can’t help but feel like we opened the door for something even worse…”

“What could be worse than blowing up half a city?!?” I said angrily. “Your sister is fucking insane!”

Hunter spoke his piece quietly, choosing to not argue the point. “And she might spend her life in prison for it. But what about this ‘competitor’ she talked about? Hannah – I mean, Sarkonov – told us that she was doing this for the greater good. She said she was saving millions of lives…”

“And you believed her,” I replied, closing my eyes.

“Let’s just say that I’m going to be keeping my eyes wide open. What’s left of her organization isn’t going to just disappear in her absence, and if she was willing to go to these depths against an enemy...

“We might have something worth worrying about.”

He turned to face me with warmth in his eyes. “But always remember, Sarah. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe. No matter what.”

“Noble words,” I replied, remembering our old argument over the phone – the one that threatened to destroy us forever. “Do you really feel that way?”

“I do,” he nodded. “If you’ll stay with me, I promise that I will never let anything happen to you and our child…” He quickly changed gears, crossing his arms. “So, what are you gonna do now? Solved your big case, even if a lot of the work was done for you…”

I punched him in the arm. “I still learned more from Talon than you did. And in case you didn’t notice, I saved your damn life!”

“Reminds me,” he noted, shrugging off my punch, “I need to call the crotchety old bastard and have a chat about trust and fucking responsibility…”

“You still thinking about trying to patch things up with Talon after everything that happened?” I asked.

“Some of the groundwork is already laid for that,” he replied. “It’s why I was able to find the two of you. But I’m thinking I might let someone else lead the way on that upcoming little shit-show…”

“Oh yeah?” I smirked.

“You were right about a lot of things, Sarah. Being unable to take care of my club at the end of the day. Moving from city to city. My leadership of the Outlaws being a danger to us. It’s all true.

“I did everything I could to set the Devil’s Dragons in a better direction. But it’s time to find a place to call home. Grizz had already found something out in New Orleans when he came back. I can only hope that he leads the club in a better direction now…”

“You can’t give up the Dragons,” I gasped.

“I’m willing to.”

His voice rang of conviction.

“That’s not what I want,” I answered with equal strength. “I want our child raised in a stable environment, but with a father in charge of a motorcycle club that takes down cartels and arms dealers, nobody will ever dream of fucking with him.”

“Him?” Hunter raised an eyebrow curiously. “So, now you’re on my side?”

“I want it to be a little boy,” I smiled. “Strong and noble, just like his daddy… kind, caring, and willing to stand up for those who lose their voice. I want him to be a man who never gives up.”

“And you want me to keep the club.”

“Absolutely,” I responded.

“Grizz will be happy to hear that. He wasn’t exactly thrilled when I quietly dangled that carrot.”

“I can see why he wouldn’t have been,” I smiled. “Grizz doesn’t exactly strike me as wanting the spotlight. He might have made a good leader, but he would have hated every moment of it…”

“Fair enough,” he replied.

My fingers trailed up his arm, to the nape of his neck. After everything we’d been through, and after everything that had happened in the last few weeks, I knew what I needed right now.

My lustful gaze matched his quiet glance.

He knew what I wanted, and he wanted it too.

Together, we slid backwards into the makeshift bed, falling into each other’s warm, loving embrace…