Chapter 23
Wren
It was half past two, and I had yet to hear from Maniac.
I had wanted to ask Nickel if he had heard anything, but he was kind of busy helping Karmen have a baby.
“How can I have a hangover when I haven't even gone to sleep yet?” Cora groaned next to me.
We were sitting in the waiting room, camped out on the uncomfortable chairs, waiting to hear from the guys and about Karmen. Cora had gotten us kicked out of the delivery room when she had started making balloon animals out of the rubber gloves.
I was wrong when I had thought Cora had sobered up a bit. Finally, after four hours of being here, she was sobering up.
“You want me to get you some coffee?” I asked,
“Oh, my God, I will love you forever if you do that.” Her head was in her hands, and her eyes were closed. “I would give you money, but I didn’t bring my purse.”
“I got you.” I glanced over at Nikki, who was sleeping off the whole bottle of wine she had drank. “I’ll be right back.”
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and checked it for the fiftieth time to see if Maniac had texted me. Of course, he hadn’t, I shoved the phone back in my pocket. I pressed the down button for the elevator and wrapped my arms around my waist.
The elevator doors opened, and five of the Fallen Lords looked at me. Five including Maniac. I stopped breathing looking at him.
He was alive.
He wasn’t arrested.
He was here.
Brinks, Slayer, Pipe, and some other guy I had never seen before filed out of the elevator. Maniac stood there, not moving.
The elevator dinged, and the doors started to slide shut. I quickly stuck my foot out, stopping the doors.
I flung myself into his arms and wrapped my arms and legs around him. “You’re alive,” I whispered. I buried my face in his neck and inhaled deep.
“Yeah, I am, darlin’.” His voice was rough and tired.
I leaned back, his arms holding me. “Are you okay?”
I slow smile spread across his lips.
The elevator dinged again, and the doors slid shut. He reached out and pressed a button. I looked over my shoulder at the panel. “You don’t even know where I was going.”
“I hit the stop button. I need a couple minutes with you.”
I looked up into his eyes. “Are you okay?” I asked again.
“I got you in my arms, Wren. You know when that happens, nothing can get better.”
“That’s not what I mean.” He knew what I was asking.
He pressed a kiss to my lips. “It’s done.”
“You mean… they won’t…?”
He shook his head. “The Hell Captains are no more.”
The men who had tormented and used me for months were gone. They couldn’t hurt me anymore. “But how?” How had he gotten rid of a whole club in hours?
“Remember what we talked about before, Wren? How sometimes I’m not going to be able to tell you things, because if I do, then I can’t keep you safe?”
I nodded.
“Just know they will never touch you again, and that’s all you need to know.”
My mind yelled at me I needed to know more. The words were ready to pour out of my lips, demanding to know every detail, but I clamped my lips shut and nodded my head.
“You look like you’re about to explode, darlin’.”
I plastered a smile on my face. “Nope, I’m good.” I had to trust him. He said I didn’t need to know more, and I had to listen to him. “You say I don’t need to worry anymore, so I won’t.” Lord, that was hard to say.
He pressed me against the wall of the elevator. “You are so full of shit.”
“Oh, my God,” I moaned. “Tell me what happened!” I had tried, I really had. But dammit, I needed to know. I wrapped my arms around his neck and batted my eyes at him. “Please.” That was the way to do it, beg.
He rested his forehead on mine. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
I shook my head. In the future, I knew there were going to be things he wouldn’t be able to tell me, but this had to do with me. These were men who had hurt me.
He managed to pull his phone out. He held it up to my face, and my jaw dropped.
“What the? How the?” I grabbed the phone from his hand and quickly scanned the short news article.
“We’ll talk about it when we get back to the clubhouse, yeah?”
I nodded.
“You okay?”
“Why are you asking me that?” He was the one who had, from the looks of the news article, torched an entire block.
“Just making sure.”
“I’m good. I got drunk, and then Karmen’s water broke. I sobered up real quick, but Cora and Jezebel weren’t so lucky.”
He chuckled and pressed a kiss to my lips. “Sounds like you had an eventful night, too.”
“I don’t think it was nearly explosive as yours.” I threw him a wink and couldn’t help but giggle at my lame joke.
“Karmen push that baby out yet?” he asked, changing the subject.
“Last we heard, it was going to be a while. She was barely dilated when we came in.”
“But it’s happening, right? Not a false alarm?”
I nodded. “Yup. Hopefully today, she’ll have it.”
“So where were you headed?”
“Coffee. Cora is dealing with a hangover, and I couldn’t stand sitting there anymore.” I threaded my fingers through his hair. “But now that you’re here, I think I might need a kiss.”
“You might need a kiss?”
I bit my lip and nodded. “Okay, I need a kiss.”
He pressed his lips to mine, and his tongue invaded my mouth. This time, when he kissed me, it was different. He was giving everything to me instead of taking what he wanted. I melted into his body, my arms wrapped tight around his neck.
My core was pressed against his dick, and a low growl rumbled from his throat.
“Son of a bitch, Wren. Stop or I’m going to take you right here in this elevator.” His lips lingered on mine as we both tried to catch our breath.
“Who needs coffee when you can kiss like that,” I mumbled.
The elevator started buzzing, and Maniac reached out to hit a button. “Good thing I didn’t fuck you against the wall. We would have been found with our pants down.”
He loosened his hold on me, and I slowly slid down the wall. “That would be a hell of a story.”
“So, coffee, and then we check to see when this baby is entering the world?” he asked.
I nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”
He brushed my hair behind my ear. “You look happy, darlin’.”
I titled my head to the side and smiled. “I am happy.” It was about damn time I was able to say that and actually mean it.
Maniac had helped me get there.
He helped me get through all the bullshit in my head.
He showed me everything I had to live for.
And most of all, he showed me I was worthy of being loved.
*