“Here, I got you.” Doc offered me his arm and helped me out of the backseat of the truck. The very same truck Joker had used to get me to the hospital.

We’d only taken a few steps when I looked up and saw the spot where Axel had taken his last breath. The ground was still red. A small cry escaped my lips and my legs gave out.

“Easy, Neve.” Doc kept a tight grip on me and directed me toward the house. The minute we crossed the threshold, memories from the assault came flooding back and I fought back a sob as I looked at the coffee table and relived Blade slamming my face into it. Even though the floor was now clean, I could still see white powder mixed with blood near the doorway.

This house had been my sanctuary—how could I stay if it was now full of nightmares?

“Doc,” I called out a warning before my vision swam and everything went dark.

When I came to, I was lying on a bed in a dark room. Charm’s room, to be exact, yet he was still nowhere to be found. I’d worried that it would come to this. It was only a matter of time before he looked at me and saw his sister.

I’d seen his sister, hadn’t I?

My biggest dilemma was in trying to sort fact from fiction—there was no rational explanation for why I’d been able to see Axel. This wasn’t The Sixth Sense. If I was in a coma, then I shouldn’t have been able to walk the halls of the hospital—which meant that what I’d seen was nothing more than a drug-induced hallucination.

But, Charm had been there—I had the mistletoe to prove it.

The bedroom door opened, but I stayed as still as possible on the bed, suddenly afraid of what was to come. I heard the lock turn as the door closed, but the lights remained off. Charm rounded the corner and jumped back when he saw me.

“Jesus Christ, Neve. What are you doing here?”

I pushed myself up into a sitting position against the headboard, clutching my sore ribs. “I’m sorry—I woke up in here. I can go back to my room. Sorry—”

With an aching throat and on the verge of tears, I forced my legs over the side of the bed and stood up with a groan. Charm reached me in two strides. “Stop. What’d I tell you about apologizing for everything? I thought you were still in the hospital. Nobody told me otherwise.”

I tried to step around him to leave, but he held me by the shoulders, forcing me to look up at him. That was when I noticed that he was covered in blood.

“Oh my god—you’re bleeding!” I tried unsuccessfully to pull his cut-off away from his body, but he stopped me.

“Neve, stop—it ain’t my blood.”

My hands dropped back down by my sides. “Oh…right. All that blood—it really brings out the color of your eyes.”

Charm cocked his head to the side and chuckled. “I swear to god, honey. You say the strangest things when you’re nervous.”

“So, Blade—he’s dead?”

He nodded and took a step back. “He’s gone. You wanna tell me what happened to you?”

I sat back down on the bed with a sigh. Here it was—he was either going to believe me or I was going to end up sleeping in the forest again. He leaned against the wall and gestured for me to start talking.

“I didn’t relapse—I swear to you.”

He nodded, but his jaw remained set in a hard line, so I elaborated. “Blade showed up at the house—I thought that Twitch and Joker had gotten back early. Turns out, Blade had broken in and I’m not going to lie to you, seeing the coke laid out on the coffee table like a Christmas present was tempting. I couldn’t do it though. I saw your face—I saw all of your faces.”

A lone tear trailed down my cheek, but Charm kept his focus on a spot somewhere above my head. “How’d the drugs get into your system?”

He didn’t believe me.

I took a deep breath. “Blade said he was there on business— said you were going to meet with him. I told him to leave because the deal was off. He hit me and the next thing I knew, I was on the floor with him on top of me.” I squeezed my eyes shut as the images assaulted me.

Charm knelt near my feet and gripped my knees. “Jesus, I shouldn’t have pushed you. You don’t owe me an explanation.”

I shook my head and forced myself to finish. “I—I tried to fight him off, but he was so much stronger. He pushed me onto the coffee table and I tried not to, but I inhaled some of the drugs.”

The whole thing sounded unbelievable. People didn’t get forced into using drugs; that was just some lie we were all told growing up.

Charm’s eyes focused on mine and his grip tightened on my legs; a clear indication that he was still listening and waiting for me to continue.

Axel had claimed that fentanyl was highly potent and Doc backed it up, saying that what I didn’t inhale had most likely been absorbed through my skin—something that sounded fishy, at best.

“I knew something was off within a few seconds. It was like trying to breathe through a straw and then my throat went numb. Axel or Clint created a diversion long enough to get me out of the house. Blade killed Axel first…and then Clint. They died trying to help me.”

Charm looked down at me. “Clint wasn’t involved? Are you sure?”

I nodded. “Blade was responsible for all of it. Clint got in too deep with him and—” I mashed my lips together as salty tears ran down my face.

Charm cupped my chin in his blood-stained hand and wiped away my tears with his thumb. “It’s okay, honey. You’re safe now.”

My entire body shook, but I kept talking. “The fire. It was to get my parent’s money. He was the one who stabbed me; I didn’t put it together until he showed up at the clubhouse. He thought he’d get me high and I’d give up the money. Clint thought that the drugs were for Blade and cut the coke with fentanyl.” I couldn’t finish—couldn’t tell him that it was the same drug that had been used against his sister.

He immediately reached for me, pulling me up against his chest. “I’m sorry, honey. God, to think that I almost lost you…”

I focused on the warmth of his large hands framing my face and not on the fact that the knuckles of his right hand were split wide open before whispering, “I have a confession to make. I’ve needed to say it for a while now, but haven’t known how. You have a right to know though.”

His body tensed and he rocked back on his heels, letting me go. “Okay.”

I traced the stitching on the comforter. “I found your journal my first week here. I didn’t mean to pry, but I wanted to know more about you.”

His brows furrowed, but I kept going. “That book became an addiction for me and I read it every chance I got. Initially, it was just to see what kind of person you were, but I quickly became invested in everyone’s lives. The things you overcame and the things you did for Rae and Joker—it speaks volumes about your character. The night of the gathering, Doc told me that I’d made you different.

“I didn’t believe him until I found the other journal, but by then it didn’t matter. You see, the thing is—I’d already fallen in love with your kindness when I read about Bones. I’d fallen in love with your character when you gave up on your dreams to stay and protect your sister. You did everything in your power to set things right so that no one else would ever know loss like you had. Reading what you wrote in your journal about me was just the final link in the chain—I’d fallen in love with you as a man long before that. I just needed a push in the right direction.”

There was so much left that needed to be said and I was quickly growing tired, but I managed with a gravelly whisper, “I couldn’t have left—was never even given a choice in the matter. It was always meant to be you. Every awful event I went through led me to the woods by the clubhouse and I—I love you, Kane. I realize you may not feel the same any—”

He moved his thumb until it covered my lips, silencing me. “Look around you, baby. Do I look like a man who would risk everything for just anyone?”

I shook my head, but he kept his thumb where it was and continued. “Fuck no. I love you. You’re stuck with me—you’re gonna marry me…carry my babies…”

I swallowed hard and talked around his hand. “You wanna marry me?” It came out in a hoarse squeak.

He nodded impatiently, as if we’d already covered the topic hundreds of times. “And knock you up—that way everyone sees you’re mine too.” He dropped his hand inside the pocket of his pants and pulled out a small ring. It was a simple, hand forged silver band with a small ruby in the center. The corner of his mouth turned up in a slight smile. “Reminded me of your lips the night of the gathering.”

I stared at it in wonder and complete shock, while waiting for him to drop to one knee and ask me ‘the question.’

He cocked his head to the side. “What? You don’t like it?”

I smiled. “No, I love it. I was just waiting on you to do this properly.” I glanced down toward the wood floor and he sighed.

“You’re shittin’ me, right?”

I shook my head. “If you want an answer, you have to ask me a question.”

That cocky grin reappeared. “And what makes you think I’m askin’, honey? I claimed you.”

My own smile widened. “If you want me to wear that pretty little ring on my finger, you’ll ask me like a damn gentleman, Kane.”

He bit down on his lower lip before dropping to one knee beside the bed. “Alright then—baby, will you marry me? I can’t promise you that it’ll be easy, but I’ll keep you safe. I’ll give you my name and a family within the club. You’ll never want for anything.” The moonlight streaming in through the window made his eyes look suspiciously shiny.

I nodded happily. “Yes, Kane. I’ll marry you.”

He leaned in and pressed his lips to mine before slipping the ring onto my finger. “That official enough for ya, boss?”

I lightly bit the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing. It hurt too much for that. “It’s a start, Kane. It’s a start.”

He kissed me fiercely before stepping back to strip out of his cut-off and t-shirt.

“What are you doing?”

He paused with his hands on his jeans and looked up at me. “What does it look like I’m doin’, honey? I’m getting out of these bloody clothes and then I’m gonna shower. After that, I’m gonna sink into you until the only memories you have are of me and you forget the hell you went through.”

My mouth went drier than the Sahara and my tongue tangled in knots. It took me several tries before I could form a coherent sentence. “Don’t shower.”

It was his turn to look shocked. “Like this?”

I nodded slowly. “Just like that.”

He cocked his head to the side and gave another lopsided smile. “Damn, honey. Come here.”

I walked over to where he stood, fighting the urge to leap into his arms. My ribs, however, applauded my decision to move slowly. “You need something, Prez?”

He pulled on the drawstring of my sweatpants, forcing me closer to his body as he worked them down my legs. “Just you.”

Charm managed to gently lift the hem of my t-shirt until it was over my head. His eyes narrowed almost immediately and he let out a low growl before flipping the light switch on in the bathroom.

“Is it bad?” I asked as he began checking me over, finally stepping around him and moving over to the mirror to assess the damage. Dark streaks ran down my side and if I looked closely enough, I was sure I would’ve been able to see the outline from Blade’s boots. My face hadn’t fared much better—I was a canvas of black, blue, and purple.

“Jesus,” Charm stood behind me, his head resting gently on top of mine. “I’d kill him all over again if I could, baby. What he did to you—” His voice cut off in a rough sob and I reached down for his hands, knowing that this was a side of him only I would ever see.

It felt like an honor had been bestowed upon me. He was vulnerable with me and knowing that somehow made the details over the last few days irrelevant. It didn’t matter if the entire thing had been a drug-induced hallucination, his love was real. Of that I was certain.

I broke the tension the only way I knew how, by getting him to laugh. “I’m back to looking like a mangy dog again, don’t you think?”

Charm didn’t laugh…didn’t even crack a smile. His arms encircled my waist and he lifted me up onto the bathroom counter, my legs straddling his body. “Should’ve never said that to you—I’m not a good man. I ain’t ever gonna be on the right side of the law, Neve. I’ve killed a lot of people, the most recent being Blade; and I know I don’t fuckin’ deserve you—doesn’t mean I’m willing to stand back and let a better man claim you though.

“I’m a selfish prick and a million lifetimes wouldn’t be enough to make up for all the shit I’ve done. Knowing that, I wanna keep you all the same—I can’t do this without you.”

He scrubbed the blood from his hands under steaming water as I watched in confusion. His words had triggered a strange sense of déjà vu, and then it hit me—he’d said almost the exact same thing when I was in a coma. Before I could pepper him with the questions racing through my brain, his mouth came down hard on mine.

He held my face in his rough hands and gently pressed a kiss to the cut on my forehead. Under the bright lights, he used his hands and mouth to apologize for everything that had happened to me.

I brought his face back up to mine and his tongue trailed lightly across my jaw, igniting a fire in my blood. My fingers traced along his tattoos, slowly working my way down to his belt.

I took my time unfastening it and toyed with him by dipping my fingers beneath the waistband of his jeans, stopping just as I brushed against his hard length. Growing impatient with my attempts at seduction, Charm let out another low growl before dragging his jeans and boxers down over his hips.

His fingers moved up and down my slit and I found that watching him with the lights on only turned me on further. His middle finger circled my clit before sliding into me.

My mouth fell open and a moan slipped out as he slowly pumped in and out of me. Taking my whimpers as a contest, he added a second finger, curling them along my front wall. “Oh god...” I breathed out as I wrapped his long hair up in my hands, keeping him in place.

He grinned before sucking one of my nipples into his mouth, somehow managing to maintain his rhythm while doing it.

This time, it was me who grew frustrated. I was close, but needed more. I pushed his hand away and reached for him.

He raised his head up with a smirk. “What do you need?”

“You,” I groaned. “Please.”

I sucked in a breath as he sank into me inch by inch, until my only thought was of his name—Kane. I moaned it repeatedly and held him in with my hips as he lovingly pieced me back together, my skin taking on the blood that coated his—each of us sharing the burden of the sins he’d committed in my honor. My nails dug into his shoulders as I fell apart, but he kept thrusting.

Charm panted in my ear, “You keep squeezing me like that, honey, and I’m not gonna last.”

I bit down on my lip and tightened around him again.

“Always challengin’ me,” he said, before crushing his mouth up against mine, muffling my screams as he filled me.

It wouldn’t have mattered if I’d been given a choice to stay or not—we were like two halves—each in need of the other to feel whole.