“Um, she said something like he wanted to hurt me, see me lose someone I loved. He knows me.” I tried to remember everything Stella said, but at the time, I was more concerned about all the injuries she had. Scared like fucking shit more like it.
“Who the fuck is this?” Steel shouted. He was frustrated just like the rest of us, and now Mia was in danger, too.
If Rogue’s MO was to go after the women of the club, was Mia the next target or Rainn?
Mia shifted in my arms and turned her face to Steel. When he saw her, his whole face softened.
“Come here, Beauty,” he said gently, which she did immediately. Steel might be a dick to her, but she loved him regardless. Steel wrapped Mia up in his arms, her tiny body swallowed up by the massive sniper.
“Family of Stella Hogan,” I heard called across the room. Striding quickly, I made my way to where a doctor stood still dressed in scrubs.
“I’m her fiancé.” Well, I was. I told her we were getting married, and she said ‘okay, baby,’ so that was a yes in my book.
“Can I speak freely here, or would you rather we go into a more private room?”
“No, here is fine. This is her family,” I told him. I saw the relief on Mia’s face when I said that. She felt like she’d failed Stella, I knew and even understood it, but there was no need for such guilt on her shoulders. She’d tried to save my honey, tried to bargain for her life. There was no better loyalty.
“She came through the surgery better than I expected. Her facial injuries and the bruising to her body are very extensive. All will heal in time, but there will be a few small scars on her face. Her lung collapsed, but we reinflated it with no problems, and the good thing was there was no blood in there. Her body took a hell of a beating, and we were concerned about more internal bleeding than there was. The real issue is the stab wound. It was very deep, but the knife used missed every single important thing it could have hit. The person who stabbed her didn’t know what they were doing or deliberately stabbed her in the wrong spot—or the right place, as the case is. Oh, we also took a biopsy of the lump in her breast. It was on her chart, so we took care of that for her, too. The results should be back in a few weeks.”
My mind was reeling with everything the doctor was saying, but I was clinging to the fact she was alive. I needed to lay eyes on her, feel her, hold her. Breathe her.
“Can I see her?”
I didn’t need his permission. A fucking armed tank would not be able to keep me from going to her.
“Of course. She woke up from the anaesthetic a few minutes ago and was asking for someone called Booth. Is that you?”
Nodding my head, I looked back at my men, Mia, who was wrapped up in Steel, and everyone with a relieved expression. I gave them a chin lift, then turned and followed the doctor down the long corridor. I wanted to push him out of the way and sprint to her room, but I didn’t. I took the time to pull myself together because Stella needed me to be calm. She didn’t need the president of the Wounded Souls now. She needed her man, the man who loved her more than his own life, more than his club. The man she was going to marry as soon as she healed.
40
STELLA
If pain were money, I would be a stinking rich woman about now. Everything hurt. No, that was not right, hurt wasn’t a strong enough word for what I was feeling, but what I did feel was alive, and that was such a sweet feeling. I made it! I lived when they’d assured me I wouldn’t, so they lost the bet when they predicted I would die in Booth’s arms. I had been in his arms—I remembered that clearly. Even with all I had gone through there on the cold concrete, beaten, bloodied, and stabbed, I’d felt his presence when he gently gathered me into his arms and held me, kissing my face and ordering me not to die. So typical, always telling me what to do. I thought I was smiling, but I couldn’t tell because the drugs the doctors had given me were giving me a really good tingle. Plus, my face hurt so much I couldn’t feel anything else other than a dull constant throb all over.
The doctor informed me just a bit ago that I was going to be okay. I asked him if I could see Booth. I needed to see him. I wanted to hear him hum for me again. While I laid there in his arms, my man had hummed one of my favourite songs to me as we waited for the paramedics to arrive. It was the best memory of my life, and I would carry it with me forever.
“Honey.”
Oh, that voice! Tears instantly filled my eyes, and all my pain was forgotten. I turned my head slowly, and it felt heavy and had a splitting headache. I looked and saw Booth standing by my hospital bed, his face ragged with worry, and he looked like he had been crying. His clothes still had my blood on them, but he was a sight for sore eyes. Taking a small breath, because a deep one was not possible, I gingerly held the hand that didn’t have the two broken fingers out to him, and he took it straightaway. He crowded in as close as he could to me. Breathing me.
“Hey, baby,” I whispered, loving the warmth of his breath against my lips. But I also felt wetness against my cheeks. Then I felt his body shudder against me and heard choking sobs. I hated that I couldn’t hold him the way I wanted, the way he needed.
“Booth, please, it’s okay. I am okay. You found me and saved me just like you always promised.” I begged him to listen and hear me. I didn’t want him to take this on as his fault. It was my stepfamily. The club couldn’t have prevented it. They would have attacked me anyway because Gary wanted the house, and he would not give up until he got it.
“I nearly lost you, and I can’t lose you, Honey. Shit doesn’t make sense if you aren’t beside me, in our bed, holding my hand, making love with me, sharing my life. I have been through war and seen some atrocious things, things that haunt a man for the rest of his days. But—” he stopped and wiped the tears from his cheeks with the back of his free hand. “But nothing is more haunting than the thought of living without you, Stella Hogan. You are the blood in my veins, Honey. The fucking air I breathe.”
I had no control over my tears as they fell thick and fast. His beautiful speech hit me right where it was intended. He had no need to worry about living without me, ever. He was stuck with me. I gave him my love, my trust, my virginity, and my heart. He owned me, body and soul.
“Ditto, baby, now can you do something for me?” I asked, my lips pressed against his, tasting his tears.
“Fucking anything,” he vowed, not taking his lips from their place on top of mine.
“Hum to me again. I want to fall asleep with the sweetest sound in the world, my man humming Ed Sheeran,” I sassed at him, feeling his smile on my lips.
“I will spank your arse for that, Honey,” he said with a chuckle.
“I certainly hope you do.” I tried to giggle, but it came out more like a groan. I watched as Booth leaned over and pushed the button for the morphine drip, administering a dose of pain medication into my arm.
“Okay, Honey, no more talking. You need to sleep and heal so you can marry me. No arguments, no take backs, no anything. You…are…marrying…me.”
“So bossy,” I grumbled as the darkness of sleep took over my mind. The last thing I heard before he started humming was more sweet words.
“And so much in love with you.”
***
“Stella Hogan, where the fuck are you?”
The shouted words were not the sweetest words I had heard. In fact, if Booth kept yelling at me, I just might hurt him. I had been out of the hospital for three weeks, and he was driving me crazy.
I loved him to distraction, but he had to calm down a little. Or a lot. I hadn’t done anything except sit down, lay down, or be carried from one spot to another—okay, that I enjoyed—but I felt fine now. The bruising was all but gone, just a few yellowing marks here and there, my fingers were still in splints, and I had a weird little scar on my eyebrow from the ring on the stranger’s hand when he slapped me. The stab wound was checked by the doctor just yesterday, and he gave me the go-ahead for all normal activities to resume. I was given the go-ahea
d over a week ago, but Booth, being the bossy man he was, refused to play until the surgeon said it was okay. The GP’s words were obviously not good enough for the pres.
“Blondie, are youse hiding from Vinnie?” Shiloh asked from beside me. She and I had been playing with Trigger for the last half an hour. She had been sad when she heard about Bullet and made the entire club attend his funeral. Booth had to carry me as it was held the day I got out of the hospital because Shiloh had refused to do it until I could attend. I knew Steel had a surprise in mind for her, and I was guessing it would have four legs and a bark.
Laughing at the little girl, I nodded my head.
“Yes, I am, Squirt. The man is driving me crazy. He won’t let me tie my own shoes or wash my own back.” I pretended to be annoyed, and I was a little, but I loved that my man cared so much.
“But I love washing your back, Honey,” Booth drawled from behind me.
I raised my eyebrow as I turned to face my man. He looked pissed off, but that was only because he couldn’t find me so he would get over it. I planned to make sure he did.
“I would much prefer you wash my front, Vinnie.” I watched as his eyes smouldered with pure lust. Three weeks without sex, and Booth was a man on the edge. With the abstinence and all things Rogue, the man needed a mind-blowing blow job to cool his jets, and I was going to give him one.
“Stella.” He growled a warning. His eyes shifted to Shiloh, who was too busy with Trigger to notice the growing bulge that had formed behind his zip.
Hmm, yum. I licked my lips and feigned innocence. “What?” I laughed, happy that his discomfort was giving me joy. There had been far too much unhappiness here of late. Mia came to mind. My beautiful friend went into a shell after the night at the strip club. Well, if I was honest, it started after that phone call to Steel. Mia had heard all about the nightmare proposal with Callie the night I was taken. We had all heard. The only good thing to come out of it was Callie’s demise from the club. Steel agreed with it all, but he was hurting from the loss of her and her rejection.
“You need to be resting. I have a meeting with the brothers, and then you and I are going away for a few days.”
I raised my brow at that. Booth hadn’t let me out of our room, and now he said we were going away. From the compound? Together?
“Really? And where are we going, baby?”
He grinned the sexy grin that got me every time, and I watched as he sauntered over to where I sat. He leaned over and pressed his lips to mine all while holding my gaze. The intensity of it burned clear down into my soul.
“We are going to a beach where you will wear a bikini the entire time so I can worship those incredible breasts whenever I want to, and we will make love on the beach as man and wife. And that is it.”
My smile was a mile wide. I loved this man so much even if he was bossy.
The results from the biopsy had come back a week ago—a benign cyst. When Booth and I heard the news from the doctor, he dropped to his knees and cried, and so did I. The doctor had left us in the room on our own for a while after that. The whole scare had brought us closer together and made us decide, then and there, that we would not waste any more of our time together.
“Geez, you’re so bossy,” I said, pouting, but I would do anything this amazing, sexy man asked me. Being his wife was right up there at the top of the list, and the second was being the mother of his babies.
Kissing me once more, Booth stood up. “Squirt, can I trust you to make sure Stella takes it easy until I come back?”
I rolled my eyes. Now a four-year-old was babysitting me.
“Yes, drill sergeant,” she shouted, causing us both to laugh. Oh, my God, this kid.
“Baby, do you need me in the meeting? Maybe if someone asks the right question, it will help me remember more details?” I asked, desperate to help him figure out who Rogue was. Booth wouldn’t let me talk about what happened that night for weeks. He wanted me to start healing first. He’d said nothing was more important to him than I was and that Rogue could wait.
However, this morning, I was able to recall the whole story in the war room with the guys. Booth stayed at the head of the table—like the time Charlotte and I got into trouble—and all the members questioned me as I sat at the other end of the table. He had remained stoic during my telling of the beating, and Steel, too, had stayed quiet when I told them Mia begged Gary to take her, that she had no one that would miss her. If it hadn’t been for the massive ticks in their jaws, you wouldn’t have known they were falling apart inside.
I hated to talk about those times, but Booth wanted to know everything that had ever happened to me. He had hounded me a week ago to tell him about the scar on my back, which he’d noticed in the shower during that amazing morning before the dreaded dress fitting. I really hadn’t wanted to tell him. How did you tell the man you loved that your stepbrother used a stun gun on you? He listened quietly as I recalled the events of the day Bradley brought his police equipment home and punished me for not handing over my entire wages that week.
I remembered the look of complete devastation on my man’s face, his eyes shining with guilt.
“Don’t you take this and make it yours. Handsome, you are the best part of me. My strength, my happiness, my heart. I truly believe I had to go through the ugly to get to the beauty. I lost my mother, my family, and my home only to find my future with you, Vincent Booth.
He hadn’t liked me using his given name, but he got over it when I had dropped to my knees and given him the best blow job he ever had. Hmmm. I thought a repeat performance was on the cards for tonight.
“No, it’s fine, Honey, we just need to go over a few things. I will be back soon,” he said as he turned to leave.
“Hey,” I called out.
Turning around, Booth raised his eyebrow at me, a smirk on his lips.
I peeked at Shiloh and noticed she had lost interest in the adults and had taken off with Trigger. Seb watched her every move from his place on the next picnic table.
“Just so you know—I plan on getting knocked up with your baby during this beach and bikini marriage getaway.” I let him in on my plan. I’d decided life was too short, and I wanted kids, lots of them. Booth was fourteen years older than I was, so we needed to start as soon as possible so he could enjoy them. During my hospital stay, I had asked if the IUD could be removed. There was going to be no more waiting. I wanted a family. I wanted Booth’s babies.
His eyes went from soft to molten, the grey almost black. “You will be knocked up by the end of the night, Honey. Trust me on that,” he said over his shoulder as he walked away, leaving me to stare at his perfect arse in his perfect jeans with a smile on my face and love in my heart.
41
BOOTH
“All right, let’s get this over with. Mannix, you got the lead.” I wanted to get through this as quickly as possible so I could get back to Stella. I wanted to fuck my woman. Leaning back in my chair, I waited for Mannix to start and tried like hell to ignore the raging hard-on that my woman’s sass had given me minutes earlier.
“Okay, this is what we got from Stella. Booth, this guy knows you personally. All of us but mainly you. He wants you to pay for something he thinks you did—I am assuming during one of our deployments. He started this thing to target Deck, but once the girls came along, he changed his plans. Why? And how does he know they mean something to us?” Mannix ticked off his questions.
“He has inside information, but in what form? Does he know a club member? No one in this room that would turn,” Deck said, and I agreed. All the men at this table would die for each person here.
“Prospects?” I questioned, but Darth shook his head straightaway.
“No way. Those guys bleed duty, honour, and respect. Being a part of the Wounded Souls is their life’s ambition. No way would they turn. That goes for Lucky, too. And none of them would ever have Shiloh hurt for any reason,” Darth said, the vehemence clear. The raven-haired princess was
top of our list for protection.
“Lucky doesn’t have any information on the girls. Remember Stella said he knew about her lump and the fact that Mia is a virgin,” Creed added as he looked over at Steel, who was staring straight ahead with his fists clenched and turning white. Steel and Creed had been dancing around their mutual attraction for the beautiful brunette. I wasn’t sure what Creed’s angle was, whether he was just pulling Steel’s chain, trying to get him to see what was in front of him, or if he actually had real feelings for Mia.
“Mia needs more detail,” Steel demanded with a low growl, his eyes narrowed at Creed, daring him to volunteer for the job.
“It’s taken care of, brother,” I said, putting a halt to their shit. “The details on Shiloh and Teach stay the same, and I don’t care if Squirt is going to the kitchen to get a drink, someone goes with her. I also want a detail on Rainn, too,” I said and glanced at Mannix, who gave me a nod. He had been livid when he saw the slap mark on her face, and they had hit her so hard, the red welt stayed there for days after. Sure, Mannix and Rainn hooked up a fair bit, but Rainn was also one of his closest friends, and Mannix didn’t do female friends, so she was special to him.
“It would be better if Stella could remember his face. I know she said it was dark, but isn’t it weird that both girls saw him yet can’t remember his face?” Ford said, his laptop opened in front of him. He had poured over the security feed at Body and Souls, and Gary and his fucktard sons could be seen clearly, but Rogue stayed in the dark shadows of the room. Almost like he knew where the cameras wouldn’t catch him.
I nodded my head, but I could see where she was coming from. Apart from his evil voice, she said she couldn’t picture his face, and that was okay. I knew once she healed totally and a little time had gone by, it would come to her. I wouldn’t have her pressured or made to feel bad about it. She’d endured hell for my club, for me. She would help with a visual when she was able. A thought suddenly came to me.
His Honey (The Wounded Souls Book 2) Page 20