Hail Mary

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  I hadn’t brought her with me to many places. This would literally be the first time anyone besides close friends and family would meet this little girl—this amazing, sweet little girl who has become my whole world—and learn that she was mine.

  My girl, Mary, was unique, and there would be a lot of kids there running around.

  I knew that those kids were from good stock, but I didn’t want them to hurt my baby’s feelings.

  “Dante, you need to chill.”

  I winced and realized what I was doing at once.

  “Okay,” I said as I unstrapped Mary from her car seat and hitched her up on my hip.

  The first person to meet us was Griffin Storm, a badass Texas Ranger who looked like he was angry as fuck at something that his kid had just done.

  “How many times do I have to tell you to stay away from my bike?” Griffin growled.

  Cobie’s hand met the skin of my arm, and she started to squeeze.

  I patted her hand and assured her without words that everything was okay.

  Griffin might talk a good game, but when it came to his kids, he was a sucker—just like the rest of us.

  “Now, go inside and tell Mommy what you’ve done.”

  His kid ran inside moments later, and Griffin glared at her back until she’d made it inside and slammed the door.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  Griffin turned his angry eyes to me, and they moved from me to the little girl in my arms and then to Cobie. His eyes skimmed down Cobie’s body, and then the glare slipped from his face as he caught sight of her baby bump.

  “You have kids yet?” he asked the woman at my side.

  “Only Mary.”

  I grinned at Cobie’s words.

  I loved that she claimed my girl as hers.

  Fucking. Loved. It.

  I waited for Griffin to ask more, but he didn’t.

  His eyes went to Mary.

  “This Miss Mary?”

  Mary, hearing her name, looked directly at Griffin.

  And I watched the big man lose his heart just like every other person who looked into her big blue eyes.

  Mary leaned over and practically threw herself into Griffin’s arms.

  Griffin caught her easily and hefted her up onto his arm just like I’d had her moments before.

  “Yum-Yum?”

  “Uhhh,” Griffin said, looking to me for guidance.

  “Yum-Yum is our cat,” I said, tilting my head at the cat that’d magically appeared on top of Griffin’s bike. “Every cat is now Yum-Yum to her.”

  Griffin turned and growled.

  He picked the cat up by the scruff of the neck, then handed it to me. “Take this for me?”

  I took the cat.

  “What’d he do?” I looked down at what I thought to be a harmless cat.

  “What hasn’t he done is a better question,” Griffin grumbled.

  My eyes went down to the bike, which sported lengthy scratches on the gas tank that looked like they came from a particular cat that I might be holding.

  I held back my grin.

  Griffin sighed and gestured with his head for me to follow him.

  “Might as well go inside and listen to the music.”

  We followed along, coming to a halt right inside the entrance as Griffin’s daughter tearfully told her mother a story.

  “And why was the kitty outside?” Lenore, Griffin’s wife, asked. “We told you not to even bring him. Then you took him outside, didn’t you?”

  Griffin’s daughter nodded her head.

  “Then what happened?”

  “He got on Daddy’s bike, and I tried to pull him off. B-b-but, he scratched the paint when I did.”

  Lenore winced.

  “You know that Daddy just got his bike repainted after you decorated it with your nail polish,” Lenore chastised their girl gently.

  I bit my lip and looked up at Griffin who looked far from amused, causing me to let out a low chuckle.

  Lenore looked up at me then, and her eyes widened.

  I was still rather emaciated looking, but I was slowly gaining my color as well as the weight back.

  I’d been out of the hospital, and back with Cobie, for a week.

  In that week, I’d been busy.

  Since I was back at work, I took Mary with me.

  It wasn’t that I didn’t trust my mother to watch her, it was because I didn’t trust Drake not to attack an innocent little girl in his haste to get to me.

  So, for now, where I went, she went.

  At the office, Travis was always there to help. Half the time, Rafe was, too.

  I had a feeling he expected Drake to come at me there, so instead of wasting his time trying to look for him—which proved futile since no one could find him at his usual haunts—he’d set up shop at the office and was waiting.

  “You look like you’ve lost weight.”

  My eyes went back to Griffin’s wife.

  I nodded. “I have.”

  She didn’t say what she was obviously thinking—‘you look like shit.’

  I knew I looked like shit, she didn’t have to tell me.

  “He’s getting better,” Cobie interjected. “Do you have a bathroom I could use?”

  Griffin’s little girl, happy to no longer be the center of attention, came at me with arms raised.

  I handed her the cat, and she took off without another word.

  Griffin and Lenore watched her go before they both turned back to Cobie.

  “It’s through here. Come on, I’ll show you.”

  Lenore gestured to Cobie, and Cobie followed.

  We waited until they were both gone before heading in the direction of where all the other men were gathered on the porch.

  Griffin and I walked out onto the porch, and all eyes turned to us.

  “Who ya got there, Griffin?”

  Griffin tickled Mary, who giggled like a sweet, angelic cherub, completely winning over the deck full of men.

  Wolf came up and held his hands out.

  Mary went willingly.

  “Trusting little booger.”

  I looked over to find Mig, another member of the Uncertain Saints, looking our way.

  “She is. Never meets a stranger, that’s for sure,” I agreed.

  Mig grunted and held out his hands, Mary leaned over.

  I snorted as the men then passed my girl around.

  None of them had anything to say about Mary’s unique qualities.

  Which made my heart fucking soar.

  I didn’t ever want Mary to feel like those things that made her different and special were oddities or things that she needed to hide or be ashamed of because they weren’t. They were what made Mary, well, Mary, and she was perfect exactly as she was.

  She was a blessing, a gift—my gift.

  Mary had saved my life.

  I’d fight every fucking demon on this planet to make sure she was never hurt by someone’s cruel words.

  Even a band full of men who I knew could kick my ass in my weakened state.

  “Noticed you have a pregnant fiancée.”

  I looked over to Griffin, who’d said those words.

  “Yeah,” I agreed.

  “How’d you manage to do that while you were locked away?”

  I grunted. “It happened before I left. Found out after I got back.”

  “I hear you’ve got a few problems.”

  I grunted in reply.

  “More than a few,” I agreed, my eyes going to Wolf.

  “I’ve been lookin’ myself.” Wolf read the look accurately. “If I see him, he’s going down. That’s a promise.”

  Wolf was a Texas Ranger with Griffin, and I had no doubt in my mind that he’d take him in if he saw him.

  “Thanks,” I muttered. “This feels really fuckin’ weird, still.”

  Wolf chuckled darkly. “I keep waiting for you to th
row another punch.”

  I would have five years ago.

  Now? Well, now I wasn’t as angry about it as I once had been. In fact, I wasn’t angry at all anymore.

  “The night is still young.”

  Wolf burst out laughing. “Sure the fuck is.”

  Chapter 25

  The only thing I will ever force in my life are my jeans over my ass.

  -Cobie to Dante

  Cobie

  Dante dropped down to one knee, and I immediately started to think the worst.

  “Are you okay?” I breathed, rushing forward to drop down to my knees beside him.

  He rolled his eyes in exasperation.

  “Stand up,” he growled, pushing me to my feet by putting his hands on my hips. “This can’t be done with you down here with me.”

  Frowning, I was about to question whether he was experiencing confusion or if he was dizzy, when he pulled out a velvet box.

  I froze and stared at that velvet box like it was something akin to an atomic bomb.

  “I don’t know if there’s anything I can say to ever take back those horrible words I said to you four months ago,” he whispered, his eyes on mine. “I know you say you’re okay, that you understood, but I’d never been at a lower point in my life than I was when I said those words to you. I didn’t mean them. I was mad at myself and the whole fucking world. I was scared of what you were making me feel, and how I was beginning to need you. I’ve lost my entire world once already… and I just wasn’t sure that I could put myself in a position where it could happen again.”

  He swallowed, the thick lump of his Adam’s apple jumping with the movement.

  “What I was scared to admit that day was that you had already become my world. You and Mary, you’re right here,” he pressed his fist against his chest. “You’re going to be there forever. You’ll have a place inside my heart until I no longer draw breath into my lungs.”

  A tear slipped down my cheek uninhibited.

  He watched it fall, then his eyes returned to mine. “Cobie, will you marry me? Will you live at my side and lend me your strength?”

  I nodded. “I’d give you anything you asked for, Dante.”

  His smile was radiant as he opened the box, pulled out the ring, and held out his other hand for mine. I put my hand in his, and he slipped the ring on my finger.

  It was a princess cut diamond, large enough to take my breath away, yet small enough that it wouldn’t hinder my movements. It literally flickered like it was filled with an inner light that was meant to attract the eye.

  “Dante,” I breathed. “It’s beautiful.”

  His smile was small, and as he came to his feet, he pressed his mouth to my own.

  “Nothing is as beautiful as you.”

  The sound of an electric razor had my eyes opening.

  I smiled as I threw the covers off of my body and made my way to the bathroom.

  Dante wasn’t being quiet in his morning routine. But I’d found over the last few weeks since he’d come back to me that he wasn’t particularly quiet in anything he did.

  Then again, I should’ve already realized that since I lived with him after my surgery, but I accounted my lack of noticing these things about him to the fact that I was hopped up on the good drugs which allowed me to remain in a semi-conscious state for extended periods of time.

  “What put that smile on your face?”

  I looked up to see Dante staring at me in the mirror.

  “A memory.”

  That memory would never get old.

  Not ever.

  He knew which one. He didn’t have to ask because my eyes had automatically trailed to the ring on my finger that I never took off.

  “You coming to work with me today?”

  I rolled my eyes.

  I’d done that for the last two weeks. Me and Mary made ourselves at home in the staff lounge.

  Now, after two weeks of both of us being there constantly, it was like a second home. Mary had a portable playpen that she used to nap in, and I had blankets that I took over the couch with. All of my shows, as well as Mary’s, were on the DVR, and the cabinets were stocked with more than enough snacks to last us while we were there.

  Dante would never demand that I stay there, but I knew by his whispered question that he’d feel better having me and Mary close.

  Drake still hadn’t been found, and until he was, I knew that Dante wouldn’t be comfortable if we were out of sight.

  Which also explained why I was still on leave from my job.

  I still had two months left on my extended leave of absence from my illness until the hospital would no longer be required to hold my position for me, and I knew that I wanted to go back at some point.

  I loved Dante. I loved this life that we were building. But I didn’t want to be a kept woman. I wanted to do what I loved—and what I loved to do was watch babies being born into this world.

  Speaking of babies, the one inside of me started to flip and twirl, making me laugh and press my hand to my belly.

  I’d been feeling the movement for weeks now, but it never got old, feeling him press against my hand.

  A work-roughened hand joined my own, and I looked up to find Dante standing so close to me that I could feel his body heat seeping into my own.

  “Active again,” he murmured, his hand touching my belly.

  Through Dante’s old blue T-shirt that I’d worn to bed the night before, I could see my belly bouncing and jolting with each kick and punch.

  “Always active,” I corrected, then pushed past him to go to the en-suite bathroom.

  I still closed the door. I wanted to leave a little magic in our relationship so I wouldn’t be shattering the illusion any faster than I had to.

  As far as he was concerned, I didn’t poop or pee. I was the exception to that baser human instinct.

  He may have helped me do both in the beginning of our relationship when I was recovering here after my surgery, but that didn’t count since we weren’t together.

  When I came out and washed my hands, I had to roll my eyes at the fact that the bathroom counter was covered in beard hair. This bathroom had double sinks, but Dante couldn’t seem to figure out which part of the counter was his.

  After proposing, Dante had shaved his beard.

  Not just a trim, either, but a lot—all of it, in fact.

  All of it except for a tiny bit of scruff that lined his jaw and upper lip thanks to the trimmer not being able to get quite close enough.

  I kept waiting for him to break out a razor and shaving cream, but he never went that far.

  My guess was that the beard had represented a part of his life that he was trying to step away from, but I’d never wanted to confirm that assumption.

  I just smiled, silently mourned the loss of his beard, and went about my life with Dante.

  We did everything together. We talked. We spoke on the phone. We had dinner together almost three-quarters of the time. We were solid, confident in our relationship and knew what we meant to each other. We were our second chance at life and happiness, and we weren’t wasting it.

  He wasn’t there because he was being forced to be—he assured me of this every single morning—he was there because he wanted to be.

  “Come on, it’ll be fun.”

  I looked at him, studying his eyes, and raised my brows. “I missed the question.”

  “I said, I think we should go on a vacation before you start back to work.” He paused. “Travis, his wife and kids, my mother and father, Baylor and his wife and kids, Reed and Krisney and their kids, and a few of the other guys from work have decided to go camping. I want to go to the RV place tonight to go look at a camper. I was asking if you wanted to go. I convinced you that you should, and you said it’d be fun.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “I’ll go if we bring Mary with us,” I tried.

  At first, I thought it wa
s because Drake was still at large, but then I saw the way people watched Mary when we’d been at the grocery store last week.

  Mary, although an absolutely beautiful child, did have Down Syndrome. She was going to attract a few stares anywhere she went. It was sad, it wasn’t right, but it was also, unfortunately, the truth. However, I think Dante took it as an insult any time someone stared at his precious girl too long.

  Unless they were kids, then he didn’t seem to mind.

  But, I could tell that he was purposefully keeping her away from any situation where she could potentially be mistreated by someone.

  Hence why she never went anywhere with us anymore. If he expected us to go somewhere, he found a babysitter for Mary, usually his mother or one of his brothers.

  And that made me sad.

  Dante frowned.

  “Drake…”

  “Dante, we can’t keep living our life like this. You have Rafe on us each and every time we leave the house. Sometimes even one of your brothers are there tailing us wherever we go. We can’t keep going on like this. You’re going to have to allow us some room to breathe. We’ll do whatever you want us to do, but we can’t live our lives this way indefinitely.”

  Dante didn’t have anything to say to that, so I didn’t say anything either.

  Instead, I walked back into our bedroom—yes, ours—and over to the closet.

  After tugging down a T-shirt that would just barely cover my belly, I tossed it on the bed and went back to the bathroom to pick up my leggings from the night before.

  I only had a few pairs, and it was getting to the point where I’d need to get some new ones—and soon.

  Yet another thing that I didn’t want to ask Dante. I didn’t want him to go to the mall with me but seeing as this was my first pregnancy, I didn’t know enough about what I would need or how maternity clothes were supposed to fit to order them online.

  The few things that I’d borrowed from Hannah were all too big, and I wouldn’t be able to wear them until much later in my pregnancy.

  Which left me with T-shirts and leggings for the time being.

  Shrugging out of Dante’s T-shirt, I tossed it on the foot of the bed and reached forward to grab the clean one.

  I had it in my grasp when I felt Dante’s hands on my hips.

  Instantly I knew that he’d come to a decision.