Salvation (Angels Halo MC Next Gen Book 1)

by Terri Anne Browning

  “Ben!” Mrs. Davis’s stern voice seemed to snap him out of his panic, but it did nothing to alleviate my own. “Where’s her EpiPen?”

  “Babe?”

  “Purse,” I mouthed, my lungs already desperate for air they weren’t going to get. Tears poured from my eyes, and the world started to get blotchy with black spots. “Ben,” I wheezed with the last of the oxygen I had.

  His strong arms caught me as I started to fall and, almost immediately, I felt something being stabbed into my outer left thigh, but I was already passing out…

  I woke up to the sound of a beeping heart monitor and the annoying feel of oxygen tubes in my nose. Ben was in a chair beside the bed, his hand clutching mine as he snored loudly. I almost smiled, but my lips still felt swollen.

  “Feeling better?” Mom’s hoarse voice asked from the other side of the bed.

  I nodded, not ready to see if I could talk again yet.

  She was sitting in a chair identical to Ben’s. Her hair was tangled, and her clothes looked wrinkled. That, coupled with the dark circles under her eyes, made me wonder how long she’d been there—how long I’d been there.

  “Ben called me on the way to the hospital. Apparently, his grandmother drove you both here while he attempted to keep you breathing. Barely, thanks to the first epi injection Mrs. Davis gave you.” She sighed tiredly. “I’m going to have to teach that boy to do better when it comes to your allergic reaction.”

  “We…” My throat hurt like hell, but I had to defend him to her. “We both panicked.”

  “I know, honey. I know. He loves you so much, and like I was the first time I witnessed your allergy, he was terrified. But he’s gotta be better prepared for the next time. And there will be a next time. Although I hope that is far, far into the future.” She gave my other arm a squeeze, and I realized there was an IV in the back of my hand. “That all happened yesterday, by the way. They had to give you a second injection as soon as you got to the ER, and then another one around midnight. It was like no sooner had it worn off than they had to give you another. You’ve scared a good ten years off my life, baby girl.”

  “I’m…sorry,” I whispered.

  “Don’t be. It happens every time you have a reaction. I’m just thankful you’re okay now.” She nodded at Ben again. “And once he calmed down and snapped into action, he saved you. So I don’t have to kill him.”

  “Mom. Don’t joke,” I begged, too tired to imagine she was doing anything but joking.

  Smiling, she stood and then leaned over me, kissing my forehead. “Now that you’re awake, I can go home and get some sleep. I’ll entrust you to the sheriff for the foreseeable future.” She stroked her ice-cold fingers down my cheek, tears filling her eyes. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

  “Love you,” I choked out, and she smiled again before leaving.

  I lay there just watching him sleep, thankful he and his grandmother knew what to do to help me. He looked haggard, even in sleep, yet still so beautifully masculine, I couldn’t take my eyes off him.

  It was a long while after she left before Ben started to stir. His lashes began to lift, and I saw confusion in those brandy-brown eyes for a flicker of a second before reality hit him and his hold on my hand tightened. He jerked upright.

  “Baby?” he rasped, his eyes running over me like a physical caress as he brought my hand to his mouth and kissed my knuckles. “How are you feeling?”

  “Happy to see you,” I murmured, trying to smile. But my lips still felt a little swollen, so I wasn’t sure if I pulled it off or not. “What about you?”

  “Same, beautiful. Same.” Holding my hand like a lifeline, he pressed it to his forehead, closing his eyes. “I’ll do better from here on out,” he vowed. “I’ll never let what happened yesterday happen again.”

  “Wasn’t your fault,” I tried to reassure him. Cross-contaminations happened all the time at restaurants. People got distracted and things happened. I’d already learned that the hard way, but I knew the risks of eating takeout.

  “Yes, it was. I should have checked the food before I even left Aggie’s. But all I could think about—” He broke off, his jaw clenching as he glared at the wall in front of him.

  “All you could think about?” I urged him to finish.

  “I’d just left you sound asleep. All I wanted to do was get home and surprise you with dinner in bed and spend the rest of the night making love to you.” With his free hand, he scratched at the scruff on his jaw. I loved that scruff. “I put your life in danger because I couldn’t think about anything but my damn cock.”

  “I really like your cock, though,” I tried to tease, but the dark expression on his face told me I wasn’t helping. “Ben, honestly, this wasn’t your fault. I remember you saying you didn’t even order pie.”

  “Yeah. Your mom called your aunt Quinn and got Tabby fired.” He grimaced. “Tabby said it was a mistake, but I don’t think your aunt believed her. Maybe she thought there was a chance you would come into contact with it and it would make you sick. I honestly don’t know, but I should have checked the damn bag to make sure—”

  “Look at me,” I ordered when he started condemning himself again. After a tiny hesitation, his gaze met mine, and my heart broke when I saw the sheen of tears in his eyes. “The first time I had a reaction in front of my mom, she’d just gotten back from the grocery store. She’d taken a sample from the little table, and it had been fried in peanut oil. When she picked me up from school, she kissed me on the cheek, not realizing what she’d just eaten. It took fifteen minutes before the reaction set in, but it was bad when it did. She freaked out, and it was my dad who had to inject the epi because she couldn’t stop screaming. She blamed herself for weeks. It broke my heart every time I saw the guilt and tears in her eyes.”

  “Lexa—”

  I held up my free hand, stopping him. “I’m going to come into contact with nuts again, Ben. It’s inevitable. You just have to be prepared when it does happen. Okay?”

  He was quiet for a long moment before finally blowing out a heavy sigh and nodding. “Yeah, baby. Okay.”

  My teeth sank into my bottom lip for a second before I forced myself to ask the question screaming in my head. “You still want to be with me?”

  “You think I wouldn’t want to be with you because of this?” he demanded, sounding pissed.

  I shrugged weakly. “Some people can’t handle being with someone who has serious health issues. If you can’t deal with this, tell me now.”

  “You’ve said a lot of hurtful things to me in the past, Lexa, but this is beyond belief. I fucking love you. Nothing will ever make me not want to be with you. Without you, I’m an empty shell.” Releasing my hand, he cupped my face, his eyes angry but still full of love. “Yesterday scared the hell out of me. I thought I was going to lose you. But I’m not going to walk away from what I feel for you because of it.”

  “P-Promise?” I whispered, blinking back tears.

  When he saw how close I was to breaking, his anger disappeared. “I promise. You’re stuck with me, beautiful. Even if your mom killed me, I’d still stick around and haunt you just so I could be with you.”

  “Don’t joke about that,” I begged, fighting a grin even as the tears spilled from my eyes.

  “She wouldn’t off me,” he said with a wink. “Raven knows I’d give my life for yours. She seems to like me pretty well. I was sure she would at least threaten me when she got here yesterday, but she was my rock while we waited for you to wake up. Tabby, on the other hand… I’m a little worried for her well-being.”

  “Good,” I muttered half under my breath, but he still heard me and smirked.

  “Jealous?”

  “Of that cow?” I growled, then sighed. “Yeah. A little. She probably gave you the pie to flirt with you. No doubt she thought if she gave you free pie, you’d want something…more.”

  “You have nothing to be jealous of. I only want you.” His smirk dropped, his eyes turning seri
ous. “I love you and will only ever love you.”

  My heart melted at his vow, but I still needed to be honest. “I love you too. But I’m going to be jealous of any woman who looks twice at you. Sorry, but when it comes to you, I don’t share well.”

  He winked again and retook my hand so he could kiss my palm. “Same, baby. Same.”

  Epilogue

  Lexa

  Six Months Later

  Holding my breath, I waited for Dr. Weller to give us the results of Mom’s latest blood work. Mom sat between Dad and me, holding both our hands. More like the two of us clung to her hands. We were practically shaking with nerves and anticipation, waiting for these results.

  Mom gave me a grim smile, her skin finally getting back its healthy glow. Every time I saw how short her hair was, I wanted to cry, but I kept on the brave face I’d learned to perfect while she’d gone through her intense chemo treatments. When she’d started losing her hair, she’d simply shrugged it off, picked up a pair of clippers, and shaved her head.

  The next day, all of my aunts had done the same. Flick, Willa, Quinn, Gracie, and Kelli had all been just as bald as Mom, and she’d laughed at the sight of them. When I’d picked up the clippers to do the same, though, Mom had screamed and finally started crying, forbidding me from so much as touching a single strand of my own hair. This shit was taking too much from her, she’d sobbed as I’d held her. It wasn’t going to take anything from me too.

  Other than that one breakdown, however, she’d been the strong one throughout everything. Even when she was so sick she could barely lift her head from the chemo, she was still the one keeping the rest of us from falling apart because it hurt so damn bad to watch her go through it and be unable to do anything to help her.

  The day she rang the bell announcing her last treatment, I’d gone home and cried in Ben’s arms for hours, thankful it was over. But still, I was terrified, dreading the results of this test when we would find out if the cancer was gone once and for all.

  Dr. Weller was looking over the lab results and not speaking, and I felt bile lift into the back of my throat, shooting Dad a scared look over Mom’s head. His blue eyes were just as freaked as my own, and I switched hands with Mom so I could reach behind her and touch Dad’s shoulder. His free hand covered mine, holding on just as tightly to it as his other held on to Mom’s.

  “Okay, well,” Dr. Weller finally spoke, and when she looked up, she was grinning from ear to ear. “Everything looks great, Raven. The chemo really was mostly a precautionary measure, and from all these numbers, it looks like you are cancer-free. Congratulations.”

  Dad let out a choked sound and jumped to his feet, his shoulders already shaking as the door slammed behind him. I bit my lip, trying not to cry, but I was so damn happy, I couldn’t contain the tears.

  Mom only smiled at the doctor. “Thanks for everything, Doctor,” she said as she shook the woman’s hand and stood.

  “I hope you’ll be an advocate now to make sure every woman you know gets yearly screenings,” the doctor said with a stern lift of her brows.

  “Trust me, she is,” I said with a shaky laugh. She’d even been on my case lately to get my yearly exam, but I already had to keep my yearly appointments to make sure I got my birth control shots anyway. Still, it had freaked me out this last time, because I’d been scared it would come back that something was wrong.

  Outside, we found Dad sitting in the SUV. His eyes were swollen and bloodshot, but he’d gotten himself under control. Mom and I don’t say anything to him about it, because really, I was still having trouble containing myself too. I’d never felt relief so strong in my life. All I wanted to do was laugh and cry at the same time.

  Mom was okay.

  She wasn’t sick anymore.

  We weren’t going to lose her.

  “I’m hungry,” Mom commented while Dad pulled into traffic. “Let’s grab some lunch.”

  “Whatever you want, baby,” Dad said in a hoarse voice.

  From the back seat, I watched her reach for his hand. He linked his fingers through hers and placed their hands on his thigh. Seeing them like this, it made my heart happy. Even after all these years, they were still so in love, so attuned to each other’s feelings that they didn’t need words to express themselves.

  I wanted that same thing twenty, fifty, a hundred years down the road with Ben.

  Aggie’s was so crowded when we got there, it was almost impossible to find a place to park. On the drive, I’d finally gotten myself under control and had texted both Max and Ben to let them know Mom was cancer-free. I was all smiles as I walked with my parents into the diner, still looking at my phone, reading the last text Ben had sent after I’d told him the good news.

  Ben: Let’s celebrate tonight.

  I was typing out a reply as we walked through the door, so when everyone shouted, I jerked in surprise and nearly dropped my phone.

  I hadn’t even noticed whose cars and motorcycles were in the parking lot, so hearing all my family members congratulating Mom had startled me. Mom was pulled into a group hug with her brothers, then her sisters-in-law and Aunt Willa, before Uncle Spider was twirling Mom around and around, making her laugh.

  Smiling at the happiness on everyone’s faces, I stepped around them and sat at the counter, waiting.

  “Hi.”

  At the sound of Ben’s voice, I glanced up, surprised and delighted to find him standing beside me. “Hi,” I purred and started to stand so I could kiss him.

  But with a hand on my shoulder, he pushed me back onto the stool and turned me to face away from everyone else while he leaned on the counter beside me.

  “Right here,” he said as he shook his head, a grin teasing at his lips. “It was right here that I saw you for the first time. I sat there.” He pointed at the booth he’d been in the night we’d met. “Do you remember?”

  “I’ll never forget,” I whispered, a feeling of nostalgia hitting me. “That night changed everything.”

  His brandy-brown eyes locked with mine. “And then I kissed you a little later, and I knew.”

  Smiling, I lifted a brow at him. “Knew what, Sheriff?”

  “That I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you.”

  “That soon?”

  His thumb traced over my bottom lip. “That soon,” he confirmed. “I love you.”

  Catching his hand, I linked our fingers together. “I love you too.”

  “Lexa—”

  But I covered his mouth with my hand before he could even start.

  “Yes,” I breathed, fresh tears filling my eyes because I knew what he was about to ask. Had known it was coming. I didn’t mean to steal his thunder, but I didn’t need him to speak the words to know he was going to propose. “Yes, Ben.”

  He swallowed hard and pulled me up, kissing the breath out of me, while behind us, the rest of my family was still celebrating Mom’s amazing news.

  “You mean it?” he demanded when he finally lifted his mouth barely half an inch.

  “I’d marry you tomorrow if that’s what you want,” I promised, my laugh a little shaky from my continued happy tears. “I love you. I want to be your wife.”

  He kissed me again, quicker this time, before glancing in my mom’s direction. “Maybe give her a little time to take this all in before we start planning the wedding. So, like, two weeks?”

  Laughing happily, I hugged his waist. “Deal.”

  Coming Next

  Rockers’ Legacy Series

  Holding Mia August 27th

  Sons of the Underground

  Off Limits Coming Soon

 

 

 
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