But the moment Carissa called out to me, those plans changed.
“Kyle,” she cried, “I need... y-you.” Her voice was weak, her throat clogged with tears. “Please.”
I didn’t think twice before releasing Carson and closing the space between Carissa and me. Laying flat on the ground next to a kneeling Ty, her gorgeous hair fanned out all around her, she looked up at me with tear-filled eyes.
“Shh, baby, I’m here.”
Ty stood and walked over to the place that Carson laid on the ground, his legs pulled into his belly and his arms covering his face as he cowered like the pussy he was.
Didn’t matter though.
His position did little to ward off the kick Ty planted on his side. “Piece of shit motherfucker!” he yelled. “I hope you rot in prison!”
Knowing Ty may lose it at any second, I moved, blocking Carissa’s view of what was happening behind me. “Beautiful Girl,” I said, gently placing my hands on the sides of her neck. “I want nothing more than to scoop you up and kiss the fuck outta you right now, but I can’t. I need to get you to the hospital, so they can check you over first. Without any equipment, I can’t tell how bad you’re hurt.”
And I have to get you out of here…
My hands shook the slightest bit against her, and she yelped as the small movements caused pain to spread through her reddened neck.
I bit back a curse.
“Carissa, listen to me, baby.” Tears spilled from her eyes and it nearly killed me. “Before I move you I need to know what hurts.”
“Just the front…”
“… front of your throat?” I asked, finishing for her.
She nodded. “I’m okay, Kyle. I promise. Just… please, just get me out of here.”
Transporting her like this went against every bit of training I’d ever received, but I couldn’t tell her no. Not when she was in pain, scared to death, and I had the demons of my past nipping at my heels.
Moving slowly, I lifted her into my arms, holding her against my chest.
“Ty,” I said, without looking back at him. “You good?”
“Get her to the hospital. I’ll babysit the scumbag and handle the cops when they get here. If they get here. Slow ass motherfuckers. Moretti can get statements from y’all later. C is more important right now.”
Ignoring Ty, Carissa tucked her head into my neck and began to cry.
“Shh, Princess,” I said, trying my best to soothe her. “It’s going to be alright.”
“I want to go,” she said again. “Please.”
Without hesitating further, I started to walk.
* * *
It was half past midnight.
Heart in my throat, I sat on the edge of Carissa’s hospital bed, my eyes locked on her flat belly. Beside me sat Mama who was busy running her fingers through my woman’s hair, soothing her in a way that I wasn’t capable of at the moment.
Madder than fuck, I was still fuming.
Even though I was happy as hell to have Carissa and our baby back, I couldn’t get the image of Carson hunched over her, his hands wrapped around her throat, out of my head.
I’d been so close to losing her…
To losing them both.
And that shit was not okay.
“Hulk,” Carissa whispered, drawing my attention. “Everything is okay. Tell me you understand that.”
That was complete bullshit.
“None of what you went through tonight is okay, Princess.” Fighting to remain calm, I stood, sliding my hands into my pockets. “I’m supposed to keep you safe, to protect you. I didn’t do that.” My voice rose with each word I spoke. “I failed you.”
“Kyle.”
“Yeah, Beautiful Girl?”
“Shut up.”
My jaw ticked. “Pardon me?”
“Which word confused you? The shut or the up?”
Smartass. “Grandmama was right. You’ve gotten awfully sassy lately.”
Mama giggled.
She fucking giggled.
I kid you not.
“Mrs. Dottie,” Carissa said. “Can you smack him for me since I’m too tired to do it?”
Using her free hand, Mama popped mine, catching me on the tips of my fingers. “What the fuck, Mama?”
That earned me another smack. “You know how I feel about those words.”
Carissa smiled and my brows drew together. Pointing from her to Mama, I said, “You two are trouble when together.”
My girl’s face softened. “Kyle, listen to me.”
“I’m listening, Princess,” I replied, gritting my back teeth together.
“What happened tonight isn’t your fault. It’s he-who-shall-never-be-named-again’s fault and his only.” I opened my mouth to speak, but she pointed a finger at me and raised her brows, shooting me a look that meant business.
Our baby hadn’t even been born yet and she already had that whole scary mom look down. You know, the one where all your Mama has to do is look at you a certain way and you piss your pants. Yeah, it was that look.
“We are not going back down this road. We’ve driven it, we’ve conquered it, and we are not backtracking. Do you understand me?”
My mood plummeted. “It’s not that easy.”
“Yes it is.”
“How?”
“Because I said so.”
Pulling my hands out of my pockets, I crossed my arms over my chest. “Carissa, that bastard was stalking you for over six months.”
And I didn’t have a clue…
Earlier, shortly after Carissa was taken and Heidi had identified Carson as the man who’d taken her, Anthony managed to secure a search warrant for Carson’s apartment. What he found after executing it was all sorts of fucked up. Just thinking about it made me so damn angry I couldn’t breathe.
The assholes entire apartment had been a shrine to my girl, but the one thing that pissed me off the most was the pictures he had. I hadn’t seen them, didn’t want to either. If I did, I’d get so angry that I’d find a way into the Toluca County Jail just so I could finish what I’d started earlier.
Part of me wished I’d killed him.
The other part wondered why Ty hadn’t.
“Are you listening to me?”
Focusing my attention back on Carissa, I replied, “Yeah, baby, I am.”
“Don’t give him that power,” she whispered, tears filling her eyes for what seemed like the hundredth time tonight. “Don’t let him take away all the progress and all the happiness that we’ve fought for. Just don’t.”
The pain in her words hit me straight in the chest.
She was right.
I couldn’t allow another person’s actions to steal my happiness. I was about to be a father, and hopefully, if I could convince Carissa to marry me, a husband.
“I know what happened today was hard for you; especially when you found me there… at that place.”
The place where my sister died…
“But honey, I am fine.”
Mama, who had been mostly quiet up until that point, removed her fingers from Carissa’s hair and turned to face me. Her big expressive eyes locked onto mine and I knew she was about to say something that was hard for her to express.
“Son, I want you to listen to me.” I remained silent. “I loved your little sister with every ounce of my heart and soul, but, sweetheart, she’s gone. Has been for a long time now. Your father too.” Like Carissa, tears started to fall down her cheeks. “It’s time we let their memories rest in peace.”
“I don’t understand.”
And I didn’t.
Let their memories rest in peace?
What the hell did that mean?
“It’s mean that we don’t dwell on things that are done and over with. We can’t change what happened to Teacup any more than we can change what happened to Carissa today. The only thing we can do is learn to roll with the punches.”
“Mama, I—”
“She would’ve wan
ted you to be happy, Kyle. More than anything, that’s what she would have wanted.”
I didn’t doubt that one bit.
“If you let what happened today throw you back in that dark place, you’re going to lose a lot more this time around. You’re gonna lose Carissa—” she paused “—and you’ll lose your child too.”
Carissa gasped. “How did you know? Did Heidi tell you? If she did, I swear—”
Mama chuckled. Turning to face Carissa again, she patted her leg. “A mother knows. You’ll find that out soon enough.”
“Are you—”
Knock, knock, knock.
Before I could tell whoever was at the door to come in, it was pushed open. A smiling Heidi followed by an annoyed looking Daryl stepped inside. “This place ain’t got one fresh cup of coffee. Everythin’ in them pots downstairs looks like sludge.”
After showing up at the hospital an hour before, Daryl had done nothing but bitch about coffee. The man was about to drive me out of my goddamned mind. I know he was shaken up over what happened to Carissa, but Christ I couldn’t take much more.
And the man was going to be my father-in-law.
“Darryl, why don’t you go on down—”
When three more knocks sounded on the door I was ready to pull my hair out. Carissa needed rest, not to be distracted by all these damn people that kept coming and going.
But when an older lady pulling an ultrasound machine behind her, stepped into the room, any annoyance or anger I felt dissipated. “Morning, Miss Johnson,” she said, her voice chipper. “My name is Betty and if it’s okay with you Dr. Reynolds would like me to take a peek at your sweet little baby.”
Daryl made a choking sound. “Baby?”
“Surprise, Daddy!” Carissa smiled. “You’re going to be a Papaw.”
“You’re pregnant?”
Carissa nodded.
Pointing at me, Daryl continued. “By him?”
Again, she nodded.
Eyes the size of saucers, Daryl swung his gaze to me. “Remind me to kill you tomorrow.”
His words may have been harsh, but his eyes were anything but. The man looked half a second away from collapsing in tears.
The world around me fell away as I watched the ultrasound machine fire up. Sitting down on the bed beside Mama, I took Carissa’s hand in mine. “You ready for this, Beautiful Girl?”
She nodded. “I am. More than anything, I am.”
“Alright,” Betty said. “Here we go.”
The room fell silent and I started to freak the hell out. What if something was wrong? What if something—”
My mind blanked as a rapid, steady thumping sound filled the room.
“And that,” Betty said, “is your baby’s heartbeat.”
Mama’s hand reached out and clutched the front of my shirt as she let out a sob loud enough to wake the dead. I wrapped an arm around her, pulling her into me while I held onto Carissa’s shaking hand as she cried just as hard.
At the end of the bed, Heidi bawled.
Didn’t try to hide it either.
Daryl, on the other hand, did try to hide it.
But that’s alright, I still saw his tears.
As for me? My baby’s heartbeat was my final missing piece.
Upon hearing it, I became whole again.
Epilogue
Kyle
Ten Months Later
It was a Saturday afternoon.
Holding my newborn daughter tight, I kneeled before a headstone that I hadn’t visited since it was put in place. If it hadn’t been for the sleeping bundle that I held in my arms, I probably never would’ve come.
But it was time.
Time for me forgive.
Time for me to let go.
Time for me to move on.
Swallowing around the lump that had formed in my throat, I looked down at my beautiful little girl, and whispered the words that I’d been rehearsing for the past week.
“I want you to know that I’m not angry with you anymore. Though I don’t agree with the things you did, or the choices you made, I no longer resent you.
“If I’m being honest, I still love you as much as I always did. For so many years, you were my best friend.
“And then it all fell apart.
“I’m sorry that you were so destroyed by your own pain and grief over losing Lily that you chose to take it out on me, which caused you to lose your only other child in the process.
“Now that I have a daughter of my own I can understand better.
“Again, I don’t condone the things you did or the choices you made, but as one flawed man to another, and as one father to another, I get it. But I also want you to know that I won’t make the same mistakes as you did.
“It doesn’t matter what life throws at me, I will never abandon my wife or children, and I will never make them feel anything less than what they are, which is my whole world.
“You raised me to be a good man; a strong man, and that’s exactly what I intend to be.”
Pausing to take a breath, I dipped my head and pressed a kiss to my daughter’s forehead.
“I forgive you, Dad. For everything. Wherever you are, I hope it’s beautiful, and I hope it’s with Lily.”
Tears streamed down my face as I climbed to my feet and walked ten steps in the opposite direction where my Beautiful Girl was waiting for me.
Knowing that I needed to be alone as I found the closure I sought with my father, she’d given me space.
“Hi, Princess,” I said, bending down and pressing a soft kiss to her lips. “You with me on this one?”
She smiled and just like every other time, my heart melted. “Always. I love you, Hulk.”
Warmth spread through me. “Love you more, baby.”
Each word was the truth.
After tossing a wink in her direction, I turned and knelt down in front of another headstone, one which I’d visited numerous times before.
“I have someone I want to introduce you too, Teacup. I’m sure you already know all about her, but I’m making the effort just in case.”
I chuckled.
“You should be happy to know that your niece looks exactly like you. I’m just hoping she doesn’t have the attitude to match. If she does, I am well and truly fucked when she gets older.”
Smiling, I held my sweet girl with one arm, and used my free hand to loosen the soft pink blanket Carissa had her swaddled in, revealing more of her breathtaking face. “Teacup, say hello to Lily Ann.”
The End
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About the Author
J.E. Parker is an American romance author who was born and raised in the great state of North Carolina. A southern belle at heart, she’s addicted to sweet tea, Cheerwine, and peach cobbler.
Not only is J.E. married to the man of her dreams (albeit a total pain in the rear), she’s also the mother of a herd of sweet (sometimes), and angelic (only when they’re sleeping) children. Despite their occasional demonic behavior and bottomless stomachs, J.E. loves her little tribe more than words could ever express.
On the weekends, you can find her sitting on the couch, cheering on (or cursing) her favorite football team, stuffing her face with junk food, and guzzling a bottle of cheap red wine.
When she’s not busy making sure her husband doesn’t burn the house down or acting as a referee for her fighting children, J.E. enjoys reading, writing (obviously), and listening to a wide variety of music.
Acknowledgments
Christina (AKA Cupcake)
Once again, you pulled me through. How you put up with me, I’ll never know. Thank you for being my person.
Cupcake + Stin
ger = Forever.
Sara Miller
The dedication says it all. Simply put, I think you’re amazing. Thank you for being a cup of awesomesauce in a world filled with too many turds.
Tempi Lark
You are strong, you are capable, and you are going to rock the hell out of this author thing.
I’m so dang proud you.
Brittany, Julia, and Ari (Red Hatter Book Blog)
You ladies threw your support behind me with my first book, and five books later you’re still with me. It may sound sappy, but that means the world to me. Though I suck at expressing it sometimes, know that I appreciate every single thing that each of you does. Because of y’all, the book world shines a little bit brighter.
The ladies of JE’s Romance Junkies
You. Are. Everything.
The support you show me is unfathomable.
Thank you for having my back, and thank you for loving me as much as you love these crazy characters of mine.
Every Time We Touch: A Redeeming Love Novel (Book 5) Page 34