I know he just told me he loves me, but I still hold my breath as I wait for his reaction. It comes not a second later. His eyes light up, showing more life than I’ve seen since I woke in this bed, and he smiles. His smile is beautiful.
He drops his head and his lips settle over mine. It’s a soft kiss, a gentle kiss. I want more, so much more, but me lying in bed with a hole in my stomach makes it pretty much impossible for us to do more.
When he pulls back, I notice his hand lightly holding onto the end of my braid. Is it strange of me to think his obsession with my hair is sexy? I don’t care if it does. I’ll gladly be strange as long as I get JW.
“I love you,” he whispers again, and I smile, suddenly feeling giddy. “I’m going to go get Trouble so he can look you over.”
I relax against the pillow and nod. “Okay.”
“I’ll be right back.” His voice is still low. “I love you.”
I giggle because I’m happy. I giggle because I’ll never get tired of hearing him say it. Doesn’t matter if he said it a hundred times over and over again right after the other. Maybe I’ll record him saying it on my phone so I can hear it any time I want.
I grab the bottom of his shirt when he turns to leave. He spins back.
“I love you,” I tell him.
Instead of leaving, he comes back to me. His hands go to the pillow on either side of my head and he lowers himself. His nose rubs alongside mine and then he’s kissing me again.
This time I let him leave, but my eyes track him until he’s out the door. Once I lose sight of him, I close my eyes and smile. My side is starting to hurt more, but there’s nothing that can take away my happiness.
JW loves me. That’s all I need.
JW
I DROP DOWN INTO MY DESK chair at the station and pick up my phone. Scrolling through my contacts, I find the name I need.
“Yes?” a man’s voice comes across the line after the third ring.
“Your son is dead.” I get right to the point.
There’s a pause before Emiliano blows out a breath. “Why?”
It doesn’t surprise me that I don’t note any remorse in his tone. Just disappointment.
“Because he killed my woman’s dog. Because he killed another woman who was a good friend. Because he held a child and her mother hostage, repeatedly raping the mom in front of the child. Because he killed that child’s father. But especially because he kidnapped my woman, stabbed her, and almost made her bleed out.”
“Shit. Stupid fucking idiot.” he mutters.
I clench my jaw. “I’m letting you know as a warning, just in case you have a mind for backlash toward me or anyone in this town, includ
ing Eden, that it would be a very grave mistake.”
He laughs. He actually laughs, and it makes my back molars protest as I grind them together.
“You’re threatening me? After killing my only son?” he asks, incredulously.
“It’s no threat, Emiliano. You come after me or anyone I care about, and your days attempting to rule San Antonio are over. You know I can make that happen.”
I lock eyes with Judge as he appears in the doorway to my office. Noticing me on the phone, he quietly makes his way to the chair across from my desk, takes a seat, and gets comfortable.
“I don’t take well to threats, son,” Emiliano says, no longer amused.
“And I don’t take well to people threatening what’s mine. Your son’s half-severed head can attest to that.”
It doesn’t matter that it was actually Emo who killed Diego. He would have still ended up just as dead.
He sighs, his breath crackling over the phone. “That boy has always been bad news. I knew it when he was a child and would slaughter the neighborhood cats. He knew I forbade any harm coming to women and children, especially after the brutal way his mother died, but he thought, as my son, I would protect him. People like him disgust me, and it’s been a long time since I’ve been able to look at him with anything other than revulsion.”