“Can’t you do something?” I growled at the EMT.
“We’ve given her what we can,” he said, calmly checking her vitals. “We’ll be at the hospital soon.”
Indy squeezed my hand. “It’s going to be okay, baby,” she rasped.
I gave her the most confident smile I could muster. “Of course, it is,” I said. I gave her a wink, even though it felt like my world was about collapse in on itself again. “Our boy is a mix of you and me. He’s strong. He’ll make it through this.”
“What if he is a she?” Indy smiled weakly.
I ran my thumb across her cheek. “Then my heart is a goner.”
INDY
Two days later, when I was due to be released from the hospital, Cade turned up with a bunch of flowers. He’d barely left my side since I was admitted, only going home when visiting hours were over and the nurses threw him out.
“Hey, beautiful,” he said, leaning down and kissing the top of my head. He didn’t kiss me on the mouth because my lips were still plump with bruises and cuts.
“Liar,” I joked. “I’ve seen my reflection.”
My face was a mess. Two black eyes, one broken nose. Cuts. Bruises. Burns.
Cade’s brow furrowed. “Baby, I’m so sorry this happened to you.”
Over the last two days, Cade had bounced between rage, grief, and remorse. When he found out I was missing, he’d gone insane. He’d felt overwhelmed at the thought of losing me. And then, when he’d found out the about the baby, he was terrified about losing the both of us.
“Stop apologizing. You saved my life.”
“I should have killed him,” he said darkly, and from the corner of my eye I could see the twitch of his fingers as they fisted at his side.
We’d had this conversation a few times over the last two days. Cade wrestled with not killing Elias. And I knew the only reason he didn’t was because of me. He had deliberately aimed away from his heart. The two shots were meant to inflict pain. Not death.
I reached for his hand. “I didn’t want that.”
“But if he gets out of prison like Travis—”
“He killed seven people and kidnapped an eighth. Elias Knight is going to prison for the rest of his life.”
He looked away and nodded, and I could see the burden of guilt on his shoulders as he thought about the last month. He blamed himself for everything that had happened—Isaac, Tex, Irish, Mirabella, Freebird, me, even Talia.
But most of all, he blamed himself for putting me right in the middle of Elias’s crosshairs.
“If I hadn’t been so blinded by revenge, I wouldn’t have volunteered to go to Kansas. He would have to have gone and he wouldn’t have had the chance to abduct you.”
“If you hadn’t volunteered to go, he would have killed me. He told me that. If he had to leave, he was going to kill me before he left. But you volunteered to go, instead. That gave him the idea of toying with me, instead of assassinating me on the spot like Mirabella.” I squeezed his hand. “You saved my life, Cade.”
I wasn’t used to Cade looking anything but strong and confident. But when we talked about my abduction at the hands of Elias, he looked tortured.
I smiled up at him. “Everything is okay now.” I smoothed my hand over my flat belly and felt the warm glow of love in my heart when I thought of what the future held for us. The bleeding had stopped, and my doctor assured me the pregnancy was out of danger. Cade and I were going to be parents, and when I thought about it, my heart overflowed with the love I felt for him and our baby.
For a moment, Cade didn’t say anything. His brows were drawn in and he seemed momentarily lost in his thoughts.
“I’m done,” he finally said.
I looked at him, confused. “What are you talking about?”
“With the club.” He glanced around us. “All of it.”
“You want to leave the MC?” I asked, taken aback.
He looked at me, the bright blue of his eyes sharpened with determination. “I’ll patch out and we can move. California, maybe. We’ll buy a farm, hell, we’ll grow grapes and make wine. I don’t give a fuck.” He ran his hands down my arms. “What matters is that we’re together—you, me, and Bomb.” Cade had nicknamed our baby, Bomb. Because when he’d found out I was pregnant, it was like a bomb going off inside of him, amplifying his already fierce need to find me.
“I know you never wanted this life,” he said. “And I’ve been a selfish fuck making you live it. But I’m done, Indy. We’ll do it your way. We’ll get out of here, start a new life, raise Bomb and get down to making more babies.”