Once I’ve tugged a sports bra over her head and positioned it so it doesn’t press into any of her bruises or cuts, I tug a pair of sweatpants up my legs and a sweater over my head. All I give a shit about it getting her checked over, and the cuts on her legs and torso taken care of. Even after our shower, blood seeps from the wounds.
As I’m about to scoop her up and take her to the couch to wait for the doctor, there’s one more thing I need to do before I can share her attention with anyone else. Digging a hand into my own underwear drawer, I pull out the box that’s been there for the last two weeks. Even before she moved in, I was ready for this eventuality.
I kneel in front of her again, tugging the box open and pulling the ring free from the felt. Emerson’s eyes are wide as she watches me slide the ring onto her finger. The oval diamond sparkles under the light. It’s more simple than I would have gone with almost any other woman, but when I went through designs with the jeweler, I knew it was the one right away.
“Rayne, where did you get his?” She whispers the question.
“I’ve had it since two days after we first met. I knew then, I just had to wait for you to know too.” I smile up at her. The moment feels so right despite the chaos that remains around us.
Tears pool in her eyes, but these aren’t sad. The happiness peeking out from behind the fear and despair only serves to have my smile grow larger. Emerson inspects the ring on her finger, poking at the diamond gently. “It’s beautiful.”
“For my beautiful girl.” I cup her cheek in my palm, swiping the tears from her cheek carefully.
“You still want me?” she asks quietly.
I stare at her for a moment, unsure in what reality she thinks I wouldn’t want her. Doesn’t she realize my life begins and ends with her? Without her shining light, a man like me lives in the darkness. “I will always want you, sweet girl. You are my everything. And I can’t wait for you to be my wife.”
“I thought—” Her breath catches in her throat as she looks down at the cuts down her legs and stomach. “I thought you would look at me differently. I thought once you saw their hands on me that you wouldn’t want me anymore.” A sob breaks from her throat and I quickly stand before pulling her into my arms, cradling her against my chest. Not for the first time, I can’t help but think how perfectly we fit together, and how right it feels when she’s in my arms.
“I need you to listen to me, Emerson,” I say quietly into her ear. “I will want you with every single ounce of my being during every single second of every single day for the rest of our lives. No amount of scars will stop me from loving you, from worshiping you with every moment we have together. You are it for me. Endgame. Ride or die. The whole lot. Every-fucking-thing.”
Emerson buries her face into my neck, and I feel her smile against my skin. I never could have prepared myself for loving her, but now I do, I don’t want to go a single moment without her.
I carry her into the living room, and my family stands immediately. Tommy has gone to run point on security, and Everett can’t come anywhere near Wynter. Not because he doesn’t want to, or because she doesn’t want him to. No. It’s because the moment they’re seen together, her life is at risk, and that’s not something Everett can deal with. I never understood it before, the overwhelming need to put someone else above yourself, to hold their life and happiness at a higher value than your own, but I get it now.
Carefully, I lay her down on the couch and cover her with the throw rug Wynter hands to me. “I’m bleeding,” Emerson protests.
Wynter shakes her head. “None of us care about the blanket, Emerson. We only care about you and making sure you’re okay.”
“Thank you for everything you did for the Center today, and for protecting my dad from the truth.”
I meet my sister’s eyes and shake my head slowly. She’s thinking the same thing I did in the shower. How can that be her concern right now? How could she have gone through what she did and only care about the Center and her dad? Her kindness astounds me. We truly are yin and yang, and maybe that’s how I know we’re going to be okay. The two of us finding our way through together. Light and dark. Good and evil. Emerson and Rayne.
The front door opens and Doc strolls in. The guy is built like a tank and covered from head to toe in tattoos, but he’s the best fucking doctor we’ve ever had work for us. His dark is peppered with white and his dark eyes seem empty. You expect doctors to be warm and nurturing, but he’s quite the opposite. All we can ask is that he save our men, and women in this case, and do a great fucking job at it.
“Doc,” I greet him, standing from where I’m perched on the edge of the couch beside Emerson. Putting any distance between us right now feels painful, and it’s clear she feels the same way.
He looks around the penthouse until his eyes land on my sweet girl and immediately makes his way to where we are. “The patients you call me for aren’t usually so pretty, Saint James.” He smirks as he closes the gap between us.
My fists tighten and if he wasn’t the only person I trust to patch her up, he would be out on his ass right now. “I didn’t call you to hit on my woman, I called you to help her,” I growl.
Doc snickers. “What happened to you, darlin’?” He kneels down beside the sofa.
Emerson looks at him nervously before looking to me for confirmation she’s allowed to say anything. I give her a small nod and she relaxes slightly. “Angelo Russo and his cousins,” she whispers.
Fire flares in Doc’s eyes as he looks at me. There aren’t many people whose hatred for that family rivals my own, but he’s one of them. Every time one of our men comes back injured because of them, I think he might join the ranks to take them down, but we need him alive. There’s something different about the way he’s looking at Emerson. It’s almost pained and while he’s never told us why he hates them so much, I’m starting to think they may have hurt someone he loved.
Doc trains his face to its usual impassive mask and opens the heavy medical bag he brought in with him. “Let’s get you patched up then, darlin’. I’m sure you just want to put this day behind you if those motherfuckers played any part in it.”
Emerson nods. “Thank you for making a house call this late at night.”
Doc chuckles. “The calls these assholes usually have me on are much later, and much worse looking.”
I growl. If he comments on my woman’s appearance one more time he might want to think about switching sides for the protection they offer him.
Storm chuckles as Doc pours some antiseptic onto a piece of gauze and dabs it along the cuts on Emerson’s stomach. She winces but doesn’t make a sound. My brave girl.
“I’m sorry to do this after the day you’ve had Emerson, but can you fill in some details for me?” Storm takes a seat in the recliner across from her.
She nods. “Of course. Whatever you want to know.”
“Perhaps we could start with why Russo was under the impression you had married Rayne?” Storm’s brow raises. I’ve been pretty curious about the answer to this myself.
