Page 29 of No Second Chances

“Kennedy.”

I reach for her, needing to touch her. Needing to reassure myself that the image of her dead in my arms is wrong. Thankfully, she lets me. Whether it is a slip in judgment on her part or just the fact that she needs me as much as I need her, I don’t care. Her choked sob hits me harder than any bullet, and I curl my arms around her, pulling her as close to me as I can manage.

“Why?” she cries, and every wall I’ve built up shatters. Every bridge I’ve tried to burn with her is there, waiting and begging to be crossed. Every line I’ve drawn in the sand, wiped away. “Why did you do this to me? To us?”

“I don’t want to bring children into this life, Kennedy.” The words break me to admit, but I can’t hold that back from her. I have to give her the truth. All of it. “Not when I can’t even get through the day without knowing for sure this won’t happen. I remember that night.” The only night I had her in my arms. The night we talked about forever. “You want a family. You want kids. I see it in the way you look at Nox. In the way you were with those little ones in his class. And I can’t give you that.”

“You’re an idiot, Lincoln Hayes.” Her words cut, but they don’t hold the venom I expect. “All I ever wanted was you.”

She is going to say more; I can feel the way she tenses in my arms, and I know she is about to give me a piece of her mind.

“Get your hands off my fiancée.”

Kennedy flinches in my arms at the sound of Royal’s voice and I want to drive my fist through his face for interrupting.

“She’s not your fiancée, Royal.” I don’t bother trying to hide the venom in my voice. “She hasn’t been since you did something to hurt her. I told you to stay the hell away from her. I meant it. That includes sending Mallory to torment her or her family.”

The look in his beady little eyes tells me that he never expected to get caught, and I’m only too happy to tell him how I found out.

“Mallory, your precious little toy, told me what you did to Parker. Because you wanted to punish Kennedy, no doubt.” I hold her tighter when the woman in question tries to pull away. “It’s not going to work. You’re not going to get her. She’s not yours.”

“I fixed what you broke,” Royal snarls, completely ignoring the fact that we are still standing in the middle of the parking lot. “She’ll come back to me.”

“No. You didn’t. You tried to twist and manipulate me and make me into something I wasn’t.” Kennedy’s words are slightly muffled by my chest, but she pushes away, and I let her go, silently supporting her while she handles her shit.

“We’ll talk about this later.” Royal tries to grab her by the arm but stops when he sees the look on my face.

“No.” Kennedy shakes her head. “We won’t.”

The sound of car doors slamming catches my attention, and out of the corner of my eye I see Remy and Dom both standing next to their cruisers. They aren’t alone, either. There are at least four other cops and two deputies standing there with their attention focused solely on us.

Royal, pissed and ready for a fight, looks like he is about to get physical when Kennedy turns around to face me.

Before I can second-guess myself, I pull her into my arms. Right before I press my lips to hers, she smiles.

“Finally.”

13

KENNEDY

Sitting in the dark in my living room while I stare out the window may make anyone in the world think I’m crazy. Hell, even I think I’m crazy. But I have to make sure Linc isn’t out there.

After the kiss, he practically ran in the opposite direction, leaving me panting and wanting more.

More.

First, I have to beat some sense into him. So I’m waiting. In the dark. Until I’m sure that he’s gone home. After all, the best ambushes happen on friendly territory. And I know without a shadow of a doubt that the only way to get Linc to open up about whatever the fuck happened, and to give us a chance, is to knock him on his ass and make him listen.

Briefly, I think about grabbing the pair of bright-pink furry handcuffs that Parker got me for my birthday out of the side drawer next to my bed, but I quickly throw that thought out the window.

I know about post-traumatic stress. Between a family full of former military men, losing one of my sisters, and the chaos and stress of working as a dispatcher, it is almost a part of my everyday life.

While I sit in the dark, with the dim light in my window the only constant, I think about that night. The night I took back myself, my body, my sexuality. The night I took Linc for my own.

After the sex, after he helped me claim a piece of my soul that was stolen, he let me sleep. He didn’t leave, even though we were in my parents’ house. Instead, he held me in his arms and talked about our future together.

Everything we’d have when he got out of the Marine Corps. A life. Our family. Having children together. The life we should have had.

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