Page 41 of Everlasting

I clapped a hand on his shoulder. “I respect that, but that man’s been by my side since long before you were a misfire, you feel? You make sure and tell me if he needs anything at all so I can get it for him, or put a boot up his ass about it, you got it?”

“A misfire?” He laughed.

“Well, you ain’t all there, are you?”

“Fucking hell,” he murmured after a bout of full-blown laughter. “It’s good to be able to do that and breathe.” I knew what he meant. There hadn’t been a whole lot of cause to just laugh in quite some time. “Get my brother back to his family and take care of him. He doesn’t look so good, D.”

“He’s alive. Anything else, we can work on.”

Chapter 26

Finally

Ever

I didn’t tell my girls that their dad was coming home today. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if that was more for selfish reasons than to protect them at this point. I’d been called and told that the information I provided was good and that they were on their way back. A couple nomads with Aces High, a security contractor with Redemption Inc., and a brother from the Tallahassee Chapter had all been killed in order to make it happen. Four men lost their lives to bring mine home. Merc was also in critical condition in a hospital in Canada. Tiger Lily sat with me, holding my hand while we waited, but Gretchen and Kane had taken my kids for the day.

My father had been the one to call and suggest that the girls not be there when they arrived. “He’s a mess, Ever. I need you to prepare yourself. Physically, on the outside, he’s unharmed. I don’t want you to fool yourself though, he has a long road to recovery.”

I already knew that. Ava had told me about his condition and what Toby had explained to her was being done to him. Knowing my brother, he was sheltering me from part of it, so I expected the worst. We also made sure to keep the Durbin guy around, just in case his particular skill set was needed when Deck got here. As it turned out, he was one of the foremost skilled people in the damn world at getting others detoxed and their habit kicked. Due to a rather shady background and upbringing, he tended to work for hire for the rich and the dangerous, taking extremely large payouts for his services and his silence.

He spoke to me, told me what to expect and the condition he had last seen Deck in. I was stunned, and I’m not going to lie, devastated to learn about the amnesia and memory issues. No woman wants to hear that her man forgot who she was. I especially didn’t want to know about it, because that meant that at some point, he may have willingly been with the woman who was brought back to the compound, still pregnant. She was still screaming down the pit that she was having Deck’s baby. I hadn’t been allowed to see her in person, but Kane snuck me into the guy’s command center, as I called it, where I was able to watch her on video and hear her claims. It killed me to think that my husband had ever been with this woman, and I knew that they had a history before me. He had told me about her on one of our first dates. That was where all my doubts had kicked in. My husband had explained to me that he was ready to propose to her, had he not found her fucking his best buddy at the time.

“Put it all out of your head,” Tiger Lily whispered to me.

“What?”

“All the doubts, the worries, the what ifs that go along with that whore they have locked up, you need to put them away for now. You’ll get to the bottom of it all, eventually.”

“What if he doesn’t remember? What if she really is pregnant with his baby and he did that with her willingly?”

“I’m going to tell you this once, and I want you to really hear me,” she looked me right in the eye as she spoke. “Whatever he did when he couldn’t remember, whatever he did when he was drugged out of his mind, none of it matters and sure as fuck shouldn’t count. You know why? He was their prisoner the whole damn time. Even if she managed to trick him because of the drugs and amnesia, that wasn’t your Deck who did those things. You need to get that right in your brain, because you can’t hold it against him. If that baby turns out to be his, you can’t hold it against his child either.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” I whispered. That much, I knew for sure, even if I was confused and frustrated about the rest. Lily patted my knee.

“I know, just had to say it for myself. Lucy set a good example for you, with you. There’s no way you wouldn’t do the right thing, but sweetheart, you know she struggled. I know you’d struggle, and I’m here. You need to know that I’m here when you do.”

“I know. Thank you. I love you, Lil.”

“Love you too, baby girl,” she insisted. “Now, let’s get ready to welcome my boy home.” While I knew she was just as excited to do so, her smile wavered, and the exhaustion played out in her features.

“After you get to see him and welcome him home, I need you to get some rest,” I demanded.

“I won’t argue with you because I feel dead on my feet right now, but when I have more energy, I’m going to tell you that you aren’t the boss of me,” she joked.

I was laughing when the compound doors opened, and my father walked in with Declan by his side. Deck was on his own two feet, but it was obvious that he wasn’t doing too well. Sweat was beaded up on his brow and his body was shaking. Still, our eyes locked and I swear, I saw relief in them for just a moment before he noticed someone else in the room. Durbin. He bypassed me and went straight for him, and when he spoke, my heart broke. “Help me.” That was it, just two words and then he couldn’t hold himself up any longer.

“Oh God!” Lily cried out from next to me. I reached for and just wrapped an arm around her thin waist and pulled her close.

“It’ll be okay. We knew this was probably how it was going to be,” I told her while trying to reassure myself with those words as well.

“Oh, Ever! I’m so glad the girls weren’t here to see that.”

“Me too.” My father came to us then, and didn’t bother picking which one of us women needed a hug more, instead, he scooped us both into his big arms and held us tight to him. Then he kissed Tiger Lily on the head and leaned in to whisper in her ear, although I still heard what he said to her and felt her body shake with the emotions she was holding back.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t bring Merc back with me too. He’s going to come home though. Jay will see to it. When they’re back, we’re having a discussion about family, and not excluding them from things.” She tipped her head, acknowledging his words and then he leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. “Baby girl, give him a little time. He needs to heal.”

“Did he even recognize us?” Lily asked.

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