Page 26 of Savage Heart

Suck it up. Nothing’s changed. He’s still an asshole, and she still needs you.

“Erika…she’s mine.” It was a statement. There was no missing the glaring similarities between father and daughter. She saw them every day, and every day they pained her. She loved her daughter more than life, and once upon a time, she’d loved Erika’s father, too. So seeing his eyes, seeing his smile, running her fingers through hair so much like his…it was bittersweet.

“Yes,” she admitted, flatly.

His gaze hardened, his expression going from ice to fire in a blink. His jaw muscles twitching with the force of his grinding teeth.

“And you weren’t going to tell me?” he spat, his voice chilling.

Oh, so he was angry? Well, fuck that. He had no right to be angry!

“No, I wasn’t,” she admitted, crossing her uninjured arm over her chest to grab her shoulder. She lifted her chin, daring him to rant at her, because she didn’t give a shit. Yeah, she hid their baby from him, and she never—not once—felt a single second of guilt about it.

His eyes widened, surprised at her answer, as if he couldn’t fathom that she’d be honest.

“You were planning to keep my daughter a secret from me?” he asked, that voice of his, once again, chilling. And if she were a lesser woman, she’d have pulled back, muttered an apology, and kissed his high, tight ass. But she wasn’t a lesser woman. She’d been honed by difficulties, heartbreak, disappointment, abandonment, taking hit after hit after hit, and she kept going. And this was just another hit she had to take. For Erika.

“Yes,” she replied. “If I hadn’t been attacked, you never would have known about her.”

Recoiling as if she’d slapped him, he stared at her, his icy eyes darkening. His face went blank, his body tense, every rock-hard muscle in his massive frame locking in place. He was bracing.

For a long moment, he just stared at her. Finally, he asked the one question she knew was burning a hole in his guts. “Why?”

She didn’t even have time to open her mouth and answer him because the door to the room swung open and Odin swaggered in. Alone.

His penetrating eyes snagged on Trouble standing as still and menacing as a gargoyle statue beside the bed, then slid to Liz lying in the bed, no doubt looking about as good as a drop-kicked pepperoni pizza.

Ignoring the glare from Trouble, Odin strode toward the other side of the bed, offering Liz a slight smile.

“It’s good to see you awake, Doc,” he rumbled in that deep voice of his. She offered him a smile back.

“Good to be awake—nope, that’s a lie. It hurts like a bitch,” she rasped, the pain along her side throbbing at her effort to sit up straight.

“Shit,” Trouble cursed, turning and striding from the room.

Both watching him leave, she turned to Odin just as Odin turned to her.

He arched an eyebrow at her, and she mimicked the movement. He had questions, she had answers, and she needed his help.

Closing her eyes, she leaned back and sighed.

God, she was a fucking mess.

“How’s Erika?” she asked once the urge to bawl passed. Crying would do nothing for her except exacerbate her already pounding headache.

Odin grunted, then a blindingly wide grin spread over his face. “She’s doing well—Skathi is having a blast with her, Doc. That little girl is really something else. Skathi admits even she can’t keep up with the little whirlwind, but she’s ready to pop, so I’m making her take it easy when she can.”

“I’m sorry about this, Odin—”

He grunted, his eyes turning glinty. “This isn’t your fault, Doc. Someone fucked with the wrong woman, and now we’ve got to make things right again. Fae and Hawk are gonna keep her at their place, but Skathi wanted to help—she really likes Erika. She’s a sweet girl, but damn, does she know how to work those dimples.” He grinned, his eyes twinkling. For a big man who could crack skulls, he was all squishy on the inside for females.

Ignoring the pain in her face, Liz grinned back, knowing full well just how charming her little girl could be.

“She does, doesn’t she?” Her smile fell. “Has she asked about what happened?” God, she missed her daughter, but she knew Erika was better off not seeing her mother lying in a hospital bed, covered in bandages. The overwhelming need to see her, hold her, fill her nostrils with the smell of her, was overridden by the need to make sure that her precious treasure remained safe and secure.

It is probably better that Odin didn’t bring her.At least until the swelling in her face went down.

“Yeah, and we told her what we could. She knows you were hurt, saw it with her own eyes, but she wants to see you now. She’s askin’ about you, wants to see you.” Odin’s expression softened, which he’d been doing a lot since he’d gotten together with Skathi. The woman had turned the once hard Viking warrior into a big ol’ softie—even though the woman herself was a badass. “I wanted to bring her by to see you, but Skathi mentioned you might not be up to it yet. And didn’t want her here in case Benson came by.”

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