Page 103 of The First Chord

I nodded and let my fingers unravel from the white cotton that tethered him to me. With a kiss to my forehead, he slowly stood up and took his phone from his pocket.

“I’ll be two minutes, I promise.”

He tapped a number on his phone and moved over to the sofa, perching on the back of it. As he waited for Ali to answer he pulled in a long breath and then let it out. It was shaky and ragged, and I spotted his hand tremble as he lifted it to push it through his hair. It was clear that he was hanging on by a thread. It wasn’t only me that Jimmy had hurt, Ronnie had to wonder what might have happened to his child, our child.

“Hey, Ali,” he said after a few seconds. “You need to come to my room right away… yes, it is… she remembers what happened… no… yes.” He blew out another breath. “Yep, let them know… okay, will do.”

The call was ended but Ronnie didn’t move, not even a twitch, and I worried what he was thinking. What he was contemplating doing. His body was rigid as expressions of anger, worry, and pain flashed across his face. Eventually, his eyes met mine and he scrubbed a hand down his face.

“You know I want to fucking kill him, don’t you?”

I nodded and let out a quiet whimper, afraid that he’d do just that.

“A couple of years ago, maybe even months ago, I would have but now I won’t. The only reasons that I won’t are because of you and our baby. I won’t lose you because of him. I won’t ruin my life because of him.” He pushed off the sofa and came to kneel at the side of the bed, resting his hand on my head. “You two are my life and I won’t lose you because of Jimmy Fox, but I will do everything I can to make him pay for what he did to you.”

“I know,” I replied quietly. “I know you will.”

“I love you.” His gaze was reverent and soft, and I had no clue what I’d done to deserve him, but I was glad I did.

“I love you, too, so much.”

The sharp rap on the door broke our gaze and the small amount of peace that we had in our lives.

CHAPTER45

RONNIE

Iwanted to see that bastard squirm as they took him away. I wanted him to see me, watching him being banged up like the animal that he was. To be honest, animal was too good a word for him. Most animals were nice and loyal. He wasn’t, he was a fucking psychopath who deserved every bit of bad luck coming his way, if Karma was real.

“I don’t want you to go,” Amber cried, holding onto my arm. “Please, Ronnie.”

I held her face between my hands and looked into her eyes. “Baby, I would do anything for you, but this I can’t. I need to see them take him away. You’ll be safe in here and then once he’s gone, Ali will get him legal representation, because she has to, it’s her job. Then she’ll come back here and stay with you while we’re on stage.”

“I’m not scared for me, babe.” She swiped a tear from her cheek. “I’m scared for you. What you might do.”

I shook my head. “Nothing. I will do nothing, except watch. I swear.”

Taking a deep breath, she finally nodded, and I let her go with a quick kiss to her trembling lips.

When I reached the corridor that the Blind Devil rooms were on, Beau, Elliot and Joey were already there.

“We wanted to give you some support.” Elliot’s arm came around my shoulders. “We want to see the back of the fucker, too.”

“Thanks, guys. Me and Amber appreciate it.” Me and Amber. It felt good saying it. Like we were finally getting to the good part.

Joey nudged me. “Here they are.”

We turned to see Ali leading three coppers down the corridor, two in uniform and one in a suit. She glared at us as she approached, but for once I wasn’t worrying about upsetting her.

“I need to see it, Al,” I said.

“Well, just keep out of the way.”

The copper in the uniform narrowed his eyes on us but didn’t say anything which surprised me. Maybe he liked our music or maybe he just fucking hated men who beat up women.

One of the uniforms banged on Jimmy’s door and when he didn’t answer after three fists to the wood, I wondered if maybe he’d gone out. Ali had checked, though. She’d called him to say she needed a meeting and he’d said he’d be there. When the suited copper stepped forward and knocked, Jimmy finally opened up.

“Mr James Fox?” the suit asked in clipped English.

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