Page 129 of Ruthless Beasts

I love you.

So fucking simple, and yet the hardest words I'd ever speak to my best friend and his wife.

“I love you,” I whispered into the night, knowing damn well it might be too late. But time never changed the facts. It never lessened the truth. It never canceled out the times I never saidit. Known or unknown, it was my truth, and I had been a fool for not speaking it.

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

MERCER

My fingers clung tight to her, holding on to any part of her I could touch. My life — the one I didn't even know I wanted, needed, deserved — was on this table, while blood coated the sheets.

The moment her heart stopped, failed to beat, gave in from a single moment of exhaustion, my heart stopped too. Unwilling to beat without its matching pair, refusing to operate without her love.

If she died, we'd die together, I promised myself, as they pried my fingers off her skin and tore her away from me.

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

ADAM

Opening my eyes was a fight, and I was losing. They were heavy and gritty, and every time I tried to pull them apart, they seemed to flutter down on their own. My muddled mind couldn't comprehend why this was. Everything floating around in there seemed to be blocked.

"He's waking up." Ace's voice floated through to me, though I wasn't sure who he was talking to.

With as much will as I could muster, I forced an eye open long enough to see Ace holding a phone to his ear. When he met my eyes, he hung up the phone and leaned forward. "How are you feeling?"

I let my eyes fall closed again, not answering for a moment while I assessed. I couldn't remember what got me here. I finally settled on what I knew for sure. "Groggy as fuck." My voice was scratchy, and it reminded me that I could really use some water.

"It's the anesthesia."

I blinked a few times. "Anesthesia?"

His hand came out and squeezed mine for a moment before he released it. "You don't remember?" When I didn't answer, he offered, "Accardo is dead."

My heart suddenly was in overdrive, the monitor beating frantically. "Belle."

"She's—"

God. Don't say dead. Don't tell me I lost another wife.

"She's in rough shape. I won't lie to you, Adam. It's touch and go. She's lost a lot of blood, had a lot of transfusions. Her heart stopped. Twice. But for now, she's stable. ICU. No visitors, so Mercer is staying there stalking the nurses' station for updates."

My hand was shaking as I brought it up to rub at my sandy dry eyes. "Fuck." Then the thought occurred to me. "The baby?"

"She is in the NICU. Cesarean. The trauma from Accardo caused placental abruption. If they didn't remove her, they both would have died. She's early, but the doctor thinks she'll be okay. We can't see her without permission from you or Belle, but I got a glimpse as they wheeled her by. Her little body was covered in cords, and she was encased in a bubble and ... fuck, even then, she was absolutely beautiful."

"She's okay," I gasped out.

"Belle has a concussion. So many fucking abrasions on her perfect creamy skin that if Accardo wasn't dead, I'd kill him myself. Fuck. And you... how the fuck did you even snap your leg like that? Took too fucking long in surgery setting it. You're going to be in a cast for months."

"Worth it," I confirmed.

I'd do it all again to get that fucker's slimy fingers off my wife. I'd take the fall to put distance between him and her. Hell, I would have died for her. I still would. I forced my body to lean forward before grabbing the cords and tabs attached to my arms and yanking them off my body. The machines went wild, but Ididn't give a fuck. I needed to see her. I needed to touch my wife. I needed to know that, at least for the moment, she'd be okay.

Two nurses rushed in before I could even get my good leg off the bed. "What are you doing?"

"My wife," I grunted as I tried to scoot forward toward the edge of the bed.

"You're not going anywhere. You just got that leg set. You're in no shape to just walk out of here." The plump, short one stood with her hand on her hip.

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