Page 45 of Broken

Dirty stayed awake, holding her. Sleep wouldn’tcome to him, not yet. For now, he just wanted to bask in holding her. It hadbeen too long since he held Petal in his arms.

She had no idea how he wished they could go backto that moment—the instant he saw his words hurt her, and shred that part ofher feelings for him. Instead of asking if the baby was his, he’d tell her howhappy he was.

A baby.

He was an asshole.

The times he was alone now, he thought aboutPetal, about a life with her. He watched Warden and Kim with a newappreciation. They were married and tight, and … happy. Yes, they knewheartache, but they had each other. Warden never looked at another woman. Therewas no one else he wanted. It was always Kim.

Then he saw Colt and Rosalie. An unlikely coupleright from the start, her being the daughter of the enemy, but also a man Coltwanted to kill. Yet, they were married, thriving, and pregnant.

He and Petal made no sense. Petal had a smartmouth. She was stunning, beautiful, and had the prettiest smile, but also thesaddest of faces when she was upset. One of the days on that cruise aftertalking with Rosalie, he saw how much this life had affected her.

She was so gutted for her friend, but she tried tobe the strong one—the one Rosalie could rely on, and as he watched her, hecouldn’t help but notice she had no one. There was no one’s shoulder for her tocry on. No one for her to rely on. She had no one. And he decided to be hersomeone.

Now he fucked that up.

He stared down into her sleeping face, and he knewthere was never going to be anyone for him. He had his chance and he lost it.

****

“It’s clever,” Warden said. “And I didn’t see itcoming.”

“We both knew what Daemon was capable of. This isjust another element of it.”

“The man is dead, Kim. D-E-A-D, and yet, he isstill finding a way to fuck everything up.”

Kim sighed and went to her husband. She took thewhiskey out of his hand and placed it on the counter. “Stop. Deamon is notresponsible for this. He might have put it in motion, but he is not here. He isdead, and we made sure of that.” She took a deep breath.

This was hard. The truth was, seeing Warden likethis, she knew it was bad. Even when the Evil Fuckers MC with Daemon in chargewas a threat, he never acted like this. This was different.

Daemon had been playing this game a step ahead ofthem, even from the fucking grave. She knew her husband would be upset. Wardenhad known that the death of Daemon didn’t bring the end of trouble with the MC.All it had done was send them into hiding, and now it was a game of cat andmouse.

“What am I going to do?” he asked.

She hated how deflated he sounded.

“Simple. We’re going to keep going no matter what.We now know they’re out there and they’re close.”

“They’re aware of our deals, Kim. They knew tointercept the drivers.”

“And we’ve got Fritz working that detail, right?Stop stressing.”

“I couldn’t live with myself if anything happenedto you,” Warden said. He reached for her, and she didn’t fight him.

“Nothing is going to happen to me. I’m not thatyoung impressionable teenage girl anymore. I’m a full-grown woman and if Iremember rightly, you got me a gun many years ago, and you also taught me howto use it.” She offered him a smile. “I’ve never used it, but you never know, Imight be convinced to kick some ass.”

Warden chuckled. “I don’t know what I did to winyou.”

“Simple, you fell in love with me, and I fell inlove with you.” She knew he felt guilt at having no family.

Choosing Warden to spend her life with had come ata cost. When she first gave birth to Colt, or even when she first found out shewas pregnant with her son, she’d felt so alone. The only women at the club hadbeen those that wanted to screw all the men. She had to find her place, to letthem know they couldn’t walk all over her.

Then, little by little, she came to realize shedidn’t need her family. If they didn’t want her around because her husband wasa “bad man”and he ran with “the wrong crowd,”she didn’t need them.

She wasn’t afraid of this new threat—angry, butnot afraid. Daemon was gone, and it would take some time, but the Evil FuckersMC would one day cease to exist.

Chapter Ten

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