Page 86 of Desert Thorns
“That’s good.”
“I don’t think we’re needed here,” Keaton said to Tatum. When the oldest Grady agreed, they left us to it.
I refocused on Kingsley. “You said there’s so much you needed to tell me?”
“Yeah.” He started to elaborate the revelation he’d had during the flagellation, and I hung onto his every word. As crazy as it seemed, he’d found healing in that gruesome moment. That’s what God did. He turned the ugly into beauty. Sometimes here on earth, sometimes in heaven—He never wasted our pain.
When Kingsley’s eyelids grew heavy, I trailed my fingers along his jaw. “You’re exhausted. Get some sleep.”
He closed his eyes and leaned into my touch. “I am. There’s something we need to do once I get out of here.”
“Oh?” I cocked my head. “Are you planning on telling me what or are you just gonna leave me in the dark?”
A low chuckle rumbled from his chest. “Being patient isn’t your strong suit, is it?”
“No.”
“But you like surprises.”
“Yes. A lot.”
“Good, because this will be a big one.”
Chapter 35
Kingsley
“This is the last one,” Wentworth announced from behind me.
I was straddling a chair in his living room while he worked on removing the remaining sutures from my back. Three weeks had passed since the flagellation, and the lacerations were healing nicely. I’d stayed here the entire time so Wentworth could help me to keep things clean. Staying with him, Rhyner, and Moriarty wasn’t as chaotic as I’d expected. They were gone a lot, either training or working out, and when they were around, it was a lot like the brotherhood I used to have at Saint James.
I felt a tug on my upper back as Wentworth pulled at the suture. Some of them had grown in, and this seemed to be one of them.
“Those scars are gonna be gnarly, man,” Michael T. “Shotgun” McCord commented from the sofa, where he was violently punching buttons on a controller. He cussed when Moriarty, who sat next to him, shot his figure. Even though Shotgun didn’t live here, he was around a lot.
Yeah, I was aware of the scars. The lacerations were all over my back, sort of in a messy crisscross pattern. Hopefully they wouldn’t scare off Harley, or remind her of what Fuller had put her through. It wasn’t a pretty sight.
Harley.She’d spent the two nights in the hospital with me and visited me here every day after that. Tonight I’d make my move. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been this nervous.
“All done,” Wentworth said. “Let me wrap you. I have a feeling you’ll need an extra layer of protection for your plans.”
I stood and raised my arms in the air so he could wrap a bandage around my torso.
A wide grin split Shotgun’s face. His eyebrows were naturally shaped in a frown, making him look downright malicious. “You mean besides the other kind of protection?”
“Too late for that,” Wentworth said around a cough.
I would have given him a look had he not been behind me. Not that Harley’s pregnancy was a secret. I just felt the need to protect her.
Shotgun’s gaze snapped to me. “She’s pregnant? Dang.”
“Congrats,” Moriarty said. This was the first word I heard from him today. He was even quieter than Brother Aurelius.
“Thanks.”
The right corner of Shotgun’s mouth tugged up into a smirk. “In that case protection won’t be necessary.”
Usually I would’ve ignored his comment. Shotgun was a lot like Keaton used to be, and trying to explain my values to a guy like that was like talking to a wall. Something prompted me to share anyway. “It won’t be necessary because we aren’t being intimate. Not until we’re married.”
