Kissing her.
Fucking her.
Loving her.
She was mine. I didn’t care what anyone said. King could go fuck himself.
“Hey.” Rose poked her finger into my ribs. The ache in my hands from clenching my fists when she mentioned Johnny subsided as Rose took one of my hands in hers.
My eyes closed, and a vision of Indie filled my mind. The look on her face when she snapped out of the trance. The fear, the panic. The humiliation. I wanted to know what had happened to her. I wanted her to open up to me.
I wanted to kill whoever hurt her. Whoever put that fear inside her didn’t deserve to live. I just knew she wasn’t the only one. Just like Rose wasn’t the only one.
“I can’t be in two fucking places at once.”
“She’s okay at the clubhouse. No one can hurt her there.”
“You don’t know that. We’re all here. Everyone but the fucking prospects, who can’t do shit to protect her,” I argued.
“King trusts Johnny to protect Grace.”
“King trusts Johnny to stop Grace from going home with some random dude.”
“Still, he seems capable.”
I grunted, not wanting to admit she was probably right. I’d seen him in the ring with Archie and with Keys. They all knew how to fight. But none of them were good enough to protect Indie.
“Mimic and Kytten.”
I stood the second I heard Jack’s voice. The smile that spread across his face told me Sam was fine, but I needed to hear the words.
“Is she okay?”
“She’s fine. The babies are both fine. She wants you both to be the first ones to see them, with Charlie.”
“Me?” Rose asked.
“Come meet your baby sisters, you two.” Jack waited for us to move. Charlie had run to him as soon as he’d walked into the room.
Rose took a step and looked back at me. “You coming?”
“You’re sure she’s okay?”
Jack took a few steps until he was standing right in front of me. He handed Charlie off to Rose and placed his hands on my shoulders.
“She’s perfect. She’s done this before, and she was amazing. Now she wants to see you.”
My nose burned with tears I refused to shed in front of my brothers. I wasn’t a fucking pussy, but the worry I’d had for Sam had taken over more than I realized. My shoulders slumped with relief, and I nodded before following Jack, Rose, and Charlie down the hall.
I didn’t know what to expect. I’d visited Ellie when she had Sebastian, but this was different. Ellie was an old lady, just like Sam. But Sam was my momma. She was more important to me than anyone else. At this moment, I realized she might even be more important than Rose.
I knew it was some fucked-up notion that I needed a mom. I’d been without one for so long. And the one I did have, had betrayed me—according to Dakota. He’d told me she’d been the one to tell him where I was and how to find me.
He’d brainwashed me into believing she didn’t want me. That she’d never wanted me. Every memory I had of my mother, all the times she’d sung me to sleep and kissed my scrapes, were destroyed by Dakota Stone and his countless barbs against her.
He’d told me she was a whore. That she’d given me up for money. He’d said she was tired of living like a pauper and had finally taken the money George offered her and gotten rid of me. He’d convinced me she was a selfish bitch who didn’t care about anyone but herself.
Then I found Rose.