Page 105 of Never Trust the Living (Battle Crows MC 7)

We’d all known our entire lives that Bram had depression issues.

Since very early on, he’d been on medication that leveled out his depression to a point where he could deal.

The only problem was certain things set him off into a downward spiral.

And I knew damn well and good his wife, the woman he loved with all of his heart, the woman that he would give up his family for, dying would be the trigger. He wouldn’t get past this, even if he had a baby to live for.

“Harker needs you,” I said, my eyes studying Dory’s face. “He needs you. Bram needs you. I need you. Come on, doll. Wake up. Fight.”

They’d weened her off of the medicine that was keeping her in a coma two days ago. She’d been extubated this morning.

“He’s there, but he’s not there, if you know what I mean,” I said to Dory. “He’s right now getting your son out of the NICU. Taking him ‘home’ so to speak. But his heart just isn’t in it. Come on, doll. Wake up. Let me see your eyes. Please?”

Dory didn’t move.

Didn’t so much as react.

“Come on,” I whispered. “Fight.”

• • •

DORY

I fought.

I fought hard.

Because Shine was right.

Bram would give up without me.

I knew it just as well as I knew that the sun would rise every morning.

“Shit,” I heard Shine whisper. “Bram, what the fuck are you doing up? You were stabbed in the fuckin’ chest for Christ’s sake. Give me that baby so you don’t drop him.”

What? Stabbed in the chest? My Bram? And he had our baby?

“Police cornered me for the third fuckin’ time, that stupid, incompetent sheriff thinks that I did this on purpose. That I’m guilty. That I stabbed myself in the chest,” Bram growled. “Which he knows damn well that I did not. But he looks like a dumbass, and he’s up for reelection, and thinks that if he makes me look like I was the one in the wrong, he’ll be rehired. I was tired of him coming to my room. And I missed her.”

He missed me?

That made my heart melt a little bit.

The last remaining crack was filled in, and my wall stood reconstructed with Bram’s love, whole and strongly new.

With Bram at my side, I would always be able to stay strong.

“I’ll handle it,” Shine said. “Sit down before you fall on your fuckin’ face.”

I heard the chair at my side squeak.

Then a quiet, more delicious squeak that sounded a whole lot like a baby.

A short, unsatisfied cry filled the air, then Bram’s deep, soothing voice said, “Shh. I know you know your mama’s close. You can smell her, can’t you?”

Then I felt a soft, warm weight press against my leg.

A wiggly body.

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