Page 89 of Come Back To Me

It’s as if strong hands are now wrapped around my throat. The air won’t go in. I’m suffocating under the weight of this reality being projected before me. “What if you don’t get out? What happens if they find you guilty, and you never come home?”

I’m becoming frantic. My mind running away from me. “Hey, shh, shh,” Dean soothes. With my hands being held, I can’t wipe away the tears that escape me. “Mads.” I don’t move. “Lookat me, babe.”

Taking a few steadying breaths, I purse my lips, dragging my eyes to look at his.

“My girl,” he says when they connect. His thumb strokes over the back of my hands bunched in his. “I need you to trust me, more than you have ever trusted me before.”

With a sigh, I pull one hand from his hold. I wipe under my eyes, piecing myself together. “Do you have a plan?”

He subtly dips his chin.

“Will you tell me?” He doesn’t reply.

Looking once more at the woman beside me, she turns her head catching my eye. She hesitates to look away before wrapping her arms around her child. Kissing his head, she then wears a smile, although her body remains drooped.

The man opposite smiles back at her, thinking she’s happy. But I see her sadness. It seeps from her pores like blood oozing from a wound. “What if your plan fails?”

Looking back to Dean, he leans forward with wide eyes, the contact with mine, steady. “I will not fail you, Mads.” He truly believes himself.

“I don’t want to be left alone,” I say honestly.

A roaring silence ensues. Neither of us moves. The thought of waking up every morning without him breaks my heart. The thought of delivering our child without him holding my hand and telling me I’m going to be okay, destroys me. I don’t want our child to know him from behind bars. I don’t want our child to grow up not knowing the love that this man is capable of.

“You won’t be alone. Iwillget out of here.”

Looking at the bruises on his neck again, it dawns on me. “At what cost?” I ask.

Dean’s chin juts out, his jaw clenching. “I don’t give a shit about the cost, Mads. Whatever needs to be done to get me out of here and back to you and the club, I’m doing it. I told you I’drespect your wishes if you needed an out. But if you’re in, I need to know it’s with everything you’ve got, babe. You’re in my blood and my bones. Without you, I’m nothing.”

My fingers touch my necklace.

He holds my hand still in his, opening his other for me to take.

Instead, I lean forward. I run the tip of my finger down one side of his face over the stubble, noticing how long it’s gotten. I then drift over the bruise on his neck. A sharp line mars just under his chin, from one ear to the other.

Swallowing the agonising, burning lump, I stop my hand on his chest and press my palm flat. “I trust you.” His heart thumps under my touch. It’s fast. Almost out of control. “Travis told me you’d die for me, that I need to live for you,” he blinks hard, “but you need to live for you, too. You need to live for your child. Live, and come back to us. Come back to me and have your family.”

He doesn’t give me any words. His chest takes in a deep breath as he packs away his emotions.

“Your demons, the club… they can’t determine how you live your life anymore,” I tell him. “Only you can.”

Dean takes a long blink, then points his chin to the ceiling. He’s inside his own head.

After too long a silence, I speak. “I found Lauren,” I say quietly, trying to pull him back.

Dean looks at me.

“She’s going to stay with me for a while.”

He smiles. “That’s good.”

I rest my chin in my palm, my elbow resting on the table. “She also asked for her key.” I raise an eyebrow.

“What key?” The corner of his mouth twitches.

“Where’d you hide it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

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