The Wild Wolf Pup (Zoe's Rescue Zoo #9)(111)

Chapter Forty-Four





On the ride back to his parents’ house in Martha’s Vineyard, I lay my head on Riggs’ shoulder and he threads his fingers through my long hair. The last twenty-four hours have been a nightmare, making us relive a memory we are so desperate to forget. I watched as Riggs he stood by helplessly waiting for someone, anyone, to tell him what was going on with the men he called his brothers. It was a glimpse of the Riggs that suffered when I was in a coma and our son was fighting for his life. For me it was a little different, I don’t remember much after I was shot but I learned how much I don’t like being on the sidelines, how much I don’t like sitting in a hospital waiting to find out if the people in our lives survived. All I kept thinking was how lucky we were to have escaped that bomb. I don’t know who decided we would be hiding out in Martha’s Vineyard with Riggs’ parents but whoever was responsible would always hold my gratitude.

I spent a good part of my life worrying about my brother’s well-being, wondering when the day would come that he’d be a victim and not a survivor. It sucked, and I never understood why Adrianna stuck with him. How could she live life worrying if the man she loved would live or die the moment he stepped out the door? Then I met Riggs, and I understood. As crazy as it sounds, loving Riggs is worth living in fear. I can’t imagine my life without him and as much as it kills me to know that as long as he has the reaper on his back he’ll always have a price tag on his head, I wouldn’t trade him for all the straight and narrow guys in the world.

“Kitten, you’re thinking too loud,” he murmurs.

I lift my head from his shoulder and stare at his face, watching as he looks at me with one eye.

“We’re almost there,” he says, folding his hands behind his head as he tips his chin toward the driver his parents sent for us. “You’ll get a dose of Eric and everything will be right with the world.”

“What happens now?”

I watch as he opens his eyes, stares straight ahead and filters through the truth and what he can actually admit.

“Now, you and Eric will stay with my parents,” he states.

“You’re not staying with us?” I torture us both by asking the question he doesn’t want to answer and the one I already know the answer to.

“Kitten, you saw what I saw, the club needs all capable hands on deck. I want you and Eric back home with me in our little apartment, filling the front of our fridge with pictures of him and sonogram pictures of that little pea inside you. But I won’t do that unless I know it’s safe, and knowing means seeing, it means doing it myself with my own hands and mind.”

“I get it,” I say softly as he turns his gaze and assesses my features to see if my words are truthful. “I don’t like it,” I add. “But I get it and I’ll go along with whatever you think is right for now but you have to promise me something.”

“Anything,” he replies quickly.

“You’ll stay safe. You’ll think before you act and when you feel like jumping into the line of fire, remember me and our babies and take two steps back. Bones isn’t going along for the ride; he won’t be there to step in front of a bullet, he’s not here to make sure our little family stays intact. It’s all on us now.”

“I promise you,” he says, throwing an arm around me and pulling me closer to him. “You’re pretty fond of your Tiger aren’t you, Kitten?”

I shake my head as I clutch his leather jacket with my fingers.

“Fond doesn’t even begin to describe it,” I admit. “I love you, Riggs. I finally understand what you went through after the shooting. When I first woke up and I looked into your eyes I couldn’t explain what I saw reflected at me, but after sitting in that waiting room tonight with you and feeling helpless as we watched our friends and family being brought in with all those injuries, I tried to imagine how you felt. I put myself in your shoes and I don’t think I could do it. I couldn’t sit beside you and beg God to let me have you. I couldn’t look at Eric and wonder how I’d raise him without you. I need you, Riggs, I need you to keep me believing that dreams come true because no dream is worth having if you’re not in them,” I whisper.

He moves his hands up to my face and drags my mouth down to his, kissing me softly at first before his lips and tongue turn into a frenzy of desperation.

“Luckiest guy in the world,” he mutters against my mouth. “I love you, Lauren Bianci,” he adds, pulling back his mouth to stare at me as I push my black-rimmed glasses onto the bridge of my nose. A smile spreads across his face and he winks at me. “I’m so fucking glad they chose me to kidnap mama Bianci.”

I roll my eyes and try not to laugh as he wraps his arms around my waist.

“Hey,” he says, tipping my chin with his index finger. “I will be fine and you know what we’re doing as soon as this whole thing is over?”

“Well you can’t say make a baby,” I tease.

“You’re going to marry me,” he says confidently.

“Oh yeah? You’re going to make an honest woman out of me?”

“Yeah, I am,” he agrees, then furrows his brow.

“What is it?”

“We can’t be Mr. and Mrs. Tiger,” he mutters, actually looking scorned.