Undeniable (Undeniable, #1)(63)
Reluctantly, she stepped aside, and he entered the room, closing the door behind him. The dark curtains were drawn tightly; the room dark and shadowed. Eva was lying in bed on her side. She looked pale and weak, had dark circles around her eyes, and had an IV in her arm. When she saw him, she turned away.
“Go away,” she whispered hoarsely.
His chest tightened. “Baby, I can’t. We gotta talk.”
He rounded her hospital bed so he could see her face, and she immediately rolled to her other side.
“No, we don’t. Go away.”
OK, different tactic.
“Eva. Chase is dead.”
He watched her body go rigid.
“He was tortured,” he continued. “Gutted. Insides strung up on his own Christmas tree.”
Eva dragged herself into a sitting position, clutching her abdomen. “Where’s Frankie?” she whispered.
“Off the grid.”
“Oh my God. Chase…oh my God…this is all my fault…he didn’t…I…oh my God—”
“Baby.” He gripped her face and forced her to look at him. “Listen to me good. Chase knew what he was getting into when he made that deal with you. He knew Frankie personally, and he worked Frankie’s cases. He knew exactly how f*cked in the head Frankie is and what he is capable of. Thing is, he wanted you so bad he didn’t care.”
A tear rolled down her cheek. “He didn’t deserve that. I mean, no one deserves that, but Chase really didn’t deserve that,” she whispered. “He could be a jerk, but he wasn’t a bad person. He just wanted to be loved; he wanted a family to love and to love him…he just didn’t know how…Oh God, Chase…Oh God…”
She was grieving; he got that, but the last thing he wanted was to hear her cry for an * she had f*cked and had feelings for.
Feeling the jealousy start to creep up and the anger that followed, he sat down beside Eva, took her mouth, and kissed her hard.
She didn’t fight him, and they shared a long, slow kiss, full of wet lips and greedy tongues. When he pulled away, Eva pressed her forehead against his and sighed into his mouth.
“How is she?” she whispered.
He cleared his head. The baby—she was talking about the baby. “She’s still not breathin’ on her own, babe.”
Biting her lip, she nodded. “It’s not your fault,” she whispered.
Yeah, it was. He opened his mouth to protest, but she placed her finger over his lips.
“It was a difficult pregnancy. It’s not your fault.”
His chest compressed, and he sucked in air. He didn’t deserve her. He never had. He never would.
“I named her,” she said softly. “Ivy Olivia West. Ivy because it’s sort of still Christmastime, and Olivia after—”
“My mom,” he said hoarsely, feeling like the biggest piece of shit in the world.
“Deuce?”
“Yeah, babe?”
“The birth certificate. What do you want me to do?”
“Nothin’,” he whispered. “I’ll fill it out. She’s my kid.”
She locked on to his eyes, sucking him in, holding him still, and making him so f*cking crazy. Always making him crazy.
“Deuce?”
“Yeah?”
“No more women.”
Fuck.
“Yeah, babe, I know. I’ve been f*ckin’ up.”
“You get angry at me, and you want to take it out on *, you take it out on mine. It won’t matter how mad I am; I will never deny you.” She gave a shaky laugh that made his chest ache. He’d f*cking hurt his woman real bad.
“Eva, baby,” he said softly, “there’s not gonna be any more women. Already moved Miranda out and cut all ties. I promised you I’d f*ckin’ earn you, and it’s ’bout time I started doin’ that.”
She let out a shuddery sigh that only made him feel worse.
“I love you, Deuce,” she whispered. “So, so much.”
He stared at her, she stared at him, and he knew exactly why his boys had railed at him. She did love him. He was her world. He knew because he could see it in her big gray eyes. Suddenly, the past didn’t f*cking matter anymore. She wasn’t going to run, and he was going to treat her like the goddamn queen she was.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
For the first time in a long time, Deuce knew true peace.
Three months went by, and Ivy was discharged.
Eva turned half his room at the club into a nursery.
Then the crazy bitch gave Danny her own room at the club and helped her decorate the f*cking thing, too. Pink and purple as far as the eye could see. He flipped his f*cking shit. Put a steel door on her room with a sliding deadbolt. Put bars on her window. Lined all his boys up and told them straight up his baby girl was off-f*cking-limits. Told them if any of them looked at her the wrong way, they were going to ground.
Not one of them so much as looked at her. In fact, they stopped talking to her altogether.
Shit moved forward.
Life got good. Real f*cking good.
Kami and Devin moved to Montana to be near Eva and Ivy. Not Cox. Kami swore up and down Cox had nothing to do with her decision. Deuce might have believed her if she hadn’t been in Cox’s lap while she was spouting her bullshit.