Say It's Forever (Redemption Hills #2)(106)

For hours, the three of us had been curled on the couch like a family.

A depiction of what I’d once thought an impossibility.

Affection rode on those waves of intensity. It softly batted against the walls and radiated from our spirits.

It wound around us with each pass.

Knitting.

Weaving.

A slow, steady binding that threaded us together.

I felt the tether of it yank when Jud turned in my direction.

The man hulked my way through the shadows of the room that Juni had claimed as her own.

Eyes as dark as the night flashed in the bare light that glinted from the hall.

My heart panged as he stalked my way.

This man who was so obscenely gorgeous.

Forbidding.

Intimidating and raw.

A ruthless fortress.

A wicked savior.

One I’d never believed could be mine.

Then the beast of a man had to flash me that sexy, devilish smile. His voice was a low scrape when he uttered, “Darlin’.”

My stomach fisted in want.

He backed me the rest of the way out of the bedroom, and he pulled the door shut halfway, leaving it mostly open as he edged me the rest of the way to his room.

There, he shut the door and locked it. He set his phone on the high table just inside, the security system alight on the screen. “I have all the monitors on. Milo is posted outside. She’s safe. You’re safe. You don’t have to be afraid. Not anymore.”

I guessed he read it in my eyes. That I couldn’t fully accept his claim. As long as Carlo still roamed, I knew we’d never truly be safe.

“Who is he?” Jud demanded, his voice a growl.

“A monster.”

Dark shame dimmed his features for the barest second before rage rushed in to burn a path through his expression. He edged me deeper into his room. His hands slid up and down my arms in a soothing fashion.

It didn’t matter.

I could feel the violence skate through his veins.

Palpable.

Volatile.

“Don’t want you to be afraid of me.” Grief struck through his features.

“I’m not.”

He kept coming closer, encroaching, forcing me back with each towering step he took.

“When Kennedy left me, I locked it all down, Salem. Swore I’d never hurt another. Swore I’d never bear the weight of new blood on my hands. Swore I would never kill again. Thought I could be good enough, and one day she would come back to me and see me as someone else, and I was going to be ready for when she did.”

He inhaled a shaky breath. “So, I stuffed the demon down deep. Chained him. I kept him hidden from everyone except for my brothers who’ve always known. But he’s right here, and I’ve let him loose. For you, Salem. For you and your daughter. He’s going to fight for you. I just need a name and this ends.”

I should be terrified of his admission.

Grim.

But I was only terrified of what it might mean for him. Of what he was asking. Of the direction I could feel him aching to go.

From where I stood at the edge of his bed, my hands curled into his plain white tee. I clung to the fabric like it would forever tie him to us. “No. Not like this, Jud. He’s already stolen too much from me. I won’t let him take you, too. You can’t just go rushing in there.”

I knew if I gave Jud a name, he’d disappear into the night. Right then. No hesitation.

Lines of hatred dented Jud’s face. “I can’t stand to see you in fear any longer.”

My throat constricted, sorrow racing the length. “I know, Jud, I know. But we have to be smart about this. He’s…” I blinked, tried to suppress the memories, the things Carlo had done. The hole he’d carved out in the middle of me. The vacancy that would always wail.

Excruciating.

I set my hand on Jud’s face, my thumb brushing the defined cut of his cheek, this beautiful man who had no idea of just how good he was. What I saw when I looked into his eyes. When he let me see way down deep into his kind, giving soul.

“I know you want to put yourself on the same level as him, that you somehow think you’re wicked. You’re not. You’re not. I see you, Jud, like you’ve seen me, and the two of us are so much greater than our circumstances. So much greater than the wickedness that those who should have loved us and protected us shaped us to be.”

It was a wickedness I’d run from. The kind of wickedness to which Jud had believed he’d succumbed.

My hand tightened in emphasis on his face. “He’s the demon, Jud. Cruel and callus. Without thought and without care. He is nothing like you, and you are nothing like him. And he will destroy anyone who gets in his way.”

Anyone.

And despite Darius’ reassurances, I knew Carlo still believed that job was incomplete.

Jud pulled me closer. Torment radiated off him in waves.

His face was pressed to my neck as he breathed me in. As if I had become his rock. His anchor. Juni and I the reason for this life. “I need you to tell me, baby.”

My arms wound tight around his neck, my head rocking back as he began to kiss a desirous path down my throat. “And right now? Tonight? I need you to love me. Because I’ve never truly been.”

“Salem.” It was a grunt. A plea. A confession.

“Jud,” I murmured back. “Love me. Love me the way I love you. In a way that can’t be broken.”