Page 109 of Connor's Claim
Understanding that enabled me to realise exactly how scared of me he’d become.
“Your hands are just as bloody as mine,” I taunted. “So answer my questions, because there are only two left. Did ye kill Everly’s ma?”
“No,” he said on a breath made of fury. “What’s your other question so you can get the fuck away from my house?”
I held the screen up once more. “Choose who ye want back.”
Slaughter, Blake, or Roache.
“If you knew the weight of the law I could bring down on you?—”
“Choose,” I roared.
“Piers,” he spat.
No surprise there. I killed the live feed and gifted him a crocodile smile to rival his own. “You’ll get him back tomorrow. If Everly even sees ye in passing, or if my crew gets one sniff of harassment, I’ll take him back as easily as I caught him. Don’t think I can’t. I learned how to craft a threat from the best. See ye around.”
Through a parted sea of terrified security officers, I stalked back to the vehicles.
“Drive us,” I snapped at Mick.
He ducked into my front seat while I pulled Everly into the back with me. Onto my lap. Into my arms where I’d never let her go again.
At the warehouse, I carried her out, ignoring everything but her on my mission to reach the apartment we shared. A debrief with Arran was required, but it would wait.
I carried Everly to our bed and sank into the sheets with her. We kicked off our shoes, and for a long while just held on tight, the late September afternoon fading into evening.
“I’m so sorry I left ye,” I told her.
“No. Please don’t. All I want from you is the same thing I did ten years ago. For you to kiss me and tell me we’re free.”
Everly sat up, and I followed. She positioned herself on my lap with her legs and arms wrapped around me. Our favourite pose as kids. Softly, I tasted her lips. My fucking heart thundered, and I angled my head to deepen the connection.
“We’re free,” I promised between kisses. “This is us now forever.”
In the time we’d been reunited, little about us had been tender. I hadn’t. I’d treated her roughly. Taken the control she’d readily allowed, but not carefully. I’d sought to own her on my terms only and I’d been wrong.
Everly shuddered, dropping her head to breathe against my shoulder. “Our start-again. We finally made it.”
“I won’t take from you and I won’t hide anything from you,” I promised. “Which means a confession before anything else is said.”
She exhaled a shocked breath. “How bad can it be?”
I’d kidnapped her, drugged her, locked her up, and tattooed her while forcing orgasm after orgasm into her flesh. It made sense that she expected worse to come.
I forced myself to say the words. “Two things. First, I put a tracker in ye. Years ago. Just so I could be sure ye were safe.”
Her lips parted, but I wasn’t done.
“And I swapped out your contraceptive pills. If the universe has anything to say about it, you’ll be pregnant with my bairn sometime soon.”
That shock changed to another emotion I couldn’t identify, and her fingertips pressed my chest to give her space. Everly stared deep into my soul. If anything other than darkness gazed back at her, I couldn’t be sure, but I brushed my thumb under her breast, touching the word she needed to understand.
“I went too far in my attempt to keep ye, but I’m not sorry. You’re mine.”
Everly watched me for long enough that panic tightened my gut, but then she reached and stripped her camisole over her head. Her bra fell away next, revealing her stunning body. Then she picked up my hand.
One by one, she drifted our joint touch over her tattoos.