Page 43 of His Daggered Heart
I see black. I’m weightless, a floating sensation overtakes me in the blackness. Someone must be carrying me. Strawberry and leather, my other home. Kohen.
“She is going to be okay, right?” Cora asks softly.
“She will be just fine, sunshine. I promise,” Levi assures her.
Kohen chimes in, “We got you, both of you, forever, Cora. Alex will get through this, she just needs time. She is a protector, a fighter, a warrior, and right now she doesn’t feel that way. She was probably also triggered.”
“You’re right,” Cora agrees. “But together, we can get through anything.”
“Damn right, sunshine,” Levi says.
Kohen’s voice is a whisper but I can hear him. “Also…” he pauses. “...she ran into Walker at a diner the other day. He tried to corner her by the restroom.”
Cora gasps, “Oh my gosh, why didn’t she tell us?”
“I’m dealing with it,” he says, and then I completely fade out.
Kohen
We climb into the car. I place Alex in the backseat, her head resting on Levi’s lap. Cora’s upfront with me and we take off. Alex passed out before we could even address anything else.
The image of Levi comforting her fills my head and I look at them in the rearview mirror. He strokes her hair gently and his eyes close. His lips are moving but he isn’t saying anything out loud. I remember Alex saying she goes to church with him and his family or something. Is he praying?
His eyes fly open and meet mine in the mirror. Something unspoken happens between us and something stirs inside me. My heart flutters and suddenly it hits me. The intimacy she shares with him, the closeness they have. She found family in him, a family she couldn’t have had elsewhere, not even with Cora. Sure, her and Cora grew up together but Levi, he has protected her without any other agenda than love. Loving people is his gift. He makes you feel…light? Happy?
He is a hard guy to hate. Trust me. I tried.
I focus on the road and soon feel an unexpected little hand on my shoulder. I look over at Cora. My own Levi.
She smiles weakly. “So engaged, huh?”
I look at Levi and he has his head back, eyes closed. Probably resting. I smile back with what strength I have left. “Yeah, engaged.”
“So how did you pop the question?” she asks. “Was it when you were balls deep or…?” She covers her mouth to muffle her laughter.
“Nope, I was knuckles deep,” I laugh. She smacks me on the shoulder and then leans her head on me.
“She’s not going to blame you, it may seem that way at first but just talk it out. She will understand once I explain. She just feels like she failed me right now.”
“I know,” I agree, resting my head on hers. “I hope she still wants to marry me after all this. I still need to address the other shit that happened.”
She pulls back to look at me, mocking my earlier words, “Oh the,he’s done here,stuff?”
I nod, staring at the empty road ahead of us. “Yeah, that will all be okay too, I mean technically you didn’t lie, you just couldn’t say anything.”
She nuzzles back onto my shoulder and whispers, “It’s a secret, after all. That’s different than a lie.”
“Is it?” I ask seriously. But when she doesn’t respond, I look down at her and see her eyes are closed. She must have drifted to sleep.
The silence is too loud so I turn up the music a bit. “Hold Me While You Wait” by Lewis Capaldi fills the emptiness as I continue the drive home. I take one more look at the girl in the back seat, her bandaged foot, her broken heart, her beautiful body, her gorgeous face... Mine to love and protect. Forever.
Chapter 30
Kohen
Ipullintothedriveway of my house. Will she move here? I’ll ask everyone to move out and back to the original mansion with the Knights. This can be our home, shit, Cora can come live with us too. I don’t care as long as Alex does. Another thing to add to the list of things we need to talk about.
“I’m going to take Cora over to my place. There is a reading chair that Alex loves so she can sleep in,” Levi says.