Page 13 of Kingston (Angels Halo MC Next Gen #14)

Chapter Thirteen

Demi

Kingston stacked the last of the boxes on the back seat of his truck. “My cousin will be done with your car this evening. You take my truck, and I’ll stay home with Iris while you deliver this morning’s treats.”

At this point, I didn’t know if I was allowed to be frustrated with the giant in front of me.

He’d been working his ass off to take care of us, and I felt ungrateful for constantly telling him he didn’t have to and didn’t need to keep helping me.

It wasn’t like he listened anyway. He did what he wanted, when he wanted, how he wanted.

And I wasn’t hating it.

I’d never crushed on someone before, not even my ex.

Everything I felt for Kingston was new territory for me.

I was discovering things about myself every day because of him.

It had been a week since he’d rescued Iris and me from that emergency room.

An entire week of being cared for, appreciated, treated like my daughter and I were the most precious people in the world to him.

It was an addictive sensation. I hoped like hell it lasted forever, but I understood that it wouldn’t. Good things never did.

But that didn’t mean I couldn’t savor and cherish every minute while I could.

My heart gave a little kick as I took the keys from him, my fingers lingering for a moment on his huge hand. “Do you always get what you want, Kingston?”

Grasping my wrist, he lifted my hand to his mouth. I couldn’t hold back the little whine that escaped me as his lips brushed over my palm, his green eyes full of heat. “I fucking hope so. Because I’ve never wanted anything more than I want you, baby.”

And I’d never wanted to be kissed more in my life than I did when he looked at me like that. As if his entire being was tuned in to mine. As if he wanted to devour me—consume me.

“Kingston,” I whispered, fighting a moan as he kissed up my arm.

I tried my best not to tense up when he touched me because I enjoyed it so much, but I still struggled to control the reflex.

As soon as he felt it, he reined himself in.

Every time. I knew he was trying not to scare me off, but I wanted as much of his touch as he was willing to give.

I just didn’t know how to tell him that.

His stubble tickled, causing me to squeal and him to laugh, breaking the tension.

It pulled him from the deep thoughts of what could have happened to cause me to fear touch.

He’d asked a few times, but I wasn’t ready to unload my past yet.

Hearing the rumble of his deep laugh brought me back from the brink of asking him to kiss something other than my hand. I wanted to taste him. Everywhere.

Pressing one last kiss to my arm, he turned me toward the driver’s door of his truck. “Be safe on the road. I’ll have breakfast waiting when you get back, so don’t take too long.”

With my little legs, I had to adjust the seat until it was nearly touching the steering wheel so my feet would reach the pedals. It was a beast of a vehicle, and I was nervous for the first few miles to Aggie’s, but by the time I pulled into the parking lot, I was more confident.

Finding a spot close to the entrance, I started carrying in the first couple boxes. All week, I’d been supplying the diner with fresh muffins, and they’d been selling out like crazy. Quinn kept asking me to up the numbers every day, and they were gone by the time lunch rolled around.

River had complained about the lack of pastries twice that week when she’d stopped by the house.

Once with her sister-in-law Mila, and the second time with her son, Rocco.

Both occasions, she’d told me emphatically that if I supplied her with more of the cookie butter muffins, she’d give me an unlimited gift card to her boutique, WomanLand.

That was something I was taking into serious consideration.

I liked River a lot, even though she and Mila had grilled me about my intentions toward her favorite cousin.

Mila was a little intimidating, but she’d been super friendly after I’d confided a bit of my background to the two women.

Mila had four kids of her own, and I was convinced she was playing with me when she said she had two sets of twins until she’d shown me pictures from when she was pregnant.

From our brief time hanging out, I felt like Mila and River could both be good friends. As long as I didn’t break Kingston’s heart. That was something I never wanted to do.

But I was terrified he was going to destroy my heart if I wasn’t careful. I hated being away from him for even a minute. When he went to work in the afternoons, I felt lost until he came home again. Or he called me.

Another one of those “you shouldn’t have” moments was when he’d given me a brand-new cell phone.

I’d been using the occasional pay-as-you-go phones that I bought at Walmart, but I’d tossed the last one I’d had when I thought Charlie might have caught up to us in New Mexico.

Kingston had insisted that I have the phone for Iris’s sake, if nothing else.

I loved it when he called me. It made me feel like a teenager on the phone with her first boyfriend, wanting to just sit and hear him breathe over the line.

There was no need for words. I was happy with the quiet between us as long as I knew it was him on the other end.

When Kingston had confessed one evening that he just wanted to hear my voice, I’d almost cried from happiness.

That man was working his way deeper into my heart every day.

Which was dangerous. At least, I tried to convince myself it was dangerous.

For Iris and me. For him. I shouldn’t be selfish, playing with Kingston’s life the way I was.

Every day I spent with him could be one day closer to Charlie Johnson finding us.

Hurting everyone I’d come to care about. Stealing my baby away.

But I felt safe with Kingston, and it was getting harder and harder to imagine that Charlie could even touch us when that strong Viking-like man seemed indestructible.

Placing the last container on the counter, I barely had time to open the first box to start placing them in the display before someone was asking for two of the apple-cinnamon muffins and a cup of coffee to go.

“I don’t know why y’all haven’t had them the last few weeks, but my wife is going to be a happy woman when I drop these off to her at work,” the older man told Opal as she poured coffee in a to-go cup.

She shot me a wink as she packaged two of the desired pastries in a paper bag while I kept stocking the display. “Our supplier was on vacation, Dan. But you should let your wife and all her friends know that we will have all their favorite muffins in stock for breakfast now.”

He handed her a twenty, telling her to keep the change for a tip, and snatched up the bag. “Her ass is gonna be double the size in no time with these damn things. I can’t wait.”

Opal huffed a laugh as he walked away, whistling a happy tune. “Dan always did appreciate his lady’s backside. Maybe if my first boyfriend had shown more enthusiasm for my ass than his best friend’s dick, we’d still be together.”

“Why is everyone oversharing today?” someone complained from a stool to our right.

At a guess, the guy was in his early twenties.

Picking up his mug of coffee, he frowned down at his plate of half-eaten breakfast. “I don’t need all that shit in my head this early in the morning.

Especially about Rita’s ass. That’s my aunt, for fuck’s sake. ”

“Eat your pancakes and mind your business, Dale,” Opal told him without pausing what she was doing. “You don’t want to hear about your uncle praising your aunt’s goodies, then don’t listen to other people’s conversations.”

“Hearing isn’t something I can just turn off. I’m not Delaney Reid, who can switch off those little implant thingies she has attached to her head now.”

“Keep my wife’s name out of your mouth,” a deep voice growled with so much menace I jumped.

Startled, I glanced around, easily finding the source of that terrifying tone.

A man who seemed familiar to me, but I was sure I’d never met, stood on the other side of the counter right behind Dale.

He had dark hair a little on the shaggy side, startling blue eyes, and the most vicious scowl I’d ever seen on a person before.

Danger poured off him in waves, his incredible eyes glittering with the promise of violence.

How I’d missed his entrance, I didn’t know, but I took three steps back, my flight reaction engaged.

Heartbeat echoing in my ears, I felt the panic overtake me so fast I didn’t have a chance to fight the way my vision dimmed. When the room began to spin, I knew I was in trouble, but there was nothing I could do to help myself.

“Demi?” Opal touched my arm.

With a yelp, I tried to curl into a ball, every muscle in my body preparing for the impact of the next punch, the next kick. My lungs began to burn and the ache from broken ribs felt fresh, but it was only a memory.

I wasn’t in real pain. Not this time. Just a memory. Just a memory. I needed to remember that it was only a…memory.

“Hey, hon, take a few deep breaths for me,” my friend tried to soothe, but it was hard to concentrate on her voice when there was a ringing in my ears.

Gulping, I struggled to calm my rapid breathing, the erratic beat of my pulse causing sweat to bead along my entire body.

“Whoa. What the fuck is going on?” another deep voice demanded. Someone grabbed my wrist, causing me to scream and jerk back, but they held firm. It was enough to cause me to blink my surroundings back into focus, and I found a familiar face in front of me.

There was no way the man before me could be mistaken for anyone but Kingston’s father.

They had the same eyes, which I knew was true for many of the Hannigan clan, but their facial features were so similar.

The shape of their nose, the sharpness of their jawline, their thick lashes that were a light brown instead of the dark blond of their hair.

Raider Hannigan had lines on his face that Kingston hadn’t earned yet, but something in those green depths was an echo of the man who had quickly become my safe place.

I’d seen Kingston’s dad from a distance in the past, but the day before, he’d introduced himself to me when Kingston and I had picked Iris up from his parents’ house.

She spent as much time at her Gammy and Papa’s house as she did at Kingston’s.

My little girl, who had only relied on me for her entire life, now had an entire army of people who adored her at her beck and call. I loved that for her. It was something I’d never had but always hoped for, and Kingston had given it to us.

Fuck, I was pretty sure I was falling for him.

“Demi honey, take a slow, deep breath for me.” His hands squeezed my wrists when I didn’t immediately follow the command. “You’re safe, darlin’. I promise you’re safe. Swear to you, girl, I won’t let anyone harm you.”

“I-I’m sorry.” Tears started spilling down my face, and I couldn’t stop shivering all of a sudden. “I-I don’t know what happened t-to…to make me…”

His face softened. “You don’t have to explain a damned thing to me. Max was just being his normal asshole self, hearing someone talking about Delaney. He’s sorry. Right, Max? You sorry, boy? Tell Demi you’re sorry.”

A large body shifted to my left, and I couldn’t help but try to shrink behind the man still holding me. “I am so sorry, Demi. I didn’t mean to spook you. Shit, don’t be afraid of me. I wouldn’t hurt you.”

“I… Um, I don’t… I-I’m not…” Pressing my lips together, I stopped myself from stuttering another word, realizing I probably sounded like an idiot. My heart rate was gradually beginning to slow, and as the pounding in my ears started to ease, I realized that the entire diner had gone silent.

Heat began to climb into my face, embarrassment scalding my cheeks. All eyes were on me. Making a public spectacle of myself was not conducive to keeping a low profile, which was exactly what I needed to do in order to make sure Charlie and his family didn’t find me.

“I’m gonna hug you now, Demi. Are you okay with that, honey?”

Raider gave me a moment to think about that, and when I nodded, he folded his arms around me. I pressed my face to his chest, realizing he was wearing his leather MC cut. It reminded me so much of Kingston’s, my fingers clutched at it, holding on to the older man a little tighter.

A little more of my panic began to recede, but my tears flowed faster. Embarrassment mixed heavily with the adrenaline still racing through my veins. Closing my eyes, I tried to focus on the man holding me. Kingston’s father.

“Demi, I really am sorry,” Max’s voice had completely lost its menacing quality.

The change from mean and growly to gentle felt like one of the tricks Charlie used to play on me.

How he’d go from screaming and shouting in my face, slapping me across the cheek with his heavy, open palms and leaving huge handprints behind, to apologizing and begging me to forgive him in a matter of minutes.

Other than having been told Max was Kingston’s cousin once or twice, I didn’t know anything about him.

If I’d been thinking clearly, I would have been able to differentiate Max from Charlie, but my brain was still in flight mode.

His softer, quieter tone terrified me on the same level as the harshness that had been in his voice moments before.

Trembling, I shifted away from Max’s voice and released my hold on Raider. Scrubbing my fingers over my wet face, I dipped my head and ran for the door.

“Demi!”