Page 15 of Kingston (Angels Halo MC Next Gen #14)

Chapter Fifteen

Kingston

Kissing Demi’s shoulder, I rolled to my feet. I wanted to stay cuddled up to her, naked on the couch, all day, but that wasn’t a possibility. At least, not for today. Soon, though, I promised myself. Very soon.

We’d been lucky that Iris had slept so long. She was still tucked in bed. That was where I wanted to take her mother, but I only had one bedroom.

For now.

Sleeping on the couch for a week hadn’t been so bad.

I’d gone on many club runs and had had to sleep in some wild places.

Waking up with fire ants biting my balls had been pretty bad.

The venom from their bites caused blisters that made it look like I had an STD.

Recovering from that shit had been agony, but since Maverick had been just as miserable as I’d been at the time, suffering the same fate, I’d thought it was hilarious.

Neither of us sat down without checking for those little assholes now, though.

It was not getting to cuddle up to Demi every night that had been the worst part of having to sleep on my couch.

Now that I’d been inside her, there was no way I was going to be able to sleep anywhere but with her snuggled against me.

I needed a bigger house, with plenty of beds, so our little one would have her own room.

I could fuck Demi without fear of scarring our kid for life.

After pulling up my jeans, I bent to pick up Demi’s leggings and panties. Holding the soft fabric between my fingers was enough to get me hard again, but there wasn’t time for another round. “Come here, babe.”

She moved slowly, still dazed from the last orgasm when I’d filled her full with my come.

For the moment, she wasn’t concerned about that little detail.

I was an asshole for getting off so hard on the idea of knocking her up, but the thought of her giving me another baby to love was too much.

I wanted a life with her, and locking her down with my kid was all I could imagine.

Once she did realize what I’d done, we could talk about it.

But for the moment, I was going to keep my mouth shut.

Her hair was wild, giving her that freshly fucked glow I wanted to see every single day for the rest of eternity. Standing on shaky legs, she let me clean her up with my shirt before redressing her in her clothes. Once she was covered up, I sat back down on the couch and pulled her onto my lap.

“You want to talk about what happened at the diner?”

“Not really,” she said in a small voice.

I nodded. “Okay. We don’t have to discuss that yet. Tell me about your ex instead.”

It was a long overdue conversation. Other than asking a few questions here and there, I hadn’t pushed her for more information about Charlie, but that was mainly because I already had many of the answers to that piece of shit’s history.

Jack had him strapped to a table in one of the MC’s cabins thirty miles north. I’d been to see Charlie-boy every day since he’d become a guest, and each time I left, he was screaming in pain and terror like the little bitch he was.

So, yeah, I had plenty of answers to my questions about that motherfucker.

But I wanted Demi to tell me all of her bad memories, and then I’d replace them with good ones.

“I want to tell you, Kingston, but I feel like he can see me if I say his name aloud,” she whispered. “Logically, I know he can’t. But his family has the kind of power where they could destroy your entire life if they thought for a moment you were important to me.”

She traced her finger over one of my tattoos, as if she was unable to not touch me, torment in those pretty eyes I loved so much.

Seeing her like that killed me. I wanted to make everything better for her, no matter what was causing her pain, and I knew I could make all her worries disappear if I told her the truth about myself. “And you are very important.”

Hearing her say that was on the same scale as having her say she loved me. One sentence and this woman had me ready to give her anything and everything.

“The Johnson family isn’t as all-powerful as you think they are, sweetheart.”

Demi gasped, her entire body tensing in my arms. I hated dropping their names on her like that, but she had built them up in her mind as an untouchable entity. Like a monster that couldn’t be beaten. When, in reality, I’d already wiped out their reign of terror.

Mieke had taken care of Charlie’s parents without them even making national news.

His father had withdrawn from his Senate run earlier in the week, and then he and his wife had taken a break from the public eye for personal reasons.

Their security detail had been released, and they were taking time to themselves for the foreseeable future.

That had happened three days ago.

Jack’s IT genius was more terrifying than Charles Johnson and his vapid wife could have ever hoped to be. She’d wiped all traces of them from existence with a few taps and clicks on her computer screen. Bank accounts, emptied. Social media, erased.

Once she had their digital footprints cleaned up, I’d taken care of the rest. Charlie’s mommy and daddy were as dead as he was going to be when I was done torturing the sonofabitch. They were gator food in a Louisiana swamp, thanks to a few favors I’d called in.

Wide eyes scanned my face, her heartbeat fluttering in her throat. “What did you do?” Tears filled her eyes, but she closed them before one could spill out. “Oh my god, Kingston, they will hurt you!”

“Baby, I don’t want to scare you, but you have to face the reality that I am more dangerous than Charlie Johnson.” I tipped her chin up and kissed the tip of her nose. That crease in her brow appeared, melting my heart in a way I’d never be able to make her understand.

“You aren’t afraid of me, are you?” Frightening her was the last thing I wanted to do, but I couldn’t hide who I was forever.

She shook her head. “No, of course not. You make me feel safe for the first time in my life, Kingston.”

“I don’t want that to change. Please always remember that I would rather die than cause you a single moment of fear. I want to be your safe place, babe. You and Iris never have to be scared of anything as long as I continue to breathe.”

“But they might—” I covered her mouth with my hand, stopping her frantic flow of words.

“Promise me you will remember.”

After a moment, she nodded, and I dropped my hand, tucking it between her legs. Fuck, that felt good. She was so soft and warm. I could have sat there holding her for the rest of my life and died a happy man.

Telling her was going to change everything. She wasn’t going to see me the same way. It scared the fuck out of me, but she needed this. To move on. To heal. To know she was the one who wielded all the power now.

“Three days ago, I had Charles and Veronica Johnson slaughtered like the pigs they are and then fed to a pack of alligators. All their billions were wiped from their accounts by our MC’s tech.

There isn’t a single trace of them anywhere, digitally or otherwise.

Those monsters who haunt your dreams can’t touch you now, Demi. ”

All the color leached from her face. “Wh-what?”

I stayed quiet, letting everything I’d just confessed to her sink in, praying I didn’t lose her trust.

Begging whatever deity who would listen that I wouldn’t lose her.

“You’re joking.” She tried to laugh but ended up whimpering instead. That sound was the equivalent of having my heart sliced open with a dull razor. “There’s no way you could have…”

I wanted to lie, feed her any story that wouldn’t hurt or scare her. But this woman was my forever. She was going to get the truth, and nothing less than that.

“There were many ways I could have, babe. That was simply the option I chose to go with. If you weren’t so concerned about them causing trouble for me, I might not have told you.

But I don’t want you to constantly be looking over your shoulder for them.

That would have only caused tension between us. And I won’t allow that to happen.”

Seeing the gears turning in her head, I held my breath, waiting for the fear to fill her eyes. For disgust to replace the love in her heart. Long minutes passed before her shoulders drooped for a moment.

Only to tense again. “But Charlie’s still out there.

He could take Iris. Even if his parents are dead, he will find us.

Maybe he’s tired of hurting me physically at this point, but he could steal Iris away.

Or petition for custody. A judge would take her from me and hand her over to her father with a snap of Charlie’s fingers. ”

“Ah, baby, do you think I’d let that bastard still breathe after all the things he’s done to you?

Every time you flinch, every little whine you try to mask, the way you try to make yourself smaller when someone bigger than you gets too close.

” I laughed, the sound manic to my own ears.

That beast that now roamed free in my head had enjoyed each and every session we’d had with Charlie-boy strapped to that table while he begged for his mommy.

My beast would fucking purr when Charlie took his last breath.

“I’ve made him pay for that shit, and I’ll keep making him pay until you tell me it’s time for the angel of death to drag him to hell. ”

She grew quiet again, her chin trembled a few times, but she didn’t make a sound as minute after minute ticked away.

Her voice was barely a whisper when she asked, “You know what he did, don’t you? You said you have a tech person, that they wiped the Johnsons’ digital footprint. Does that mean they found my information from before too? Did they show you my hospital records?”

I couldn’t unsee the things Mieke had shown me.

The pictures and the medical reports that had been hidden on the dark web but not erased because the Johnsons had been so confident they were untouchable.

Her bruises. Her blood. Those X-rays of her many broken bones.

That fucking CT scan of her internal bleeding.

Those images would never be wiped from my mind.

“I hope one day you will tell me about it. All of it. Not just when you nearly died, but the stuff that led up to it as well.”

She shivered, her eyes going unfocused for a moment before popping back to mine.

“I don’t know if I can. I’ve never talked about it to anyone.

The few times I tried to reach out for help and tell someone what was happening, they either didn’t believe me or outright laughed at me.

I was seventeen, and they told me I deserved what I got because I was a dirty whore who let herself get pregnant.

They said I probably did it on purpose, and they didn’t believe Charlie would hurt me.

I probably did it to myself for attention or to get back at Charlie because he didn’t want me or my baby. ”

I sucked in a breath, fighting the rage I felt for the people who had failed my girl. It caused an itchy, twitchy sensation in my head that I couldn’t scratch.

Demi shrugged, as if it didn’t matter. But it did. Everything about this woman mattered to me. “And then when I left, there was no one to tell because it was safer not to talk.”

“I hate that you went through all that. I’m sorry you had to face it alone. I know it’s difficult to relive the dark moments. But I’ll never let anyone touch you with violence again, baby.”

A tiny smile kicked up one side of her mouth. “I know, Kingston. Because of you, I look forward to waking up every morning. Being near you brings me a peace I never thought I would find. I’m not scared when you’re at my side.”

“That makes me so damn happy, Demi. I’m going to spend the rest of my life ensuring you are loved and protected. But I want you not to be afraid, even when I’m not with you. You deserve that freedom.”

“I’m starting to realize that.”

“Maybe it will help if you speak to the staff at Sanctuary. They’re trained professionals who specialize in survivors of domestic abuse.

” She ducked her head, her cheeks filling with pink.

“No, baby, don’t do that. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about.

I’m so damn thankful you’re here. You escaped that monster and made a life for not only yourself, but our little one as well.

You made it home to me. That should be celebrated, not hidden away like something shameful. ”

She swallowed hard, blinking back tears. “It doesn’t feel like I accomplished much. Until I met you, I was barely living. I had nothing, not even a home for my baby. You saved us.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. You saved me ,” I murmured, trying to keep my voice low so the intensity of what I was feeling didn’t spook her.

“I wasn’t living before I met you and Iris.

I was just existing. There’s no way of explaining, except there was life before you, which was bland and boring.

I felt numb. And now, there’s life with you.

It’s full of spice and color and the most precious giggles that cause my heart to sing. ”

Inhaling deeply, I met her gaze, showing her every part of myself, letting her see the new wildness that lived inside me because of her. “This life is my best life. You give that to me every day.”