Holden's Resurrection (Gemini Group #6) - Riley Edwards Page 0,47

the hall but I’ll be right outside the door. No one will come in here and I’ll be right back in.”

Liar, liar, pants on fucking fire. Holden did not keep his promises. He broke them without explanation.

Faith nodded and laid back down, tucking herself in the crook of my arm with her face turned toward the door.

Damn him.

He had no right to make promises to my daughter.

“Be back, Leigh-Leigh.”

I bit back the request I felt like I’d made a million times for him to stop calling me that dumb nickname and remained silent. The jerk smiled and shook his head as if he found me amusing.

As soon as I was out of this hospital bed, I was letting him have it. Then we’d see how amusing he found me when I told him to go fuck himself.

The door closed behind the men and Micky made a strangled sound. Her eyes went wide as saucers when she said, “Uh-oh. I know that look.”

There was nothing I could say in reply with Faith in the room. And even if my daughter wasn’t present I still wouldn’t have said anything to McKenna. She was Nixon’s wife. Holden’s friend. She probably wouldn’t like hearing what I had to say about the big jerk.

“Can I ask you a favor?” Micky murmured.

My heart sank. After all that she and the others had done for me and Faith, I would do anything she requested.

“Anything.”

“Go easy on him.”

Anything except that.

“You don’t know what you’re asking.”

“I do and I don’t. I know him. I know he’s a good man. A good friend. I also know he’s in pain. He has been since I met him. He covers it up with a smile, but it’s there just under the surface. I see it when he looks at me and Nix, or Jameson and Kennedy, or Weston and Silver, or Chasin and Evie. But I see it most when he watches Alec with Rory, Joss, and Caleb. And I see how he looks at Holly and Dylan. I don’t know the whole story and I’m sure he’s the one at fault. So, I know I’m asking a lot, but please—go easy.”

“Who’s in pain, Mom?”

If there was ever a time I needed a black hole to open up and swallow me, it was now. I didn’t want to think about why Holden watched Alec with his children. Or what McKenna meant about how Holden looked at her daughter or Weston’s son. I didn’t want to know he was in pain or figure out why that was. I had to get over him and move on.

“Holden,” I answered.

“Why is he in pain? Did he get hurt?”

That was a loaded question I wouldn’t answer.

“I don’t know, honey.”

McKenna’s gentle smile was meant to be reassuring but it did nothing but confuse me. My feelings for Holden were complicated. I knew I would love him for the rest of my life but everything about us was muddy and tarnished. Our love had been stained by betrayal. First, Holden leaving me, then my night with Paul.

There was no fixing it. Once a mirror was broken, you could search for all the pieces and try to glue it back together but there would always be that one tiny sliver that would be missing. The spiderweb of cracks would always be visible. I’d been naïve thinking we could repair what had been broken and be together. Holden was right. He’d been smart to keep his distance and push me away. He’d moved on with his life and I’d stupidly stayed in the past.

My problem was, the past was so beautiful I didn’t know how to let it go.

18

Charleigh was going to blow her stack. Holden felt it coming. Of course, she’d wait until Faith wasn’t around before she unleashed her wraith—but it was coming nonetheless.

“I love it here,” Faith announced, and Holden pinched his lips in an effort not to burst out laughing.

Faith was looking up at the ceiling with her arms spread wide, twirling around the great room of Evie’s uncle’s house while Charleigh looked on in horror. She’d been discharged from the hospital an hour before—she hadn’t suffered a fracture, just abrasions and a minor concussion—and from the moment the doctor had left her room, Holden saw the trepidation seep in. Charleigh being Charleigh had kept it locked down. The woman would never admit she was scared as fuck about going back to her home. The place where she’d been bashed over the head and her daughter