A Monster's Beauty (In the Arms of Monsters #3) - Sam Crescent Page 0,73
complete innocent in all of this, and he would love her as his own.
“Here you go, I think she wants you,” Anne said. Bethany was holding out her arms toward him, and he took her.
“Where’s my other girl?”
“She’s studying. I know she wants to graduate now before the baby comes and I think it’s important to her, so I’ve forced her to take some rest and given her space.”
“I’ll pay you for all the time she’s taken here.”
“You don’t need to do that.”
“I want to.”
“Have you heard from Bear lately?”
“Yeah, he’s around. Why?”
“No reason.”
He raised a brow.
“Don’t look at me like that. There is a reason, but it’s private.”
“I’ll let him know you’re looking for him.”
“Thank you. I need him to talk to me.”
“You worry way too much.”
“I worry enough.” She ran fingers through her hair. “Do you want me to take her?”
“Nah, I’ve got her.” He walked in the direction where Anne pointed and he found Robin, asleep on top of a table filled with books. She worried way too much and it was showing now.
With their girl on his hip, he pulled the chair out closest to her, and as he sat down, she woke up.
“Oh, no, is it late? Where am I? What am I doing?” Robin asked.
“It’s a little after twelve. You’re at the library. You were sleeping and I imagine before that you were studying.”
She groaned. “I only closed my eyes for a minute.”
“Why is it so important for you to graduate before our baby comes?” he asked.
“I don’t know. It just is. I think … I’m scared. I’m not going to have time to study when the baby comes. I remember what it was like with Bethany.” She reached out, stroking their girl’s cheek. She was already curling up in Preacher’s arms getting ready to go to sleep.
“You’re doing too much and when you do, it tires you out.”
“I know. I know.”
“Do I have to bribe Randall to put you on bed rest?”
“You shouldn’t be able to bribe anyone,” she said.
“This is me you’re talking to.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. I just, I want this, you know. I feel like I’m finally getting my life back and if I can do this, then I’m not failing? It probably makes no sense.”
“It makes a lot of sense. More sense than you even realize.”
She blew out a breath as her stomach started to growl. “What do I owe the social call to?”
“I talked to Bishop. A decision has been made.” He watched her tense.
“It has? That was fast.”
He laughed. “You think that’s fast?”
“You know what I mean.”
“He’s going to be free.”
“Free?”
“Yeah. The guys took into account his help during the … well, Reaper, and he can never join the club or have any association. On that score, he’s well and truly finished.”
“Wow. This is certainly a morning to remember. I mean, did you do this?”
“Robin, I want to be clear on something.” He reached for her hand, the one carrying his engagement ring. “I’m not a good man. I will never claim to be anything of the sort. I won’t even sit here and pretend I in some way stopped the boys from making the right decision. It’s not who I am, and it never will be.”
He ran his thumb across the tiny diamond. He’d spent a small fortune on it and seeing it on her finger gave him a thrill. “I’m going to be honest with you, I want to kill Bishop.”
“He’s your son.”
“And he fucked up big time. I can’t just forgive shit like that. It’s not who I am.”
“Then who is it?” she asked. “I don’t want you to kill Bishop because of me. There’s already a lot of death on my hands.”
“No. It’s not.” He squeezed her hand, hoping to offer her some comfort, but she shook her head.
“Yes, it is. Milly. O’Klaren. My mom. Reaper. His club. It’s all because of me.” She started to have tears in her eyes. “How can I not be filled with so much regret? If I’d died, none of this would have happened.”
Preacher gritted his teeth. “Let me be clear and I will only ever say this once, and you will never bring it up. Milly died because she hurt you. Not only did she drug you, she put you in a bad situation. It could have been a lot worse. She disobeyed the club. O’Klaren, that fucker took everything from us. He had it coming. I will never mourn his death. Your mother, she was