The Absolution of Aidan(77)

I lose it then at the sight of my boy sleeping soundly in a car seat. I need to feel him. To feel his little heart beating against my chest. To inhale his scent. To divulge in this life that’s part of me. He whimpers and stretches when I take him out. He wakes the moment I cradle him in my arms. Those big eyes are wide. A sleepy smile spreads across his perfect face.

I turn to bring him to his mom. That’s when I notice several members of my family. John, Salvatore, Anna, and Alexis Drexler. My mother.





CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO


DEIDRE





It’s dark. Even though it’s the middle of summer, I’m shaking as if I’m cold.

It’s over. My family is safe. I should feel remorseful, guilty for taking another person’s life. I don’t.

How can I when my entire world’s lives were at stake? When my child was torn from my arms, right along with my heart? Maybe when the reality of what I’ve done finally hits me, I will. Not right now. Not with Diesel wide awake, chewing on my finger, not with Aiden having one of his big hands running through my hair while his other one caresses the side of our son’s cheek.

We’re almost to the hospital, where both my dad and Dilan are in surgery. That’s all we know. All the information Cain was able to tell Aidan when he called him. My mom is too frantic to call the hospital herself, we all are.

I glance up from the backseat of Roan’s truck to the woman driving, swerving through traffic like a racecar driver. My mom. Her only mission right now is to get to the man she loves. The man who holds her heart. My dad. I know he’s going to be fine. He has to be. He’s a fighter, a father, and a grandfather. I’m honored to be his daughter. Those are the first words I will tell him. The exact words I told him when he stood by my side when I fell apart.

Not this time. I refuse to let the enemy steal any part of my true identity from me, to strip away the love that symbolizes my life.

Everyone is silent, too silent really. But hell, we’ve been through it tonight and survived. There are so many things I want to say and do. None of it matters, not now. Everyone’s lost in their own thoughts.

Anna sits quietly in the passenger seat, her arm around her mother’s shoulder. Grace is not moving, either. I’ve seen her eyes many times, from my own reflection gazing back at me. They’re blank, left of the reality surrounding her. She’s going to need help. Lots of it. I fear for Grace. I’ve walked in her shoes, the not knowing, the horror, dread, and distress you’re under. You lose all control of rationality, you fear for the one life you have as well as the life of your child.

Anna needs medical attention in the worst way. How she ran through those woods like she did, in the pain she must have been in, shows us all what a person will do when the will to survive is strong enough. You push headfirst, worrying about your battered body last, to help not only yourself but those you love.

And she looks broken but still strong enough to soothe her mother. I know the dread inside of her has to be eating her alive. It’s the same way Aidan feels. It’s pouring out of him like water from a busted damn. Dilan. I don’t know much yet, but what I have overheard is he was barely breathing by the time Aidan stumbled upon him.

After John untied us all, the first thing I did was run to where my heart was, straight into Aidan’s arms, the two of us clinging, fusing our souls back together, with our child in between us. Peace. All I felt in that moment was peace. That and the fact he decided to leave with me. No questions asked.

I know he wanted to be the one to kill Junior. As morbid as it sounds, I’m proud of him for allowing John to handle it. Unlike me, he won’t have to live with killing someone. Even though the man’s life I took was nothing but a piece of shit who deserved to die, it may hit me hard when the power of us surviving hits me. Then again, maybe it won’t. I’d do it all over again if the end results were the same as they are now.

Who I’m really stunned about is Alexis. I knew where she was staying, knew her story and why she treated her son the way she did. So many questions are left unanswered. Aidan honored her with a thank you, and we left. Now, both her and Roan are trailing behind us in his truck.

“Aidan.” My mom’s anxious voice calls out as we pull into the emergency entrance of the hospital.

As if he can read her mind, he releases his fingers from my hair, removes his hand from Diesel, and climbs out of the truck the minute she puts it in park.

All three of the women in the front step out. Anna, who can barely see, gently guides her mother as they all make their way for the emergency doors.

Aidan hikes up into the truck, glances back at me with a wink, then drives into the visitors’ parking. He turns off the ignition, gets himself out, rounds the front of the truck, and he’s right back where he was as if he never left my side at all. The door wrenches open with a big, fat yank. Aidan Hughes, eyes flaming with tears in them, is the most beautiful man I will ever have the privilege of looking at.