Unchain My Heart(49)

Drinking in every detail of her beautiful face, a strange calmness settled in my heart. She smiled at me, and even through her sadness, it was the most arrestingly beautiful smile I'd ever seen. Tears glistened on her eyelashes, and in that instant, I knew exactly what I wanted.

For the first time in my life, I wanted someone else’s happiness above my own.

“Babe?”

“Yes, Ryder?”

“When you get out of here . . . I want to make you mine. Forever.” She sucked in a breath, biting her bottom lip, her hands trembling on my chest.

“Will you be mine, Princess?” Her eyelashes fluttered. I smiled at her sudden shyness, but pressed on, knowing this was exactly what I wanted. “Jade, will you marry me? Will you make me the happiest man alive?”

The brilliance of her smile overwhelmed me. Yet more tears spilled down her cheeks as she nodded. “Yes, Ryder, I will marry you. As soon as we have healed from this.” One hand cupped my cheek as the other rubbed over her stomach. I laced my fingers through hers, and together we stroked over where Peanut was no more, both lost in our thoughts for a moment.

“Thank you, Jade. This is the saddest and happiest moment in my life . . .”

“Bittersweet.”

“Yeah. We’ll start a new family. But this time, we will do it the right way round. We’ll get married first, then we will try again. Peanut would like that.”

She gripped my hand and brought it to her mouth, then kissed my palm.

“You are the sweetest man alive, Ryder. I love you so much.”

I grinned. “Yeah, don’t let the brothers hear you say that. I’ll lose all my credibility.”

“Ah, one small woman can take a big, mean biker down, just like that.” She snapped her fingers.

She was only a woman, but she was strong beyond belief.

“Yeah, you can. Because I love you so much. Losing Peanut is heartbreaking, but I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you—” I buried my face in her neck because I didn’t want her to see just how shattered I was at the mere thought of having her taken from me. She didn’t need to know that at this very moment I wouldn’t want to go on breathing if she had been taken too.

I wanted my own family more than anything I'd ever wanted. Growing old with Jade. Yeah.

There was nothing better on this planet.





Chapter Thirty-Seven — Ryder


“Summers, outside,” I growled as I emerged from Jade’s room, gripping his arm and holding him back as he tried to brush past me. It was time to tackle him head on. I would try to reason with him, man to man, for Jade’s sake. If she was going to marry me, this crazy fuck was going to be my family too.

Sylvia and Owen had gone to see how she was doing, and I didn’t want to be there when she told them that Peanut was gone. Jade needed a moment alone with her parents. They hadn’t known they were going to be grandparents, and now they’d had it ripped from them by some cruel twist of fate.

It was ideal timing to take on Summers. Fuck, in reality I wanted to kill him; he had a lot of explaining to do. He shrugged my grip off his arm, as if my touch would infect him with a deadly disease.

“Listen, motherfucker, you stay away from my sister,” he hissed.

The cool night breeze slapped me in the face as we stepped onto the veranda. I reached into my pocket and brought out my packet of smokes. This was a fucking emergency, I needed to stay calm—keep my hands busy, or else I’d want to plant them into his body and cause some serious damage.

I leaned against the wall, lighting a cigarette, keeping a watchful eye on Summers. I didn’t trust him; I wouldn’t have been surprised if he tried to take a swing at me. I inhaled the nicotine deep into my lungs for an instant hit. “I asked Jade to marry me. She said yes.”

Summers narrowed his eyes, studying my face. “You can’t be fucking serious.”

“I am. Once Jade has healed, we’ll get married. Then we plan to start a family again. Nothing is going to stop us. We belong together,” I said, blowing smoke out through my nostrils. “Just wanted to tell you in person.”

I was surprising myself with how calm I’d managed to remain. Summers punched the wall, demonstrating what he’d like to do to my face. “No.” He drew in a breath and fixed his gaze on me. “Knox, if you have any decency, if you really care about Jade as you say you do, you will walk away from her. Tonight.”

My head jerked up as I glared at him. “And why the fuck would I do that? She needs me now, more than ever.”

“I will be there for her. She’ll get over you. Don’t you see? Losing the baby is the best thing that could’ve happened.” His tone was hard, cruel, even.