Page 43 of Stay Little Fighter

I make my way down the stairs and out into the parking garage. I was hesitant about bringing Chloe to a small hospital, but the care she’s received since she’s been here has been outstanding, and I fully intend to leave a very large donation when she’s allowed to leave.

Which I hope is soon.

Having her out in the open like this is making me antsy, and the sooner we’re behind a wall of security, the better.

Corbin is working on upgrading the system at the house in Maine. We likely won’t stay long, but Chloe is going to need somewhere safe to recuperate, and I don’t want to drag her across the country so soon after everything she’s been through.

Once she’s feeling better, we’ll make a plan that includes all of us.

I make it out to the car and find Damon exactly where Remy told us he was a few hours ago. They’ve been watching the entrances to ensure no one gets the jump on us while we’re vulnerable, and I asked them to keep an eye on him just in case he decides to do something stupid, like go after Mikayla or his father by himself.

Tugging the passenger side door open, Damon doesn’t spare me a glance as I settle beside him.

“It’s freezing in here,” I comment.

He shrugs but doesn’t tear his eyes off the windshield. “You get used to it.”

“How long are you planning on sitting out here?”

“Until she gets discharged.”

“And then what’s the plan?”

“I’ll work it out.”

I sigh and turn in my seat, moving my eyes over his disheveled appearance. He’s still wearing the suit he arrived at the hospital in, complete with the hole in the leg where Ryker shot him and both his and Chloe’s blood.

He’s a mess.

“How long are you going to punish yourself for something that isn’t your fault?”

“It’s all my fault. Every shitty thing that’s happened to Chloe is my fault. This is just the one that made me realize that.”

“You are not solely responsible for the hardships Chloe has faced.”

“She’s better off without me.”

“She’s better off without all of us, Damon. She’s better off with some nice guy that’s never broken the law, that’s never watched the light fade from someone’s eyes as their soul left their body. But that doesn’t mean we’re going to give her up.”

“Maybe we should.”

I nod. “That’s what separates men like us from the man she deserves, though. We will never stop working to be worthy of her. We’ll never stop fighting for her. And if we have to, we won’t hesitate to burn the world down for her. There are no lines we won’t cross to keep her safe, no one we won’t kill if it means she has a better life. And that is why she chooses us. Because she knows there’s nothing we won’t do for her.”

He finally drags his eyes off the windshield and meets mine. “She almost died in my arms, King,” he chokes out. “I don’t know how I’m ever meant to forget how it felt as she begged me to say goodbye to you guys for her.”

My chest tightens. “I know how it feels to be where you are right now, to blame yourself, to know you were almost responsible for her death.” I swallow heavily. “When I found her in a pool of her own blood when she came to me to keep her safe, I never thought I’d be able to forgive myself. All I could think about was all the things I should have done. I should have checked on her more often. I should have had the doctor stay just in case something went wrong. But the reality it took me a long time to come to terms with is that no matter what I did, the outcome would have been the same. You can play the blame game for the rest of your life, or you can accept that sometimes things are out of our control and we’re at the mercy of fate.”

“You believe in that shit?”

“In fate?” I ask and wait for his nod to continue. “It’s hard not to believe when the best things that ever happened to me were by chance. Your mom just so happened to be in the same group home as me. There were hundreds in the city, thousands in the country, and somehow, we ended up at the same one.” I glance up at the hospital, my chest tightening when I think about Chloe looking so tiny in the hospital bed. “And then there’s her. I spent years after the accident trying to make sense of what happened that day. I built Hawk and made it my mission to rid the world of scum like your father, but it wasn’t until Chloe called that night that I understood why I was doing it. I remember the exact moment I knew she would become my entire world. The doctor was setting up the ultrasound machine and the anxiety was rolling off Chloe in waves, and then she reached for me.” The corners of my lips tip up as I recall the moment, a moment I’ve never shared with anyone. “Everything made sense in that moment. All those years alone, all that time I spent searching for a new purpose, it just…clicked and I knew there was nothing I wouldn’t do for her and that baby.”

Damon doesn’t reply immediately, and I don’t really expect him to. He needs to find his own way, and although we don’t understand it, we can’t push him.

After a few minutes, I reach for the handle, ready to get back to my girl and ease the anxiety in my chest.

“I can’t stand the idea of her hurting because of me. All I’ve ever brought her is pain.”

“If that were true, she wouldn’t have asked for you as soon as she opened her eyes.”