Kate stands frozen for a minute, gun still raised, and her father's dead body dropped to the floor. His blood runs over the carpet and onto the hardwood floors. She actually did it. Holy fuck, she actually did it. She lowers the gun slowly and releases the trigger, but the gun to safety.
"You got what you wanted, Bear. Are you happy now?" she questions me.
"I-I don't know what to feel."
"You aren't alone in that," she speaks while stepping away from the dead body and to Reaper and Alpha.
I'm in total shock. I haven't witnessed anything like that before. It's like I can't breathe. How did it come to this? How did I force her to do this? How could I be so wrong? It's over. The fucking past month has been complete bullshit over Andrew, and it's done now.
Everyone who's still alive has been arrested from the warehouse, headquarters, and here. I'm still standing there when Andrew's body gets wrapped in a black sheet and rolled to the ambulance. All I can feel is the pressure pulsing in my veins and the headache growing.
"Bear?"
Someone calls out to me but they sound like they are drowning, muffled. A heavy hand is laid on my shoulder, and I can finally tell that it's Tank.
"Hey, are you alright?"
"I forced her to kill her dad."
"You did," Tank replies.
"How could I do that?"
"Sometimes, we become blinded by anger. And we do shit we shouldn't have done."
I nod my head at him, but I can't even look him in the eye. I don't know how to go forward from here. I don't know what to do next. I'm still mad at Kate. I'm pissed that she lied, and I'm pissed that she protected me.
It's weird to say out loud, yes, but if she wasn't so worried about my safety, this could've ended so differently.
Part of this is on me too. I didn't have to react the way I did. I didn't have to say the things I said. And I certainly didn't have to make her do this. I just, I was so fucking mad that I forgot to be human. I was not thinking of anyone else but myself.
I was a complete dickhead. I couldn't face the fact that my children could've gotten hurt because of my decision to let Kate into my home even though I was suspicious. In denying my own idiocy, I took it out on her, and that was wrong of me.
I can't come back from that. Neither of us can come back from what has happened. These past few days have changed my life for better or for worse. My life, it's never been easy, but fucking hell, it's never been like this. I've never faced anything like her before.
This intelligent, gorgeous, force of a woman has thrown me for a fucking loop. I'll never be the man I once was again. I'm fucking changed.
I've seen parts of myself that I didn't know existed, both good and bad. I didn't know I was capable of half the things I had done in the past seventy-two hours plus. I truly don't know how to go on from here. I need to call my mom. But first, Kate.
"Have you seen her anywhere, Tank?"
"Kate? She's outside with Reaper. She didn't look good when she walked out."
"I should talk to her."
"Even if you fight, yes, you should."
When I walk out the front door to the yard, I don't see her right away. I peer over the groups of Devil's Rose and police officers handling different and more personal trade-offs while Alpha talks to the Chief of Police for more group-beneficial aspects of what Devil's Rose has done.
We didn't just take down Andrew's organization for us. The police and town benefit, so we all get a payday. Police get the credit too, which always helps when there's a re-election coming up. So, I'm sure the Chief of Police is giving in to most of Alpha's demands.
I don't hate the police, I'm not a huge fan or anything, but I never had the best relationship with any of them. I haven't had any racist shit go down; it's just I don't trust them one bit. But then, I see her.
She's wrapped in a blanket with one of the police dogs sitting at her feet. She stares into the ambulance where her father's dead body lies. I push myself through the groups of people, making my way to her. She notices me right away but doesn't move away.
"Kate. Please don't torture yourself."
"You got what you wanted from me, Bear. I'm leaving soon, I swear, I just-I wanted to make sure he was really gone."
"Ah, well, he is, yeah?"
"Yeah," she whispers.
"A lot has happened between us in a very, very short amount of time. I did some fucking shitty stuff to you, and I'm sorry about that. I regret the things I said and the way I treated you and forced you to do this. I don't have an excuse, and I don't wanna make one. I don't know what happened."
She lays a soft hand on my chest, tears gathering in her eyes.
"I'm not going to fight with you, but I'm also going to apologize, Bear. I did what I thought was right. I did what I did to protect you and your family. I'm not going to apologize for that even if I lied to you. I don't feel the need to."
"You don't need to."
"Look, I love you, Bear. My heart doesn't care that I barely know you. But we can't right now. We both have a lot of healing to do, and I need to go live not here. We need to not be together. Not because I don't want to be eventually but because we've caused each other pain. I think it's important we work through that separately before-before we go forward together."
I lay a kiss on her forehead, my own tears dripping down my face.
"I love you too, Kate. And when you come back, please call me Dorian."
She steps out of my arms, and I watch her walk away from me. She looks back for a brief second, smiles, and climbs into the car that Alpha offered to her. It's a black 1975 classic Cadillac Eldorado Convertible.
Where the fuck either of them got it, I have no idea, but I'm obsessed with seeing her sit in it. I've never seen anything so sexy in my life. Holy fucking shit.
"It was in her father's garage," Alpha notes as he steps next to me.
"She had always wanted it to be hers, but Andrew never let her," he continues, "kills him and steals his car. I like her, Bear."
I can hear the smirk on his face. I don't have to look at him to know it's there.
"So do I."
"She'll come back," he states with complete certainty.
"How do you know?"
"You think that woman is going to be able to stay away from Devil's Rose life? Please, this is part of who she is. The good part of this life of protecting others is in her blood. She'll be back."
He slaps my shoulder before telling me to go home to my children. I don't even argue with him. I want to spend a quiet night with them. They're going to ask about Kate, but I'll stall that conversation for tomorrow.
Once I get them watching a show they aren't going to give a shit about what happened to Kate. That's what I love about kids. They care but they care more about tv. It makes my life easy sometimes. I can just put on a show, and let them zone for some time when I need to get time to myself.
I don't do it all the time, but everyone needs a binge-watch, and I'm not going to apologize for my parenting methods. They'll be good kids, and it's working out so far. I can't complain, and they aren't either.
After taking a shower, I eat dinner with them (cauliflower and leftover lemon chicken) before we all go and cuddle on the couch. Faye lays on my chest while Xavier cuddles up into my side. They decide that they want to go the Disney movie route tonight, so we end up choosing Tangled, which doesn't surprise me.
Fuck, I'm so glad I'm a dad. This is what life is about. Disney movies and my kids. And even though my mind sometimes drifted back to Kate, back to what happened today, the squeeze of Xavier's hand on my bicep and the movement of Faye's body when she laughs brings me back to the present.
I can't miss moments like this because they don't last forever. I'm in a fucking depressed mood.
I seriously need to call my mom.
"Dad, what do you think about getting a dog? Or two?"
"Is there a reason you want that right now, Xav?" I wonder, chuckling.
"I kinda think it would be nice to have a dog companion. One for me, and one for Faye."
"What about me, man?"
"Faye and I would share with you," he mumbles nervously.
"Here's a deal. We can get one dog for you and Faye to share. If that trial goes well, I will consider getting another one."
"You serious," his eyes widened with shock.
"I'm serious."
We got two dogs.