Captive
Page 34
Gage looked away.
“And she had a good reason too. Doing what she did to those assholes.”
“Yeah, she told me,” Gage whispered.
Linc frowned. “And you’re still punishing her?”
Gage didn’t respond.
In that moment Linc knew deep down that Gage would forgive Veda. That knowing his fiancé had been brutally attacked by ten men when she’d been only eighteen was all the justification she’d needed to do what she’d done back home in Shadow Rock. That even if she’d killed the ten men who’d brutalized her—instead of just castrating them—she still would’ve been justified.
“You know, I almost walked out on Lisa,” Linc said. “On our wedding day.”
Gage’s eyes shot up to his again, face stunned.
Linc nodded. “Yeah. For a fleeting moment in time, it made sense. The closer the wedding came, the deeper I dug.” He made a claw at his stomach. “I would just dig, and dig, and dig… until I finally found something. Something that justified why I couldn’t marry her. Something so stupid, so inconsequential, I don’t even remember it anymore. But at the time it was almost enough to convince me to throw away one of the most important relationships of my life. In that moment, I really believed it, not because I didn’t want to marry her, but because I was scared. Terrified, really. Of what, I still don’t know. But what I do know, Gage, is that if I hadn’t married Lisa? That would’ve been the biggest mistake of my life. I would’ve never had the honor of meeting that…” He motioned behind them, where the mansion sat in the far distance. “That spoiled, bad-ass, loud-mouth, always talking back, breathtakingly beautiful little girl back there. I wouldn’t know the joy of hearing her call me Dad, every single day. Of knowing how important my role is in her life, every single day. How important it is for my face to be one of the first one she sees, every single day. How much my presence is going to shape her life for the better—hopefully, anyway. I would’ve lost all that if I’d listened to that bullshit voice in my head the day I married Lisa. I know you feel like Veda lied to you, and in a way… yeah…” He laughed softly. “I guess she did. But she did it to protect you. Let me tell you what the real lie is, Gage. The real lie is that voice in your head. That voice that’s about to ruin your life—and your family’s life—for no good reason at all.”
Silence.
Linc pressed. “Is Veda crazy as hell? Yes. Is being married to her going to be an infuriating experience? Absolutely. Is raising Lincoln with her going to be a real uphill climb? Without question.” He smiled softly, fighting a laugh. “But at the end of the day, no matter how bad we all fuck up, there’s no way any of us could screw up our kids any more than our parents did us, right?”
Gage sputtered out a laugh—one that had clearly come unexpectedly. As his smile petered away, he held Linc’s eyes over his shoulder, squinting against the glare of the sun, the line between his brows pulling deep.
“You’re wrong,” Gage said.
Linc’s shoulders collapsed and he looked away from Gage with his teeth bared, running his trembling fingers over his downturned lips before shaking his head softly.
“You’re wrong,” Gage repeated, a lump moving down his throat. “You do know how to be a big brother.”
Linc’s eyes flew back to him.
“A damn good one, actually,” Gage finished, his chest rising in a heaving breath.
Linc’s chest rose too, white-hot relief filling every corner of his body and slowly easing his bones.
——
The following afternoon, under the same blaring, unrelenting sun, with the sand between their bare toes and the waves tickling their ankles, Veda and Gage faced each other, hand in hand on the beach, the sheer train of Veda’s breezy white dress fluttering with the breeze.
“By the powers vested in me…” Hope’s amused hazel eyes dashed back and forth between Veda and Gage. “I now pronounce you, husband and wife.” Her shoulders collapsed. “Just fuckin’ kiss her already.”
Laughter filled the air from the small group of onlookers sitting in the white folding chairs situated before them in the sand, followed by applause as Veda and Gage’s lips met in a loving kiss.
Linc tightened one arm from where it was slung around Mia’s shoulder and the other from where it was slung around his mother’s. Emma hopped out from her seat next to her grandmother—the seat she’d insisted was hers and hers only—and raced over to Linc, kicking up sand as she went.
When she made it to her father, she gripped his knees and leaned in, puckering her lips.
Linc puckered his smiling lips too, leaned forward, and accepted the very same kiss that Gage was currently accepting from Veda.
He accepted the kiss from the love of his life.
News and Updates on Trevion Burns:
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Also by Trevion:
The Revenge Series:
Quiver: Number One
Tingle: Number Two
Purr: Number Three
Yearn: Number Four
Pulse: Number Five
Raw: Number Six
Rouse: Number Seven
Captive: Lincoln Hill’s Story
Stereo Hearts Series:
Stereo
Encore
The Romanovsky Brother’s Series:
Taming Val
Claiming Roman
Loving Leo
Finding Gary
The Almeida Brother’s Trilogy:
Lila's Thunder
Thunder Rolls
Lightning Strikes
Stand Alone Novels:
Captive
Dead or Alive