Grant Carter did everything in his power to convince Harlow Manning that he was a good guy. More than a smooth-talker and someone she could trust. He had to overcome his reputation as a playboy, and his history with Harlow’s half-sister, Nan, a woman with a reputation of her own.
Harlow had taken the chance, falling hard and fast for the guy who thrilled her with his all-consuming desire. After a lifetime of avoiding bad boys like Grant, she had opened herself to the possibilities of love…
But a life-changing secret has torn them apart, and now Grant and Harlow must decide if they have enough fight to make it work – or if the pain of betrayal has permanently destroyed their future.
EXCERPT
Kiro
Why couldn’t it have been my motherfucking heart? Why did it have to be my baby girls? I had been asking this question since the day they told me and Emmy that there was an issue with Harlow’s heart. I would have moved heaven and earth to take that from her. But just like I couldn’t save my Emmy. I couldn’t save our daughter.
She was stubborn and she was so fucking brave. That damn hard head of hers had been something I admired. Until she decided she was gonna have a baby. I knew she’d never abort it. Wasn’t in her nature. She had been trying to save the world since she was three years old. She always put others before herself. She preferred the people she loved over her wants and needs.
It was one of the things that made her so damn beautiful. Just like my Emmy. And she was all I had of my Emmy. The light in Emmy’s eyes had been gone for so long. Every day I visited her I hoped to see her eyes light up with understanding and she would come back to me but that never happened. Not once.
The only way I could see that light was to look at our Harlow. Our little miracle. And now, she was lying back there on some goddamn hospital bed with tubes in her and barely hanging onto life.
All I could think about on the flight here was how I was going to wrap my hands around Grant Carter’s neck for doing this to her. He hadn’t thought about her safety he had thought with his fucking dick. And my sweet Harlow loved the man. She wanted his kid. And he let her do it.
Rush had tried to talk to me and calm me down before Grant got back out here from seeing the baby that could have very likely just killed my baby. He said Grant was a wreck. That he had been standing there like a man possessed watching the door for a sign of Harlow. For any word.
He was scared. Good. Motherfucking GOOD! He should be. Maybe death was too good for him. A life empty and void because the woman who owns you is gone is hell on earth. That was what he deserved. I’d lived it and I knew what it was like. Death would be too easy for him.
I glanced back at Dean who was sitting with Blaire talking, then found where the rest of the band had found places to sit. When I’d gotten the call they had all shown up at the airport with me. They loved my girl too. She was their family. There was a good chance they’d kill Grant.
“Kiro,” Grant said and I jerked my head back around to see the man responsible for this. He was wearing a pair of blue scrubs which meant he’d probably been back to see that baby that took my Harlow from me. The dark circles under his eyes and the pale color of his face didn’t make me feel any better.
“You killed my, baby,” I snarled unable to not take out my pain on someone.
Grant tensed and Rush was there in between us immediately. He looked fierce and ready to take me on.
“She’s alive. She’s fighting because that is what she does. I don’t give a damn who you are I will have your ass removed from this hospital if you can’t keep it together. I’m sorry you’re hurting. I know you’ve got to be scared as shit. But so is he,” Rush said pointing at Grant. “He’s fucking terrified. Losing her would destroy him. He’s already breaking apart. So don’t come in here throwing shit around and accusing him of anything. He stood by the woman he loves when she was determined to have this baby. He couldn’t force her to do something she’d never get over.”
Dean came up beside his son and put a hand on Rush’s shoulder as if to make sure I knew I wasn’t going to be able to attack Rush either.
“The boy looks like he’s been through hell. Harlow wouldn’t want this. She would want you to be here for each other. You know that, Kiro.” Dean said in a stern tone.
They were all on the boy’s side. He could have stopped this. My baby wanted to give him a baby. She loved that baby because it was his. So hell yes I blamed him. He should have used a mother fucking condom.
“He didn’t protect her. He could have saved us all this with something as simple as a damn condom.”
Grant closed his eyes and I saw him tremble. Apparently he knew that too. He was taking the blame. Good. He needed to know if we lost her he killed her. Him. He didn’t take care of her. She trusted him and this was what happened.
“He didn’t know about her heart until the day she left him. She was pregnant before she left. She just didn’t know it,” Rush explained.
I already knew that. I didn’t care. He still should’ve used a condom. Respect a girl like Harlow and protect her from your dick. It’s fucking courtesy.
“Where the fuck is Mase? His ass should be here,” I said, angry that the brother she adored wasn’t here. Waiting.
“I’m right here asshole.”
About the Author:
New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author of TWISTED PERFECTION, FALLEN TOO FAR, NEVER TOO FAR, JUST FOR NOW, WHILE IT LASTS, BECAUSE OF LOW, BREATHE, THE VINCENT BOYS, THE VINCENT BROTHERS, THE EXISTENCE TRILOGY.
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