Page 40 of The Impossible

I blinked several times, looking at him. This man, who always seemed to have it together, needed assurance at this moment. My husband needed to know I accepted him for every side of himself. We talked about everything but love, maybe because of how our union happened. Either way he didn’t have to be a saint for me to love him, he just had to be himself. And he was himself. The man I found myself falling more and more irrevocably in love with daily because he was him.

“You got me, Hondo. I fall deeper in love with you every day because you are you. So be who you gotta be out there. As long as you come home to me every night, we’re good.” I made sure to point to his heart when I said you.

“I got you,” he assured me, hanging my sponge behind him on the hook.

“Good, now you let me clean you.” I grabbed the sponge I got him. He hated it but I made sure to return the favor by massaging the day from his skin.

He threw his hands up, sure to give me access to every tattooed and hard part of himself.

CHAPTER 10

Hondo

One minute we were talking on the phone and I was thinking about all the shit I wanted to do to her. The next I heard gunshots, glass shattering, and yelling. Everything in me in that moment saw red because what the fuck? Then to make matters so much fucking worse, after telling me she was okay, I heard the phone drop then my mother told the driver to get them to a hospital because Nic had passed out. My wife fucking passed out and I was nowhere near her. My mind thought the worst the entire ride because she could’ve passed out from anything. Things could have been worse than they sounded. My nerves didn’t settle until I was looking at her, and even then, I was still on edge because she wasn’t looking at me. Her eyes were closed and they said she was resting.

That didn’t help me because I needed to hear her tell me she was fine. I needed to look into those blue eyes, but I couldn’t. So for two and a half hours, I sat at the end of the bed and watched her. The moment I dropped my head for all of five seconds, talking to a God I didn’t often consult with, she awakened.

From the moment the worry dissipated, the anger festered. I wasn’t trying to hear a damn thing about resolutions and diplomacy, I wanted blood. This was essentially the second time a motherfucker had come for her, now proving to me that she was the intended target. With that being said, too fucking much was happening without enough answers.

I turned my head to the side, looking at Nic out of the corner of my eye. I needed her to rest even though I couldn’t. I wanted blood so badly that I could taste that shit like I was a motherfucking cannibal.

“So Amethyst said she saw that nigga Kolton at the restaurant before everything happened. You don’t think that was a coincidence, do you?”

“Nah, I don’t. I’m treating everything as a fucking transgression. Ain’t no way I have words with his people and out of nowhere he’s in the same vicinity of them just before something pops off. I’on give a fuck if he didn’t have anything to do with it, let him tell me that shit himself.”

“What time are you leaving in the morning?” Otto asked, realizing there was no reasoning with me because I wasn’t doing a damn thing formally. Motherfuckers best be lucky I didn’t blow down families just off my suspicions alone. I didn’t care about the proper course of action at all, especially when it came to my wife.

“Who said anything about the morning, Otto?”

He sighed into the phone. “Damn, I’m on my way. I shouldn’t have even left your house.”

“For what? I don’t need you coming with me.” I stood up straight then turned to face the bedroom where Patience was asleep. She would be out for the rest of the night and I made good and damn sure of that during our shower earlier. She’d sleep well into the morning.

“The fuck you don’t. You’re raw right now, Hon. I’ll be there in a few.” He hung up before I could say anything else, and lowkey, that was smart on his part. He knew me well enough to know that too.

“Where are you going?” Her sleep laced tone caught me by surprise.

“How do you know I’m going somewhere, Nic?”

“Because you’re not in bed with me.”

I grinned, moving toward her. “You should be sleep.”

“I should, but then I woke up and you weren’t in bed with me. You don’t normally get up in the middle of the night, Hondo. So, again, where are you going?” Those crystal blue eyes bored into mine for an answer.

“Waiting on Otto. ’Bout to go see about something. You need something?” I pulled a white T-shirt over my head, eyes living on her.

“Besides you, no.” She lay there, simply fucking perfect, watching me.

“You got me. Now go ahead back to sleep. We’ll have breakfast when you wake up.” I pulled my hoodie on, then zipped it up.

“You promise?”

I leaned over. “Yes. Now gimme kiss so I can go.”

She lifted her head slightly, allowing me to kiss the side of her face. She was trying hard as fuck to fight her sleep, but regardless of her little fight, it would win. I’d put in too much work hours ago for it not to.

“I think I want a dog,” she said in a sleep laced tone right before I closed our bedroom door.