Concede (The Diamond Empire Book 1) by Kathy Coopmans (bts book recommendations .TXT) 📕

“Yes, you can. In and out. Deep breaths. I got you. You’re safe.”

I keep telling myself I am. Repeating it until I calm down, knowing after everything there isn’t a chance Roan, Dad, or Seth, will leave me alone again. It’s them I worry about more than ever before.

“Maybe we should talk later.”

There’s a slight break in Seth’s voice. If I didn’t know he’s fighting his own broken-hearted battle, I do now. It’s a war neither of us will ever win because our baby is gone.

“No. We should talk when you feel ready to, not just me. The baby was as much a part of you as me. If you’re ready now, then let’s talk, Seth.”

My gaze flits between his face and the tail end of the word Family tattoo on his arm, and I wonder if he wants a family of his own. There’s so much I know about him and so much I don’t. One thing is for sure; I’m head over heels for him.

It came on fast and hard, and I never want it to end.

For a few seconds, I study his expression. He’s a storm of emotions. I want to unshackle him from them all.

Take care of him the same way he’s done me.

“If you’re sure. We can stop if it’s too much for you. Understand?”

Well, I can see he hasn’t lost his bossiness over this. That’s good. I like that side of him.

All sides, really.

“The same goes for you,” I tell him, the words barely able to escape past the tears saturating the back of my throat.

Seth’s eyes shutter, and then he finally speaks.

“Fair enough. He touched you. That enraged me until I saw red. No one touches what’s mine in a way that hurts them, and when I saw you. Shit, Victoria. Don’t’ think I’ll ever erase the sight of you from my memory. Bruised and beaten and still the most beautiful, courageous woman I’ve had the privilege of knowing most of my life. But seeing your blood, it was the first time in my life, the sight of it made me sick. I thought I knew pain, but losing someone, I loved even when I didn’t know them. It’s devastation.”

His words cut and heal at the center of my chest. I shudder from the sweet ones. Wrap them up to save for another day. The agonizing, suffering ones prick me with acute pain.

Sharp and excruciating.

“Me too,” I agree as a sad smile curves up my mouth.

Our eyes lock when Seth places a hand on my stomach. It’s barely a whispering touch.

It feels like a resurrection.

A healing warmth.

“Someday we’ll have children and bring them here to play in the snow. Take them wherever they want. You’ll be even more stunning swollen with my child. The perfect mother. Hold on to that promise. It’s going to happen.”

Seth smiles softly, eyes misting with tears. Right then seeing him struggle. Telling me through our sad, mind-shattering situation that together we will rise again and build a future, I know for sure this man is worth leaving the old me behind.

“I would have loved our baby so much. You would have made the best father. You will someday, and I can’t wait to see you hold him or her. I’m so sorry.”

“There you go with apologizing again.”

“I can’t help it.”

“No, you can’t. It’s a part that makes you, you. We’ll get through everything life throws at us, Victoria.”

My throat tightens. I open my mouth to catch my breath as tears well in my eyes, but when Seth’s leak down his face, my strength wavers; it slips from my grasp, and sobs wrench free. Suddenly the floodgates open , and before I know it, he shifts to his back, tucks me gently into his side, and I curl into his chest. Wrapping an arm around him and holding him tight.

We hold each other and cry.

“Hey, we’re going to be okay,” he promises, holding me, warming me from the inside out. “Look at me.”

Seth barely gets the last word out before the burn from crying clogs my nose. I can’t hold anything back from him anymore. Burying my head in the sand, trying to be brave when I don’t have to be isn’t doing either of us any good. It’s not the woman a man like him needs by his side. He wants me; then he’s going to get me. I’ll sacrifice it all to be with him.

Tomorrow is never promised to anyone, no matter who they are or what they do. So, I decide to lay it all out. I look at this gorgeous man who swallowed me whole the first time he kissed me.

The man I’m willing to go all-in with. Give him my life, my heart, and work toward a future that at times will seem like it’s more than I can handle.

I can handle it. Because at the end of every day, and even when I’m weak, I will always be my mother and father’s daughter.

Victoria Hughes. Born and bred in the mafia.

“I don’t remember a time in my life where I wasn’t afraid of death. Now that I have you, it seems to eat me more than ever before. I won’t ever get it out of my system, but I can live with it because I care about you. I promise to talk to you when I feel the pressure building. Trust me.” I voice that vital word on a rasp. Throat throbbing to release this pent-up emotion that has stuck with me for as long as I can remember.

Seth’s eyes move tenderly over my face.

“I know, but I needed to hear it from you. Pretty sure you needed to hear yourself say it as well. I would have waited forever if that’s what it would have taken. I figured it out when you dropped the armor guarding your heart. You were easy to read after that. I hate reading, by the way. You though, I’ve come to find I could all