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

room with him while the nurses cleaned him up, checking for internal damage, and stitches to close the deep cuts on his face and fingers. He held me the entire time they worked on him.

I then became angry when he explained what happened. So mad, I stepped out into the frigid air just to be able to breathe. Once I caught my breath, I screamed and cried at the sky in anger. Cursing up a storm and wondering how much more God was going to drop on me before I shattered for good.

When I walked into the waiting room, I sat for hours in the corner with my knees to my chest, waiting for the doctor as I listened to Aaron talk about how he took care of everything so everyone could wait on the outcome of Seth. He had someone remove the bodies from the warehouse and set it on fire.

He’ll see Karina back to town and move her anywhere she wants to go if living in her penthouse is disturbing. She’s the least of my worries at the moment, but Aaron’s kindness toward her shows the type of man he is.

A good one, just like I told her.

I wanted to kill Maxim all over again, too, when Aaron explained that Maxim’s men left Dray and Seth’s belongings behind at Savannah’s house. An obvious set up just in case his plan went south. Which it did in ways no one saw coming.

Since then, Savannah’s poor mother found her body. That’s all Aaron said in front of me about the woman. As cold as it seems, I don’t care to know any more. Not when who I care about most is lying in bed with tubes and IV’s in his body.

“Before you tore down my walls so quickly, my heart was hard. My life bleak and boring. With you, it’s stronger and vibrant. Without you, it’s broken. You can’t leave me now that you stole my heart. You need to wake up and fix it, Seth. You said we began the day we met. That might be true, but the moment you touched me for the first time was the moment our souls united. I was just too blinded by my grief afterward to realize. Wake up so we can continue building a life together. I love you.”

It’s been way too long since I’ve heard I love you come out of Seth’s mouth. I’ve not said it near enough either. I’ve done nothing except talk about different things he would do when we were younger that drew my attention. Like the time he took his shirt off to play football with my brothers, and I drooled. The cocky way he’d smile all the damn time. Or the way I’d catch him staring at my ass whenever I’d reach for something on a high shelf. At the time, I’d wait for something smart to come out of his mouth. It never did unless we were alone.

And every time when I’d find out he was coming to visit my stomach would flutter. I left out the part where I’d remind myself I didn’t like him, so I would be a bitch by the time he arrived.

I told him pretty much my entire life’s story up to the day we spent together. Watching for a twitch at his hands, a flutter of his eyelids. A jerk of his body. Anything for this man to give me a sign he can hear me.

The doctor said to talk to Seth, hold his hand, rub his arm. Anything to stimulate his senses, and he should wake up at any time. That’s all I’ve heard for the past two days since he brought Seth out of the medically induced coma he’s been in to help reduce the swelling of his brain. It needed vital time to rest and heal after taking such a violent beating.

I’m sick of hearing it, and every time someone comes to check on him, asking if he’s woken, and I tell them no, my heart breaks a little more.

“Seth Mitchell, you open your eyes right this minute and look at me. I talked to Lexi, and she wants to come here to go ice-skating. She was upset when she couldn’t reach you by phone. Lane told her you lost your phone. She doesn’t know about what happened, but it won’t be long before she’s wondering why she can’t talk to you. Come back to us. Everyone needs you. I need you.” I whimper out a plea of desperation. Hoping the love he has for her will bring him back to me.

“I gave you my heart. I opened it wide, and now it’s full of you. I don’t want to walk through life without you. You’re a part of me. Always has been, always will be ingrained in my soul. As you told Dray, vengeance has been served. I won’t allow those bastards to be cruel to us anymore. Do you hear me? You don’t get to leave me like this before we’ve had the chance to know everything there is to know about one another. You promised you’d do everything to come back to me, but not like this. Please, Seth.”

Tears slide down my face, my lips quiver. I close my eyes, picturing a life with Seth. Him holding our children were supposed to someday have. Us getting through the hard of the first Christmas without my family. The man is a romantic at heart, he’d make that day easier on me even if we did absolutely nothing.

Sighing and not bothering to stop the tears, I open my eyes to cloudy green ones staring back at me confusingly. As if he can’t believe I’m real.

“Seth,” I gasp around his name. My tears clogging the back of my throat. He’s awake. He’s alert.

He’s come back to me.

“Victoria, my angel. Tell me this isn’t a dream.” His words are so faint I barely hear them.

“It’s not a dream. I’m here next to you where I