“I know you don’t want to hear this,” she begins.
I smirk, letting out a hum as I run my fingers up and down the soft skin of her arms. Staying quiet, I wait for her to continue. Biting the corner of my lip, I continue to wait, knowing that she’s done something.
“I went to Daisy when I was resting,” she whispers. “She was in a room, a floral room, and she was talking to Bessie,” Birdie begins to explain.
Then she tells me the conversation that the two women had, in detail, along with the news that Logan may not be an ally, but instead an enemy.
“You’re telling me Logan wants to sabotage me?” I ask.
Birdie doesn’t say anything right away, the room is bathed in silence and then slowly she turns her head, tilting it back to look up at me. “I don’t want to believe it, Colt.”
“Could you have heard wrong?” I ask, shock rolling throughout my entire body.
Birdie presses her lips together, her eyes focusing on mine and nowhere else. “Colt,” she breathes on a whisper. “I know what I heard.”
I nod my head a couple of times, unsure of what to do next. Should I believe her? She is my wife. Logan has been a friend for decades, would he really do this to me, to our country? I can’t forget the way that evil mass came from Florence and escaped into the world. Just because I think that I know Logan, doesn’t mean that I truly know all of him or know what could befall him.
“I believe you,” I murmur.
Birdie doesn’t say anything immediately, but instead waits a moment before she speaks. She lifts her hand and laces her fingers with mine. My instinct is to pull away, but I decide against it, allowing her to touch me, and pull my hand across her chest.
“Tell me something about your land.”
Birdie squeezes my fingers and I feel her chest rise and fall. My other hand, I wrap around her waist and press against her growing belly. Dropping my chin, I touch my mouth to her shoulder and enjoy the feeling of her soft body against mine, waiting to hear her story of her land.
Closing my eyes, I listen to her tell me about her land. None of it sounds real, and if I didn’t know she was truly from a different world, I would think that she just has a very active imagination.
That is how we spend the evening, then before we fall asleep next to one another, she rides me until we’re both completely spent. Our bond somehow strengthening with every moment spent naked with one another.
I don’t know that we will ever be anything more than what we are. I’m not sure if our love will ever go beyond physical desire and lust, but I’m no longer going to fight it. There is no need to anymore. I can protect her and the baby. I can keep them safe and I will, until my last dying breath.
Chapter Forty-Two
BIRDIE
Logan watches me from across the property. I don’t know why, but Colt hasn’t said anything to him yet about our conversation last night. Florence is still being held in jail under guard, but Logan is oddly free and watching me, unnervingly so.
He knows that I know. He has to. The way that he’s watching me, it’s freaking creepy as shit. I’m watching him, focused on him when I sense someone walk up beside me. Tearing my gaze away from Logan, I look to the side and see Martha at my side.
“Hey,” I whisper.
“He’s watching you and I have a sick feeling.”
Nodding my head, I don’t tell her that she is right to feel that sick sensation. Licking my lips, I place my hand on my stomach and pray for the safety of this new baby. There is something happening around me, around us, and I have a feeling that I won’t be able to stop it from unfolding, not ever.
“I do too, Martha,” I admit on a whisper.
There is a moment of silence, that is, until my head is filled with a menacing voice. “You will never stop this from happening. He will never believe you.”
The voice is without a doubt Logan’s, but I don’t give him a reaction, not a single ounce of one. Instead, I continue to look straight ahead and completely ignore him.
Colt already knows the truth of what I’ve seen and heard. I left it all up to him, hopefully he will make the right decision and I have to trust him with that. Hopefully we all survive whatever is about to come our way.
Pressing my lips together, I turn my back to him, ignoring him and shaking his voice out of my mind. I don’t know how he got inside of my head, but I don’t need him to know what I’m thinking or what my next move is, he needs to stay in the dark—completely in the dark.
Colt is strapping the saddle to his horse when he senses my presence in the barn. I watch as he turns his head, looking over at me before he straightens and turns to face me. He doesn’t move, his gaze focused on mine and nowhere else.
My heart beats inside of my chest at the mere sight of him. I don’t know how I lived my entire life without this man. How I thought that I might be able to transport myself home to get away from him. How I thought that this could be nothing more than temporary.
I was wrong about it all.
“Colt,” I call out as my feet begin to move toward him.
He frowns, reaching out for me. My arm extends and I slip my hand in his. He tugs me against his chest, his chin dipping before his lips brush against mine.
“You’re okay?” he asks.
Nodding, I rise to my toes and touch my mouth to his. “Logan entered my thoughts. He said that
