I stared into his eyes and said quietly, “He deserved it.”

“Your call. You lived his shit. Way you tell it, I absolutely f**kin’ agree.”

I bent my neck and rested my forehead against his jaw.

Creed’s arm tightened around me.

My eyes to his throat, I asked, “So, what are your plans for our piece of happy?”

“One day at a time. That day starts with me wakin’ up beside you in bed, that’s my piece of happy. I’ll find yours and make sure you get your piece.”

What he said worked for me.

I pulled in a breath.

Creed lifted his bottle to his lips and sucked down beer.

Then I gave him everything.

“I’m terrified out of my mind.”

“Sucks, baby,” he whispered. “But I get that and I’ll help you work through it. For me, we had this one day, that was it, I walked out your front door tomorrow and got shot dead, I’d die happy. And I’d die happy because, even for a day, I had you back with me. Seems I lived a dozen f**kin’ lifetimes knowin’ that would never be. Havin’ it means everything to me. So, I’m not scared. Two things in my whole life I wanted. My Dad back and you. Now, you’re tucked close to me, so that works for me.”

My sun’s rays warmed me straight through.

I shifted my head to press my face in his neck.

Creed held on tighter.

* * * * *

He was chained to the floor, lying in the corner, the dried blood on his face, matting his hair.

Daddy was standing in the room with him and a bottle of water was on the floor between them, just out of his reach.

His lips were dry, crusted, chapped, split.

Daddy moved, toeing the water an inch closer, still out of reach.

“Give her up,” Daddy demanded.

He lifted his head. His sky blue eyes vague with hunger, thirst and pain, he still directed them at Daddy.

The word was weak and it cracked in the middle.

But he said it.

“Never.”

Daddy kicked the bottle of water and it flew across the room, liquid splashing everywhere but none of it where it needed to be.

* * * * *

My body jerked then shot up to sitting in the bed. My knees came up, my hands went back into the mattress and I fell heavily into them.

“Sylvie?”

Creed’s arm was heavy along my waist. The last thing I remembered before the dream was us whispering in bed, me tucked close mostly under Creed like he held me the night before when I was sobbing.

Clearly, we fell asleep cuddled close.

I felt the bed shift with him coming up on his forearm.

“Sylvie,” his voice was firmer.

I didn’t reply.

The dream still had a hold on me.

I threw back the covers and knifed out of bed. My movements frantic, I dashed to the dresser, yanked out panties and tugged them on awkwardly. I left that drawer open even as I opened another one and tagged a babydoll tee. I pulled it over my head as I raced out of the room, down the hall, through the living room, the entry, the dining room to the kitchen sink.

I snatched a glass from the cupboard, turned on the water, filled it, put it to my lips and sucked it back. Water dribbled down the sides of my mouth, down my neck, wetting my tee.

When it was empty, I filled it again and repeat.

As I was drinking, I felt a warm body press against my back, hands on the edge of the sink in front of me. That body arched and I felt a face buried in my neck.

I emptied the glass, filled it again and repeat.

Creed didn’t move.

I emptied the glass and dropped it into the sink with a crash.

“They could have killed you,” I whispered.

“They didn’t,” he murmured against my neck.

“They could have killed you,” I repeated.

One hand left the edge of the sink and snaked across my belly but his face didn’t leave my neck. “Baby, they didn’t.”

“I read somewhere that it takes only three days to die of dehydration.”

Creed didn’t respond.

I told him something he knew better than me.

“They had you a month.”

His lips went to my ear. “They’re dead, Sylvie. We’re here. We’re together. We’re breathin’ and they are f**kin’ dead.” I listened to him pull in a breath before he finished, “We win.”

We win.

I dropped my head.

Creed’s other hand left the edge of the sink and wrapped around my chest.

He held me that way a long time. Then he moved from me but took my hand, guided me gently from the sink and out of the kitchen, through the dining room into the living room where he took me to the couch. Positioning me with his hand in mine, he let me go but put both his hands to my shoulders and pressed lightly.

I sat on the couch.

He leaned into me and framed my face with both hands, so close, his shadowed, scarred for me beauty was all I could see.

“Wait here. I’ll be back,” he whispered.

I nodded, moving his hands with my head.

His hands tipped my head forward, he kissed the hair at the top then he let me go. I watched his shadowed form leave the room.

He came back in less than a minute and I noted vaguely he was wearing jeans. He also was carrying a bag.

He came to the couch, upended it and a bunch of small, mismatched jewelry boxes fell out on the couch beside me.

“Knight gave me your name, I wasted no time findin’ you. Saw you then I flew home and got these,” he murmured.

He tossed the bag to my coffee table and pawed through the boxes in the dark. He found the one he wanted, flipped it open and with a tug, yanked out a necklace.

I stopped breathing.

The gold glinted in the moonlight. I saw the gemstone pendant hanging. I couldn’t see the color in the shadows but I knew.

I knew.

He held it toward me.

“That was the one I didn’t get to give to you by the lake on your eighteenth birthday.”

I started shivering. My hand lifting up like it had a mind of its own, Creed draped the necklace over it, gem to my palm before he went back to pawing through the boxes.

He found one, opened it, yanked out another necklace.

“This one I bought for your next birthday,” he muttered and draped it, gem to my palm, over my still raised hand.

The tears hit my eyes.

Creed went back to pawing, found a box and tugged out another necklace.

“This one was when you turned twenty,” he whispered.

Wet slid down my cheeks.

Back to the boxes again, again, until the necklaces draped over my hand numbered fifteen.

When he was done, his hand curled around mine, palm to palm, his fingers curved around the chains and he leaned deep, his lips at my ear.