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“You’re just going to carry me around like a caveman?” she grumbles as I carry her into my room and place her on the bed.

“Yup,” I chuckle, pressing a kiss to her forehead. I head over to my dresser and pull out one of my shirts and a pair of my boxers.

She says nothing as I slip one of my t-shirts over her head and help her into the boxers.

I grab a pair for myself and put them on before crawling into bed next to her.

I know it’s still early in the day, but I can tell Cove is already exhausted.

“Come cuddle,” I tell her, patting my chest.

She chews on her bottom lip, then shuffles toward me. “Maverick,” she laughs as I pull her to me, draping her body over mine.

“Hush,” I playfully scold, wrapping her up in my arms. “Sleep. I’ll be here if you need anything.”

Grabbing the book from my bedside table, I open it up to the last page I was on and start reading out loud.

The sound of my voice mixed with the vibration of my chest puts Cove to sleep within minutes.

Placing the book down again, I kiss the top of her head and close my eyes.

One day at a time. That's what it’s going to take. And I’m more than happy to wait through every single one of them if it means Cove starts to break down her walls for us.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Saint

“Laughing is good right?” Shepherd whispers, leaning in so Cove doesn’t hear him.

Cove has spent the day baking. She’s been all smiles and laughter today, but none of us really know how to take her good mood.

If Maverick’s app is correct, Cove’s last day of her period would have been yesterday.

None of us were prepared for the week we just had, even though we’ve watched Cove on the cameras, seeing how bad her periods were. We hated seeing her hurt, but there wasn’t really anything we could have done to help without giving ourselves away then.

She used to spend most of that time suffering through it at work.

This was a whole new side of Cove we’ve never seen. We hated seeing her in pain and did whatever we could to make her as comfortable as possible.

She spent most of her time sleeping, but when she was awake, that girl was terrifying. One moment she was crying, the next she was threatening to kill us.

She almost stabbed Maverick with a butter knife. She would have too, if Maverick didn’t give her his scary look. He wasn’t going to actually do anything to her, but sometimes just those eyes are enough to stop you in your tracks.

“Yes,” I chuckle, watching as Cove hums along to the song that’s playing, her cute, toned ass wiggling back and forth.

“Saint.” She spins around to face me and Shepherd leans back avoiding eye contact. I’m not sure what happened between the two of them last night, but he ate the donut Maverick brought home for Cove, and I don’t think Cove enjoyed that very much. Man has been terrified of her ever since. And that's saying something seeing how he literally laughs in death's face.

“Yes, Pretty Girl?” I murmur, leaning back in my seat. Keeping my hands to myself has been a challenge. As much as I wanted to get her alone whenever possible, I knew that after our day at the shooting range when I heard her cum and saw the pure bliss on her face from my hands that I wouldn’t be able to hold back if I got her in that position again.

I’m really fucking hoping that with all this time she’s been spending with us, she will come around soon.

If you ask me, I think she’s settling in just fine. It helps that we’ve been trying to keep her entertained as much as we can, showing her that life here with us could be amazing. It’s also given us a chance to spend time with her, get to know her.

I’ve spent too many years without her in my life, I don’t think I could go another day. That's why it’s been hard to leave her anytime we’ve had to go do something for our dad.

He said we were free to do our own thing, and would call us if he saw any of Rafe’s men, but despite the fact that our focus has been mostly on Cove since coming back to the U.S., we still want to do our jobs.

We might not want to be the ones who control the Bratva, but if it came down to it and there was no other choice, we would step up and be what our father needs.