Redeemed (The Dark Redemption Series Book 2) by Lane Hart Page A

me to get pregnant ?
    “You look shocked,” he tells me, stroking his thumb over my cheek.
    “Um…” Words fail me the first few tries because I’m too overwhelmed by his pronouncement. “So, does that mean that you’re gonna be sticking around indefinitely? What if it’s Aden’s?” I eventually ask.
    “There’s no reason you should trust me after everything that’s happened. But I’m not going anywhere, even if it’s his. It doesn’t matter. Thinking about losing you…nothing has ever hurt so much,” he says with a shake of his head. Tearing open the side of the box, Brede removes the foil that holds a single, life-changing pill, and offers it to me. “Hell, maybe…maybe I’m just tired of dealing with so much death, and now I’m craving a little life. But here, you decide. ”
    After I take the pill from his fingers, he lifts me off his lap and sits me on the floor next to him so he can get up. Rummaging through the big bag Aden brought in, Brede pulls on a clean pair of boxer briefs, jeans, and a white tee before slipping on his boots and signature black leather jacket.
    “Come on out when you’re dressed and ready,” he says, tossing a clean dress, panties, and sandals down next to me before throwing his old clothes in the bag and walking out the door.
    I sit there on the carpet with my back against the bed, holding the foil-covered pill in my hand. For most girls my age, the last thing they probably want is the weight of responsibility that comes with a baby, being tied down, while they lose out on the future they had planned of going to college and partying with friends. But after having nothing in my life but four walls for ten years, all I want is the comfort and stability of a regular family life. Even with all the possibilities in the world open to me, that’s what I want most. I may be crazy and naïve, but Brede is who I want for the rest of my life. Whether or not the wandering man is actually capable of being tied down to a wife and kids, I’m not entirely sure. But even if one day he takes off, I wouldn’t be left behind all alone. Part of him would still be there with me.
    Getting to my feet, I change into the clean clothes, thankful to have shoes on my feet again, and grab my family’s photo album we brought in last night. Then I walk out the hotel door, finding Brede and Aden waiting in none other than a black mini-van with tinted windows. If they’re going for inconspicuous, this definitely works.
    Shaking my head, I pull open the passenger sliding door and climb inside the bench seat beside Brede.
    “Ready?” he asks, and I know his icy blue eyes are questioning more than am I just ready to go.
    Reaching for his hand, I place the unopened foil holding the pill into his palm.
    “Yeah, let’s go,” I tell him and Aden.
    Without looking down, Brede flashes me a grin before slipping the pill into his front jean pocket.
    “I don’t know about you two, but I’m starving,” I say, rubbing my grumbling stomach, and imagining what it might feel like in a few months, swollen with the life we created.
    “Food first and then Kentucky,” Aden agrees, before backing out of the parking space and pulling away.
     

Chapter Nine
     
    Aden
    “So when did you realize dad was innocent?” Brede asks as we head through Tennessee. The two of us have switched seats, so he’s driving while I sit in the passenger seat and Blair sleeps stretched out in the back.
    “Since the day he was arrested,” I tell him. “How could you think our father, the man who worked as a heating and repair guy in the day and a security guard at night to take care of us, and  still managed to get up early enough to fix breakfast and get us ready for school, could be a murderer?”
    “We were twelve. Everyone said he did it, otherwise why would he get arrested? I had no idea the DA was a piece of shit back then,” Brede argues defensively. “I was angry at dad that he would do something to leave us, and