by Cee Bowerman
“Darryl,” I said flatly and trembled at the sight of my brother. He was standing just on the other side of the large hedge that lined the building, less than six feet in front of me. There was no expression on his face, just a blank stare, as he put his hand up and motioned with one finger for me to come out to him. I shook my head while I held his cold stare.
I could see the anger cloud them even though his expression didn’t change. He was forced to break eye contact when a fireman hustled up beside him and started talking. I yanked my phone out of my pocket and hit redial to call Sonny as I watched Darryl walk toward the front of the building with the firefighter.
“Holy shit,” Lena shivered as she watched the two men walk away. “That was the creepiest thing I’ve ever seen. He would be perfect for a horror movie.”
I put my phone down as I watched the two men walk away. “The inside of his mind would make horror movies seem like fairy tales.”
“He knew your guy was gone,” Lena observed. “He must have been watching.”
“He was,” I shuddered and then put my phone up to my ear when it rang. “Hello?”
“You’re going to have to come out of there sometime, little sister.” Darryl’s gravelly voice made tears spring to my eyes instantly. “I’m waiting patiently, but that’s going to end. I want the money your old man owes me or I’m going to take it out of your hide.”
“I’m not giving you any money, Darryl.”
“Patience just ran out, sister. I’ll see you soon.”
I let my hand drop when Darryl disconnected the call. My head started to spin and I had black spots in my vision as I tried to catch my breath. I was back in that house, praying that the fire department could get to us as I watched the flames crawl across the ceiling of the living room. I could hear my mom’s screams as she tried to get her hands loose from where Darryl had taped them together.
“Reba!” I felt someone shake my shoulders and I shook my head as I gasped for air. “Reba, look at me!”
Lena’s face was pale and she was so close I could see each one of her eyelashes before she pulled back.
“I’m okay,” I whispered as I tried to catch my breath.
“You quit breathing.” Lena still had a grip on my biceps and she maneuvered me toward a chair that was off to the side of the window. “I think you almost passed out.”
I put my head down between my knees and tried to breathe. “I’m okay now.”
“Jesus.” Lena dropped down into the chair beside me with a groan. “That is one scary dude.”
The two of us jumped when someone pounded on the door.
“Reba! Open up!” I could hear Jace’s frantic voice as he tried the doorknob. He pounded on the door again as I got closer and then my phone started ringing. I glanced down and saw that it was Sonny calling me. I flipped the phone open and my cousin’s voice came through the door and the phone at the same time, “It’s us, babe. Unlock the door.”
I flipped the lock and Jace rushed into the room followed closely by my cousin. Sonny jerked me toward him and put his arms around me in a tight hug.
“You okay?”
“He was outside the window at the hedge. He called me right after a fireman walked up on him,” I told him shakily. “He said he’s lost patience and he’ll see me soon.”
“The hell he will,” Jace growled as he walked toward the window.
“Oh my God, Sonny.” I couldn’t hold it in any more and burst into tears. “He’s going to kill me this time.”
“He’s not, honey.” Sonny rubbed his hand up and down my back. “We’ll get him.”
“At least he’s here, right?” I asked Sonny. “The kids are safe.”
“Yeah, the kids are fine.”
“Reba!” I heard Mace yell from the hallway. I pulled away from Sonny to look at the door just as Mace came barreling into the room. “Oh shit! Are you okay?”
Mace’s brother Finn was right behind him and I saw him pull Lena into his arms just as Mace got to me. His embrace was crushing.
“I’m fine. I knew it had to be Darryl, so I locked us in. I figured if there really was a fire, we could go out the window.”
“Good call, sweetheart.” Mace squeezed me even tighter. “I talked to one of the firemen on my way in. Someone pulled the alarm, but there wasn’t a fire anywhere. It had to have been him.”
“He was watching,” I told them. “It was just a few minutes after Jace left.”
I took a deep breath and told them what had happened with Darryl outside the window and then the phone call.
“Reba?” I heard my boss’s voice call from the doorway of my office. “Can I see you in my office for a minute, please?”
◆◆◆
“She didn’t exactly fire me.” I tried to make light of the situation, but all I really wanted to do was cry. “She said it’s a leave of absence and we’ll discuss things when my drama calms down.”
“Oh, that bitch,” Lena growled over the phone line.
“She’s gotta keep everyone else safe,” I explained. “I get that. And it’s been a disruption, you know, with Jace there all the time.”
“Still, it’s bullshit,” Lena argued on my behalf. “I’m so pissed for you.”
“Don’t be, honey. They’ll give you someone else and I’m sure it will be fine.”
“It’s not about that! I’m pissed for you. And I’d like to hire you to do house calls. I want my therapy sessions at home. I’ve got almost the same setup that you have and this way, we can sit and have a glass of wine when we’re done. I’ll pay you.”
“You will not.” I shook my head even though she couldn’t see me. “You were scheduled to drop down to once a week and work on strength training. I can help you with that.”
“I’m still paying you,” Lena grumbled.
“Pay me in wine,” I laughed.
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to look at this like a much needed staycation. Instead of sitting on a beach, I’m going to do all the things I never seem to have time for. I’ll organize the kids’ rooms, rearrange some furniture, do some deep cleaning, and make freezer meals. There’s lots I can do.”
“You’re already going stir crazy, huh?” Lena laughed.
“Yeah, just the thought of being stuck in my house for God knows how long is making me antsy.”
“They’ll catch him, honey. It’s going to be okay.”
I heard one of the twins start to cry followed quickly by the second one’s wail, and knew I needed to let my friend take care of her family.
“I’ll call you tomorrow,” I told her. “Go take care of Bella and Dill.”
Once we said our goodbyes, I put the phone down on the counter and looked out the window at the birdhouse the kids and I had painted and hung from the tree out back. The birds were going on about their day, flitting here and there without a care in the world.
I envied them and at the same time watching their peace made me angry. I made a snap decision and stood up from the table. Rason looked over at me from the book he was reading on the loveseat and raised one eyebrow.
“What’s up?”
“I need to go somewhere.”
“Somewhere? That’s vague. Jace!” Rason yelled for Jace who was off in Vada’s room where he’d been sleeping at night. “She’s on a mission!”
“Shit,” Jace yelled. I heard his feet hit the floor right before he started walking down the hall. “What’s going on?”
“I need to go somewhere. You driving?”
“I guess so,” Jace mumbled as he shook his head. “Let me get my boots on.”
◆◆◆
“You look better,” I told my ex-husband with a glare.
“I’m still sick, but I feel better than I have in years. Clearer, at least.” Travis remarked. “For the first time in years, I feel like I’m clear enough to know how badly I’ve really fucked up.”
“Too little too late,” I snapped.
“I’m sorry, Reba Lou.”
Travis called me the pet name he’d used in our happier days. “So sorry.”
“Sorry doesn’t fix it, Trav.”
“I know,” he nodded. I felt a pang of sadness at the expression of genuine shame on his face. “I lost you and the kids and there’s probably nothing I can do to get you back.”
“Probably?” I flared. “Not a single chance in hell.”
“I didn’t mean to put our kids in danger. I never thought that…”
“You never thought, Travis. Well, you never thought about anyone but yourself. And now you’re safe in here and my kids are in hiding while I wait for Darryl to kill me. I made a will, Trav. I designated who will take care of them once he’s done with me and that someone is not you or your mother.”
“What can I do?”
“You can help the police, Travis. Not because they’ll give you a lighter sentence and not because you’re trying to win brownie points with me. You can do it because it’s the right thing to do. Ensuring our safety is the final gift you can give us, Travis. That’s really all you can do.”
“My lawyer said…”
“I didn’t say a thing about your lawyer. I’m talking about you doing what needs to be done with no input from your mommy or lawyer. Talk to the cops. Tell them every single thing you know, whether you believe it will help them or not. Do it for Cyrus and Vada, Travis. They’ll ask about you someday and I can tell them what you did to save our lives.”
“Okay,” Travis whispered with tears in his eyes. “I’m so sorry, Reba.”
“Sorry doesn’t fix shit, Travis.”
19.
“We’ll be on our very best behavior.”
Ronan
MACE
“The detective called and said they found the room where Darryl’s been staying. They’ve got all his belongings and the car he was driving, but he managed to get away.”
“Oh no.” Reba put her head down on her arms that were crossed on the table in front of her. “He’s going to start getting desperate.”
“Maybe that’s a good thing,” I said, trying to reassure her. “If he’s desperate, he’s a lot more likely to make a mistake.”
“No, he’ll just get more vicious.”
“Honey, there’s something else.”
“What else?” Reba looked up, and I could see the fear in her eyes.
“There was a woman there. It was your mother-in-law. They got her to the hospital, but it was too late.”
“She’s dead?”
“She’s dead,” I repeated and watched as tears rolled down her cheeks.
“What did he do to her?” Reba whispered.
“I don’t know, but the police are absolutely crawling all over the city. They were looking for him before, but they’ve kicked it into high gear.. We’ll get through this. They’ll find him, and it’s all going to be okay.”
“Yeah,” I sniffed. “It’s going to be fine.”
“You need to see your kids,” I told her. “It’s been too long.”
Grunt and Shannon had brought everyone back from the lodge three days ago just in time for their youngest son’s doctor appointment. In the week that Reba had been off work, Darryl hadn’t been spotted anywhere around town. The findings in his room at that shithole motel were the only way we knew he was still here.
What I hadn’t told Reba was that they’d also found multiple knives, a few guns, and enough supplies to make a bomb that would knock down a city block. The confiscation of his property hopefully would put Darryl in a predicament that made him make a misstep. I was sure that it wouldn’t slow the psycho down one bit in his crazed pursuit of Reba.
She’d been on edge and admittedly, so had I. Jace had hidden Rason in the floorboard of his truck and smuggled him out of the house two days ago so that the man could take care of some personal business and attend the trial of the woman who had been stalking him. Reba and I hadn’t left the house since then.
She’d sorted through both kids’ rooms, throwing old things away and donating what could be salvaged. Their rooms were rearranged and so clean and organized that it was hard to imagine that children had ever lived in them. She’d done the same thing to her room and both bathrooms.
This morning when I woke up, I found Reba in the middle of the pantry with cans and dry goods all around her as she “reconfigured her food storage space.” Again. She’d already done that once in the last week, but apparently it hadn’t been up to snuff, so she’d felt the need to do it again.
My woman was going stir-crazy.
I realized just how bad it was over lunch when she mentioned that she needed to find the scissors because she was thinking about trimming her hair.
I’d lived with my sisters long enough to know that was a cry for help and if I let her go through with it, she’d regret it instantly.
“Let me make a few phone calls, baby.”
“Okay.” Reba’s sad voice was barely a whisper. I reached over and ran my hand over her hair before I stood up to find my phone.
I made a few phone calls, the first to her cousin and the next to Lena. I called Grunt to let him know that Sonny and Lena were working on a way for us to get together. He agreed with me that Reba needed to see her kids. She needed visible proof that they were fine, thriving even, and that she had a team of people around her that loved her, had her best interests at heart, and would make sure she and her babies were safe.
When I walked back into the kitchen, I saw that Reba was no longer at the table. I glanced around the living room and didn’t see her, so I walked back and checked her bedroom. She was nowhere to be found and my heart jolted in fear. I rushed back down the hall toward the kitchen and noticed that the front door was ajar.
“Oh God,” I groaned as I yanked the door open. My relief poured over me right before the anger set in. Reba was sitting on the top porch step. Her legs were up in front of her and her arms were wrapped around them while she rested her chin on her knees. “What are you doing?”
“I needed to get out of there,” Reba said softly. “I need this to be over.”
“Honey,” I shook my head as I sat down next to her. “Coming outside alone is like putting a big target on your shirt while you call Darryl’s name. What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that I want this over with and I don’t care how it happens. I can’t live in limbo anymore, Mace. I don’t have my kids, I don’t have my job. I can’t visit my friends or run out to the store to buy last minute ingredients for dinner. I can’t do anything. Darryl’s holding me captive and he’s not even here.”
“Babe,” I blew out a breath and put my arm around her shoulders. “You’re giving up.”
“I guess I am,” Reba said sadly.
“I’ve got something in the works to cheer you up. It will hopefully remind you why we can’t throw in the towel..”
“I miss my life, Mace. I want everything to go back to normal, but I’ve been thinking about what that really means . If they catch him and my kids come back, then you’ll go home. How horrible am I to even think that? Of course I want my kids back, but then you’ll leave and it will change again.”
“I’m not going anywhere, baby.”
“I love you.”
My heart thudded in my chest at her words and I took a deep breath. I had held in my feelings for Reba for what felt like months, even though it had only been a week or so since I realized I was in love with her. To hear her tell me she felt the same way changed everything.
A vision flashed in my head of Reba standing at my kitchen sink with a coffee mug in her hand as Vada and Cyrus made their way down the hall for breakfast before one of us dropped them off at school. I saw Reba holding my baby with Cyrus and Vada standing next to her hospital bed. I imagined a whole passel of children ripping into Christmas presents in front of the tree in my den.
“I don’t… I didn’t mean to…”
“I love you, too, Reba.”
“You do?”
“Yeah,” I chuckled.
“I realized it a while back. When you said that, I saw a flash of our future and it filled me up to the top with happiness.”
“What did you see?”
“Us, the kids, more kids, bliss.”
“Oh, Mace,” Reba whispered. “Even with all that’s going on, you can see a future between us?”
“Yeah,” I nodded and reached up to rest a hand on her cheek. “I love you, baby.”
“I love you too.”
“I don’t want to wake up without you beside me ever again.”
“Okay.” Reba smiled for a second just before I leaned down to give her a long, slow kiss. I pulled away from her and smiled back. “Take me to the bedroom, Mace.”
I stood and pulled her up beside me before I glanced up and down the street. I didn’t see any cars or people I didn’t recognize, so I turned around and followed Reba into the house. Once the front door was secure, I made sure that the alarm was set before I followed her down the hall to the bedroom.
Between kisses, Reba and I undressed each other slowly. Even though it had only been hours since we’d been together this way, it was new again to both of us. I was so happy she’d realized I was her forever, and I wanted to show her just how I felt.
“Mace,” Reba whispered as I trailed kisses down her neck and over her collarbone. I blazed a trail down her chest and took one of her nipples into my mouth as I cupped her other breast in my hand. Reba’s hands moved up my arms to my neck. I felt her fingers raking through my hair before she grabbed hold and directed my mouth to her other breast. “Lay down on the bed.”
I let her nipple go and chuckled, “Don’t have to tell me twice.”
Once I was on the bed, Reba knelt beside my hip and stared down at my face.
“I do love you, Mace Conner.”
“I love you, too, baby,” I reassured her. “So fucking much I can’t explain it.”
Reba braced herself with one hand on the bed by my shoulder as she leaned down for a long, wet kiss. Her other hand trailed over my chest and abs as she reached down to take my cock in her hand. She rubbed her thumb over the tip just how I liked it before she stroked up and down the length slowly. It took all I had to keep my hips on the bed as she stroked me gently, but I held on knowing that the end result would blow my mind.