by H. P. Landry
“Thank you. That could have been me. I don’t know---“
I shook my head; the image was disturbing and made me heave uncontrollably but nothing came out. The only shred of light in this dark, twisted tragedy was that it was over and Adriana was dead. I was safe, and there wasn’t anyone wanting me dead anymore. The paramedic grimaced, probably praying I didn’t blow chunks in the back of the ambulance.
“It’s over,” I whispered reminding myself that this was over. Damien just closed his crystal blue eyes as his brows furrowed and creased.
“What?” This wasn’t good.
“It’s not,” he said cautiously, and I felt like was just kicked in the gut.
“No. No. No. I can’t do this anymore. Please tell me you’re kidding.” I shook my head, covered my face, and started crying again.
Damn it when did I start to be such a crybaby.
“It’s going to be fine. Kyan already has units looking for Xander.”
“Jesus Christ!” It just gets worse, I thought bitterly. Damien grabbed my chin and looked into my eyes.
“You’re going to be fine. I refuse to lose you now that we finally have each other.” This was really happening. He admitted he loved me, and he was here by my side.
“So. I guess you love me, huh?” I tried to hide my smile.
“No guessing about it. I love you.” He tapped my nose with his finger. “Don’t you forget it.”
“Impossible,” I said with a genuine smile for the first time in what seem like a long time. He leaned in and kissed me gently.
“I intend on showing you, while I permanently remind you every day for the rest of our lives, just how much.”
“That I could get used to,” I giggled.
“Good because you’re moving in with me.”
The fuck? He did not just ask me to--, no wait he didn’t event ask. It was a statement. Everything in me bristled at his audacious statement, so I took a deep breath before speaking.
“As lovely as the idea is, I will have to decline,” I said sickly sweet while plastering on an even sweeter smile.
“You seem to think you have a choice Mylie. Let me make it clear to you. You. Are. Mine.” My eyes widened, but before I could protest, he said, “Save it.” He lifted his good arm. “I protect what is mine; you will live with me, you will be in my bed, and I will make love to you every night because I love you damn it, and I made a promise that I would spend every day of the rest of my life showing you.”
If that wasn’t the sweetest form of machismo, I didn’t know what was. Think. Think. Think.
“I can’t leave Nik; he is the only family I have in Pointe Hope. If I leave, then the police officers will follow me and not him. What if Xander tries to kill him to deliver a message?” Damien closed his eyes and shook his head muttering under his breath. He leaned his forehead against mine.
“Fine.”
Eureka! Ha, I won.
“So I am moving in with you,” Damien asked.
Shit!
“Uh--,” I hesitated.
“I am moving in. Lie back. The sooner we get to the hospital, the sooner we can get released, and then I can play doctor.”
“Excuse me?” I choked out and laughed.
“Do you want to be the doctor, and I can be the sexy male nurse?” He joked.
The twinkle in his eyes disarmed me completely, but the reality was simple. I loved this man, and he wanted to protect me. However, I knew it was more. He realized that he could have lost me, and he was making sure that would never happen. I couldn’t blame him for his behavior, and truthfully I loved it.
“Won’t matter, because I sleep naked.” His eyes widened briefly before they begun to smolder.
Eat that!
Damien
Fear. In the last few months, I have known fear, unfortunately every time it was for one person. Mylie. I never knew it would be possible to understand fear as I have in these recent months, but the constant looking over our shoulders while never fully knowing if today would be the day that Xander would attack instilled a fear in me I never imagined before. Kyan and the P.H. P. D. have gotten restless.
Xavier had returned to Pointe Hope, and his military career was over. Yet, we all lived in fear. Nik decided that his romps no longer took precedence and instead kept vigil with Mylie as we all did. The girls have tried to nonchalantly keep Mylie occupied without making her feel like she was being babysat. She hated every waking moment of it.
“Where are you going?” Nik asked Mylie. I looked up from my paperwork.
“Out.” She was frustrated and had been irritable for a few days. Truly she was being a bitch, but I kept my mouth shut.
“Mylie,” he said in a disapproving tone.
“Nik.” Mylie propped her hand on her hip as she gave Nik an icy glare.
“My, I know you hate this, but damn it, see reason!” He stood as he began pacing the foyer.
“Nikolas, I am going crazy. As much as it warms my heart that everyone in the city of Pointe Hope is on Mylie patrol, I need some space.”
“But--”
“Mylie,” I interjected.
“From everyone.” She stared pointedly towards me, and I threw my hands in mock surrender.
“Can you just tell me where you’re going? And what time we should expect you back?” I asked gently. She looked annoyed with the questioning, and she obviously hadn’t realized how important she was to everyone. “Mylie, I understand you need your space, but I would like to know when you plan on coming home so I won’t worry.” I further elaborated and she nodded her head as she let out an exasperated sigh.
“I know, and I’m sorry babe but being stuck here. Ahh, it’s driving me insane. I want normal. I can’t do this anymore.”
“ I have an idea. Why don’t we go away for the weekend?” I asked hopeful.
“What about Nik?” She looked over her shoulder, but Nik feigned interest.
“Don’t worry about me. I have a frat party with my name on it! I will stay there, so don’t worry about me sissy.”
“Since when do you call me sissy?” She quirked a brow, and he rubbed the back of his neck.
“Since you started crying all of the time, that’s when.” He had a wide grin as he joyfully jogged up and kissed her cheek. “Love you sissy. Have fun!” She punched Nik in the arm, which only made him laugh more.
“So where are we going,” she asked excitedly.
No clue.
“It’s a surprise.”
“Which means you have no idea.” She giggled, but I damn the day! This woman knew me better than I knew myself. I knew exactly where I wanted to take her.
“Let’s pack up. Make sure to bring something warm.”
Her wide-eyed expression was priceless as she slowly nodded her head. I could see the swirl of thoughts passing through her radiant blue eyes, which only made me positive that this was the right decision.
Chapter Thirty
Mylie
Nerves.
There was no denying that I was a jumble of nerves. The excitement had washed away like a hot shower after a drunken stupor. The plane ride to New York was thrilling; the cab ride from JFK into Manhattan was down- right frightening. New Yorkers drive like maniacs, but the cab drivers are the cause. We were centimeters from hitting someone as our cab driver cut off a car.
The driver who had been cut off was cursing up a storm, but the cab driver with a thick foreign accent just ignored him as he flipped him off. I no longer had to worry about Xander killing me because this jerk off was going to instead.
“Hey what are you doing?” Damien demanded.
“We go to Manhattan.” The cab driver feigned ignorance.
“Then why the hell are you trying to take the Belt Parkway? Take the tunnel.”
“You got it boss,” the cabdriver then he began muttering in another language.
“What happened,” I nervously asked desperate to break my oath and start my nail biting habit.
; “He was trying to take the long way so we’d have to pay more fare.”
“Oh.” I wondered how much difference it would have made, but I kept my mouth shut.
“It would have cost us an extra thirty dollars.”
Ugh, how did he always do that?
During the last few months of Damien staying at my house to watch over me until Xander was caught, he had gotten to know me on a deeper level. When it started, it startled me to the point that I’d dropped a glass when he answered a question I had not asked but was thinking of. I had gotten accustomed to the intrusion of my mind, but even that failed to compare to how I was feeling now. There was nothing more terrifying than arriving at our first destination.
“Why are we here?” I stared at the building like I was being walked to my execution. I swallowed the lump in my throat.
“I need to get something. Come on.”
He smiled and dragged me by my arm into the massive building, which was nestled in a busy area of lower Manhattan. Once we approached the clerk’s office, the sign read Marriage Licenses, everything else blurred from my vision. I froze in my spot. No, he couldn’t be serious. I looked at my skinny dark denim pants, my cowl neck sweater, and my brown leather jacket that matched my knee-high leather boots.
He can’t be serious.
“My’.” He snapped my attention from my mini dilemma.
I was completely giddy with the idea of marrying Damien, other than the clothes being wrong. Marriage should have scared me senseless; then the reality came barreling through washing away the little color of my skin. I paled and stood completely frozen in the vast hall.
I, Mylie Mier, was irretrievably, entirely head over heels for Damien James. He had become my savior, my reason for breathing, and my soul mate, which was exactly why having to tell him this was the hardest thing I would ever say.
“I can’t marry you,” the words came pouring out like daggers into his heart where I could literally see the pain as each one hit him.
Then he was back, the asshole. It had been a long time since I had seen him, but he was there, just waiting under the surface. His whole demeanor stiffened before my eyes as I watched in awe as he shook his head, and like taking off a bad coat he was back to my Damien.
“Baby, I love you. You love me. We will get married but not today. As strange as this all looks, trust me. I would never have you wear that outfit on the day I marry you,” he simply said. What the hell was wrong my outfit? “And you look gorgeous, but you will be wearing some insanely expensive designer wedding dress with even more expensive shoes. There is no one in this world that deserves the best more than you. You deserve your happily ever after.” He grabbed my face and kissed me deeply.
A woman’s nasally New York accent broke our kiss, “Aw look honey, they are so in love.” She smacked her man in the back of the head. “That was us once, until you cheated you son of bitch!” She stormed off.
The man looked towards Damien, and jerked his head towards me. “She Puerto Rican?” Damien shook his head. “Good, cuz they love fiercely and will try to cut off your balls if you cheat.” He walked off awkwardly as Damien laughed. I stood still as I crossed my arms over my chest and quirked my brow.
“What? It was funny.”
“No, it’s not that.”
“Then what is it?” His shoulders were stiff; I could see his tan slowly pale. Although I should’ve felt guilty about how scared he was, I didn’t. It only made the troublemaker in me revel with mischief, which I enjoyed immensely.
“I am.” I smiled inwardly.
“You are what?”
“I am half Puerto Rican. My dad was Puerto Rican; are you sure you don’t want to recant your former statement Professor James?” I grinned, and then laughed when I saw Damien’s body noticeably relax. He pointedly glared; he pulled me by the waist as his full lips skimmed the sensitive flesh on my ear.
“You’re going pay for that, Ms. Mier.”
My senses when it came to Damien had heightened tremendously which only tortured me more since he refused to have sex with me again. He wanted to wait until it was the right time. I let out a slight whimper which only made him chuckle.
“Asshole!”
Damien
I won’t deny when I heard Mylie say she couldn’t marry me, it had hurt. Everything in me wanted to be cold and callous, but I quickly realized that part of me had put Mylie in grave danger, and I refused to do that again. She was scared, not of marriage, but of Xander. The idea of me living a life without her was unthinkable, and I refused to believe I would live a day without her; we deserved our happily ever after, and Xander be damned, I wouldn’t let him stop me from having it.
“Come on,” I said breaking the sexual tension.
She had no idea how hard it was for me to feel her body against mine, but I loved her, and when we made love again, I wanted her to feel every bit of it. I grabbed her hand and dragged her into the clerk’s office. There sitting behind the desk with frizzy red hair was my Aunt Opal. Her purple glasses slid down the bridge of her nose as she bit into the pencil that spread across her face while another was tucked behind her ear. She had her knitted angora sweater over her crisp white shirt that was buttoned to the top. The beep alerted her that we had entered the small office across from the Marriage Certificate office.
“Just a minute,” she called out in no particular direction. I watched in awe as she typed away and sniffed satisfactorily when she hit the last word. “How can I help--,” she stopped midsentence as her bright blue eyes that match my own filled with tears.
My dear Aunt Opal. She looked towards Mylie and looked back to me. I gave her a slight nod, and she gave us her mega- watt smile.
“Damien, my boy. How it pleases me to see you.” I walked to the counter, and she grabbed my face and gave me a kiss on the forehead.
“Aunt Opal, this is my girlfriend Mylie.”
She smiled broadly, and Mylie gave her a shy smile and extended her hand. Before I could stop her, Aunt Opal grabbed her hand and read her palm. Another trait of the James women, they think they are psychic. I rolled my eyes, but when I saw the fear flick through eyes, it scared me. She was never wrong. Ever.
She knew about Jen, and when I refused to believe her, she said I would only come back when I brought the true Mrs. James. Here I was, ready to introduce her to the real Mrs. James to be.
“You must be careful Damien.” Her words of caution scared both Mylie and me. It was like a bad omen that lurked among us. She gave a tight smile. “She is precious, like porcelain. She can break at any time, but it will be at your hand if you are not careful.” I heard the warning clearly. Mylie laughed thinking it was sweet. She had no idea. “Now, let’s have lunch, but I have to stop at the bank.”
We left the courts office and walked into the bank where my aunt had asked us to wait outside while she went in quickly.
“It’s so gorgeous here; how could you ever leave?” Mylie asked as she watched the cabs driving by and the people pushing each other as they walked briskly towards the Brooklyn Bridge subway station.
“It gets old. Don’t get me wrong, I love visiting, but after a while you grow to appreciate the quiet life.” She nodded, and just like that, she was gone in her memories, of the dreams she never speaks about, recluse in the fear.
“Did you know that my parents lived here?” That shocked me; she never spoke of her parents.
I shook my head, “No, I didn’t. Where?”
“My dad is from South Jamaica Queens, he would say it proudly. My mom was from California. She moved here when she was twenty. Her family completely freaked, but she always did what she wanted from what Gram said.” I listened and stayed quiet. “From what Gram said, my parents were leaving Westchester County, where they lived with distant relatives of my parents. They had kicked them out after a misunderstanding, and it was winter, so instead of living in a shelter, they chose to go back to Phoenix.” I nodded again.
She stood quiet, and then
she closed her eyes.
“On that drive back to Phoenix, I saw my parents die, and I have seen it every night for the last seventeen years.” And there it was, her nightmares given to me on a platter, and I didn’t have a clue what to say.
“What happened?” We turned around. Aunt Opal was standing close and watching Mylie curiously.
“Uh it was a car accident in Pennsylvania.”
I knew it before she said it, In the Poconos.
“Near the Poconos area.”
What do I do?
Chapter Thirty-One
Mylie
I finally told Damien the truth, his Aunt happened to hear, but strangely, it felt like she already knew. She made me nervous, but she was sweet yet eccentric.
“I am so sorry for your loss.” She grabbed my hand, and once again she held it for a little too long for my comfort and her eyes widened. “Damien may I speak to you a moment?”
“Not now Aunt Opal.” Strange. “We’re going to be late for lunch.”
He grabbed my hand away from Opal, as he dragged me down to the subway station that smelled of mildew and stale air. I clearly expected to see rats.
“Where are we going for lunch?” I asked, curious.
“Upper East Side.”
“Oh okay. Is it close to Central Park? I have always wanted to see Central Park.” Opal giggled but said nothing.
“Yes, it’s close,” Damien, said in a clipped tone, which was odd for him.
We rode the train, and Opal began to speak about Damien as a child and how he announced that he was going to be a lawyer when he was fifteen years old. I smiled at how dedicated he was to his passion. Our passion.
“What is it that you do Mylie?” she asked smiling broadly.
“I am working on my Juris Doctorate; I want to be a professor.”
“Isn’t that interesting.” She stared at Damien, silent conversation happening between them. He shook his slightly, but I already knew what she was thinking.