by Devney Perry
If Elliot’s protest was our marriage, then I’d just stay his permanent girlfriend. We’d be like those couples who were completely committed to one another but had chosen not to become husband and wife. We’d be married in spirit.
I could do that.
Yeah, right.
Well, I could try.
By the time Paxon and I arrived at the first showing on my list, I’d managed to shove my personal problems aside and concentrate on doing my job. I focused on finding Paxon a home, rattling off detail after detail as I walked him through the small, two-bedroom, one-bathroom home.
“What do you think?” I asked as I locked up the door.
“It’s nice, but I was hoping for something with more space. Maybe a little more privacy. I don’t know if I want to share a wall with my neighbors.”
“Okay. Then let’s skip the next one since it’s a duplex too and go to the third.” It was the one I’d told him was my favorite.
The house was on the edge of town close to the cemetery. It was in a quiet and peaceful neighborhood with a big yard to separate Paxon from his neighbors. The home itself needed some work, but Pax might like little projects here and there to keep him busy when he wasn’t on the ranch. He seemed happier when he wasn’t idle.
“How are you doing?” I asked as we drove. “We haven’t had the chance to visit much lately.”
“Ha! Me? You’re asking how I’m doing? I think you’re the one with problems today.”
“There’s nothing I can do about my problems until I talk to Silas, so let’s talk about you instead. How have you been feeling?”
He shrugged. “Okay. It’s helped, working at the ranch. I’m usually so tired when I finally make it to bed that I don’t have nightmares as much. The flashbacks are coming less and less during the day too.”
I turned and smiled at him in the passenger seat. “I’m glad.”
He smiled back. “Me too.”
“Here we are.” I pulled up next to a small, two-story beige house. The siding was an old shingle style that could use a fresh coat of paint, the trim around the windows was peeling and needed to be redone, and yellow dandelions were starting to dominate the spring-green yard.
“Don’t judge from the outside,” I said before Paxon could get out. “This place has a lot of potential. It’s not as nice as the duplex we just visited but I think it could be really great with a little work.”
He took a long breath. “Okay. Show me what you’ve got.”
An hour later, Paxon walked out the door as excited as I’d ever seen him.
“I think I could knock out that wall between those two bedrooms upstairs and make it more of a master suite. Maybe plumb in a bathroom.”
“That would certainly increase its resale value.” I opened the back door. “Come on, let’s go check out the yard.”
The lawn around the house was wide open and backed up to the cemetery. Large trees separated the two, but we stood close enough to see American flags sticking out of the ground and a group of people congregating for the Memorial Day ceremony.
“If I put up a fence, I could get a dog,” Paxon said. “I’ve been wanting to get a collie like Dolly.”
“She’s the best dog I’ve—”
Gunshots silenced me. I winced and covered my ears as a twenty-one-gun salute in the cemetery blasted through the air.
I turned to Paxon, ready to explain that he may have to deal with this kind of noise on occasion, but instead found myself flying through the air. In a swift dive, he had tackled me to the ground.
My back landed with a hard jolt and all of the wind rushed out of my lungs. My mouth gulped for air, but with Paxon’s big body on top of mine, I couldn’t get my breath back. Swatting at his sides, my legs writhing beneath his, I tried to get loose but he stayed frozen. His hands were wrapped around the back of his head, and his elbows trapped my head against his chest.
Adrenaline fueled my panic and I bucked my hips as hard as I could, hoping to rock him off my chest. Just an inch or two and I’d be able to breathe again, but the harder I struggled, the more pressure he put on my sternum.
The gunshots continued to echo loudly and my vision started to blur.
This was bad.
By my fourth attempt to buck him off, my energy was drained. I’d never passed out before but I knew it was coming next. My limbs were weak and my head fuzzy. My eyes drifted shut without my permission as my body forced me to sleep.
“Felicity?” Paxon’s frantic voice filled my ears. “Felicity! Wake up!”
The weight on my chest was gone and a loud rasping noise came from my throat as air rushed back in. My lungs burned in protest as I rolled to my side and started coughing. Slowly, I propped myself up on all fours despite the protest in my ribs. Hanging my head, I shifted back into child’s pose. The fresh smell of the lawn filled my nostrils as I forced rough but steady breaths.
Paxon’s hand ran gently down my back. “Fuck. I’m so sorry, Felicity. The gunshots . . . I just got spooked.”
After a few minutes, I got my oxygen back and pushed myself up to rest on my knees. “It’s okay.” I was still panting. “I’m okay.”
“Fuck. No, it’s not. I’m so sorry.” He ran his hands through his black hair. “Silas is going to beat my ass for this.”
“Let’s not worry about that right now.” I pushed up from the ground. The back of my white, silk blouse was covered in grass stains and the knees of my new jeans were streaked with dirt. “I think we should call it a day, get back to someplace a little quieter. We can come back here a different day when there isn’t as much activity in the cemetery.”
Paxon’s eyes were full of regret. “I’m so sorry.”
A tear hung from one of his dark lashes and my heart broke. He wouldn’t hurt me intentionally. He’d actually been trying to protect me, except there just wasn’t anything to protect me from.
“Paxon, don’t beat yourself up about this. Okay? I’m fine.”
His hand came up and rubbed the scar on his face, something he seemed to do whenever he was stressed or anxious.
“Okay?” I repeated. He didn’t answer. “Paxon. Look at me.”
His sad eyes found mine.
“I’m okay.”
His shoulders fell and he nodded.
“Come on. Let’s go.” I hustled to lock up the house while he walked to the car. When I joined him inside, I tried to lighten the somber mood. “I’m going to have to increase my rate from five percent to ten to cover the emotional damage of that showing.”
His frame slumped even further into the seat.
“I’m kidding,” I said. “Bad joke. I’ll only bump it to seven.”
A relieved smile spread on his face. Today wasn’t the right time, but soon, I was going to suggest he start seeing someone. It was time for Paxon to get some professional help before something else triggered a flashback and it ended much worse.
“Would you care if we swung by my house so I could grab a clean shirt?”
“No, go ahead.”
We drove the two minutes to my house and parked in the driveway. The neighbors must have been hosting a party because there was a strange truck parked in front.
“Paxon.” I touched his arm before he could open the door. “I really am okay.”
He nodded. “Thanks, Felicity. I really am sorry.”
“No more apologies. Let’s go inside and I’ll introduce you to Khloe.” We got out and walked toward the house. I hoped that Khloe had been baking today so Paxon could have one of her treats. She was keeping me and Silas in desserts, sending me to the store daily for ingredients. My house was the cleanest it had probably ever been and smelled like a bakery.
I was just glad that she was still livid with Derrick and was planning on taking him to the cleaners in the divorce.
“Khloe makes these amazing éclairs. They’ll cheer you right up,” I told Paxon, opening the door to my house.
The smile on my face fell when I saw Khloe press
ed up against the kitchen wall. Her legs were dangling a foot off the floor and her fingers were clawing at Derrick’s hands wrapped around her throat.
“Khloe!” I screamed and ran toward her but didn’t get more than five feet inside when a big arm banded around my waist and hauled me backward. “Pax!” I shouted. “Get to Khloe!” I thrashed and kicked at my attacker as Paxon roared behind me. Why wasn’t he going after Derrick?
Twisting my neck, I saw him fighting off a third man. Furniture crashed in the background as they wrestled and both men grunted while fists connected with bone and muscle.
“Let me go!” My captor’s grip tightened as I yelled. His sweaty cheek pressed against mine and his hot beer breath stuck on my neck. He used one of his arms to try and cover my mouth but I thrashed my head and kept kicking.
In front of me, Derrick was choking Khloe cherry red. Her eyes drooped closed and she faded away, lights out.
“Derrick!” I screamed. “Stop!” Why wasn’t he letting her go?
His bloodshot, evil eyes came to me. “Stupid bitch had me thrown in jail!”
His grip on her neck tightened and Khloe’s lips turned blue. Her head was hanging forward as she dangled in the air. He was going to kill her. If we didn’t get to her soon, it could be too late.
“Let her go!” I cried, struggling wildly again.
“Shut her up!” Derrick bellowed.
My attacker grunted, “Shut up,” as his hand found my mouth. Before he could clamp it down, I sank my teeth onto the meaty flesh and bit as hard as I could. The metallic taste of blood hit my tongue at the same time I wound up and thrust my elbow backward into his gut.
“Ahh!” He grunted and jerked back, doubling in half as I wiggled free. I threw myself on the floor, darting toward my fallen purse to frantically dump it out.
Hurry! Where was it?
“Get back here!” the man yelled. He bent to grab me at the waist but I scooted across the floor, stretching for the little black box in front of me.
My fingers touched the plastic and I gripped my weapon tightly. Flicking on the switch, I rolled onto my back. This time when the man came at me, I jabbed my stun gun right in his chest. His body shook with the electric current before he collapsed at my feet.
Kicking away from him, I hurried to my feet. Paxon and the other man were still fighting. I spun around, ready to rescue Khloe, but Derrick had been expecting me.
He had dropped Khloe, unconscious, to the floor so he could come after me instead.
Silas
“Jess,” I answered the phone. “Can I call you right back?” I was loading up the last bundle of flattened cardboard boxes into my truck.
“Better come up to the hospital.” My spine snapped straight. “Lissy’s here.”
“Two minutes.” I slammed the truck’s tailgate and jogged to the driver’s side door. “What’s going on?” In the background, someone called Jess’s name.
“I gotta go. Just get here.”
Fuck. Fuck. Something bad had happened. I dug out my phone to call Felicity while I drove. One ring. Two. My heart pounded. Three rings.
Come on, Lis. Please answer.
When I got her voicemail, my foot pressed harder on the gas. I was thirty seconds from the hospital when my phone rang and I blew out a relieved breath at the sight of Felicity’s name.
“What’s wrong?” I answered.
“Did Jess call you?” Felicity’s panicked voice didn’t calm my racing heart. “Are you coming to the hospital?”
“Yeah, I’ll be right there. What’s wrong?”
She started crying. “I’m having a really bad afternoon.”
Crying was good. Crying meant she was alive and not hurt. More often than not, crying meant she was mad. “I’ll make it better,” I promised. “I’m almost there.”
My stomach was in a fierce knot when I hit the parking lot, and seeing Paxon sitting on the curb outside the hospital’s emergency-room doors just wrenched it tighter. His head rested in his hands as his elbows dug into his thighs. Blood covered his fists and forearms.
“I’m here, babe,” I said into the phone as I hopped out of the truck. “Where are you?”
“In the waiting room.”
“Okay. I’m hanging up. Be right there.”
I tucked my phone in my pocket and jogged past the ambulance toward Paxon. When he heard my footsteps, he looked up, his face full of agony and torment. What the fuck had happened at that house showing?
“Pax, what’s going on?”
He shook his head and looked back to his feet. “I fucked up.”
I wanted to press further but he was shutting down and I had to get to Lis inside. “All right. Stay put and I’ll be back in a few.”
I rushed to the doors, and the second the glass doors slid open, Felicity was in my arms. My hands traveled down her arms and up her back, searching for an injury. I pushed her away so I could inspect her face and when I saw it was unharmed, just scared, I pulled her close again. “You’re okay?”
She nodded and buried her face deeper, clinging to the sides of my shirt with all her might.
“Talk to me.”
“Derrick almost killed Khloe today.”
My whole body jerked. “What?”
She took a step back and opened her mouth to explain, but I held up a finger. “Come on.” I grabbed her hand and led her to the waiting room to sit. Three sheriff’s deputies stood outside one of the ER rooms while Jess and Milo talked to the doctor. We sat down on one of the wider seats and I tucked her into my side.
“Okay. What happened?”
She took a deep breath and started explaining, starting with Paxon’s flashback and tackling her at the cemetery, then recanting everything that happened when they’d arrived at her house.
“Derrick was a split second away from punching me. A split second. I can still see his fist coming at me.” She shuttered and burrowed closer. “But then Paxon was there. He was all over Derrick in a rage. I’ve never seen anything like it before, Silas. Two hits and Derrick was unconscious, but no matter what I said, Pax wouldn’t stop punching him. I kept hitting Pax’s back, grabbing at his arms, but he just kept pummeling Derrick’s face.”
My arm banded around her tighter when her eyes filled with more tears.
“There was so much blood,” she whispered. “It was so violent. I didn’t know what else to do so I stun-gunned Paxon. Then I called 9-1-1 and I just had to stand there, staring at all of these unconscious people.”
“You did just the right thing, Lis.”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t feel like it. I should have thought of it sooner. What if Derrick doesn’t make it? What’s going to happen to Paxon if he dies? I should have done it sooner.”
“Hey,” I stopped her, “you did the right thing.”
Her blue eyes locked with mine. She was close to unraveling.
“Khloe still hasn’t woken up yet,” she said. “The other guys that attacked us are in jail. One of them threatened to sue me.”
“It’ll all be okay. We’ll get through it,” I promised. We would get through this.
Sliding one arm under her legs, I threw them over my thighs. Then I reached around her back and pulled her completely onto my lap.
“Can we stay until Khloe wakes up?” she asked.
“Of course.”
Stroking her hair, I held her close and took a few deep breaths, letting the panic from earlier subside. The hospital buzzed with activity behind us, but we just sat and held one another.
“Did you already give your statement?” I asked.
“Yeah. I was talking to Milo when you called. What were you doing in town?”
“Picking up boxes.”
I had come into town after my confrontation with Dad and gone straight to the hardware store for boxes. I’d originally planned to stay at her place tonight, but now that her place was a crime scene, I wasn’t sure where we’d go. Maybe the motel. Maybe the farmhouse with Jess and Gigi. If
she wanted to camp out in the back of my truck, that would be fine. I’d take her wherever she wanted to go as long as we were together.
“Why do you need boxes?”
I turned my nose into her hair to breathe her in. “So I can pack up my place and move.”
Her arms around my waist squeezed tight. “How did you know?”
“Paxon texted me. He told me Dad said something to you that made you upset, so I confronted him about it.”
She leaned back to look at my face and tensed. “Whatever you decide is fine with me. If we need to cancel the wedding, then—”
“Do not finish that sentence.”
She relaxed but her eyes were still worried. “I don’t want you to lose the ranch.”
“Me neither.” I stroked her cheek with my thumb. “But you’re more important. Dad isn’t going to dictate our lives. Besides, it’s just a place. It doesn’t mean anything if I can’t share it with you.”
“Silas, you love that place.”
“Felicity, I love you more.”
She settled her head back on my shoulder. “I hate that it’s come to this.”
“Me too.” Me too.
I had no idea where we would live or what I would do, but the days of living on the Lucky Heart were over. The idea of working on someone else’s ranch left a bitter taste in my mouth, but I’d swallow it down. Soon I’d have a wife to support and, hopefully, kids not long after. It didn’t matter where I worked or where I lived as long as I got to come home to them.
“Felicity.” Jess’s voice made us both turn. “Khloe’s awake and asking for you.”
She leapt off my lap and rushed through the waiting room.
Jess and I followed but stopped in the lobby. “How bad is it?” I asked him.
“Physically? She’ll be fine, but I just took her statement, and mentally, she’s a fucking mess. That bastard husband of hers tried to kill her. His blood alcohol is through the roof. Same with his two friends.”
“How’d he even find her?”
Jess shook his head. “Derrick’s friends—the ones involved with the attack—are both in a cell. One confessed to Milo that he’d spotted Khloe downtown when you proposed to Lissy. The friend followed Khloe, then told Derrick where she’s been hiding. Guess all Derrick’s been doing these days is drinking. They all got loaded today and Derrick convinced them to help go after her.”