Cocked And Loaded (Lucas Brothers Book 4)

by Jordan Marie

  I’m in love with the whole place really. I’m nervous about the opening, but I know in my heart it’s going to be okay. I’ll work my tail off to make sure it succeeds and if it doesn’t… the one thing that will always be okay is me and Black. He’s with me now and somehow even my dreams take a backseat to that.

  He’s my world.

  I turn out the lights in the dining area and follow the glow of the hall lights to the kitchen. I need to make sure the door is locked there too, since we used that door to bring in all of the fans earlier. I just clear the counter, when I hear a scream.

  I turn to see what’s going on, not really having time to react.

  Before I realize it though, Linda is standing behind me and she’s got a bat in her hand. I hold my hands up as the bat comes down. Pain blooms on my head so intense my vision goes white—and then everything goes black as I hit the floor.

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  Black

  I’m staring at the clock, counting down the hours until I get home. I have paperwork to catch up on, but I’ll be damned if I can concentrate long enough to do it.

  I’m on edge tonight. I’m trying to write it off as just being away from Addie, but I know in my gut it’s something more. At least I think I do. Jesus, all this worrying about Linda has me so keyed up that I see ghosts where there are none. I need to get myself under control. I stare at the phone and then at the clock. It’s late, but I need to hear her voice and know she’s okay. I had a patrol go by there a couple of hours ago and he said everything looked fine from the outside, but I just can’t shake this feeling.

  The phone startles me and I jump like a damn fool. I’m definitely too wired up for this crap.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey, bro’, just thought I’d give you a heads up. Faith and I just left Addie. She was locking up when we left,” Titan says. Titan’s a good man. He’s married to my cousin Faith. They had a rough start of it… but that seems to be the way with our family. Addie and I didn’t exactly have an easy go of it. I smile when I think back to the day she almost plowed over me with a lawnmower. I should have known then that she was the one.

  “So, she was good?” I ask. Breathing a little easier.

  “Yeah. She pissed your Mom off pretty good, but she was laughing when we left.”

  “Mom? How’d that happen?”

  “She refused to turn the heat up while I was working,” Titan laughs and I groan. “Anyways, just giving you a heads up, you might give her a few minutes and call just to make sure she made it upstairs okay.”

  “Will do, thank you, man.”

  “Anytime. Later, Bro’.”

  I’m feeling a little better about things, but I know I won’t rest until I hear Addie’s voice.

  I dial the phone and sigh when I get a busy signal. She’s probably talking to her father. They normally call each other every night once we lock the place up for the night.

  I rub the back of my neck after putting the phone down and walk back to grab a cup of coffee. I pace around the room for a bit, but nothing is calming me down and I guess the coffee doesn’t really help that either. I try Addie a couple of more times and it’s still busy.

  That feeling in my gut gets worse.

  Finally, I give it up. I’m alone in the office tonight, we couldn’t find anyone that would work nights and not call in all the time. It was working Tani to death, so we’ve just been channeling everything through the new 911 office. I lock up and get in my squad car, use my radio to let dispatch know where I’m at and head home. Addie will hand me my ass for checking up on her but I can’t help it.

  Something is just telling me I need to go to her, and it’s the same feeling that kept me alive as a detective in Dallas.

  Chapter Sixty

  Addie

  I’m groggy as hell when I come to. I’m in a fog and it feels like there are a herd of elephants running in my head. I do my best to shake it off, however. I know Linda is here and I need to be alert.

  The first thing I notice is I’m in the kitchen still… and I’m alone. The second thing I notice is that there is entirely too much noise going on in the dining room. The last thing I notice is that I’m bleeding.

  I reach up to touch the side of my head and moan, because even that small movement hurts. When I pull my hand away there’s blood on my fingers. My blood. I shake my head slowly. I can’t give in to the pain. There’s a bitch in the front room I need to contain.

  I can’t believe she just left me in here alone and not tied up. She probably thought she killed me the way she hit me with the bat. I guess I should send up a thanks to my guardian angel she didn’t. My thought is that putting my arms up must have lessened the blow. God knows my arms sure are sore.

  I get up slowly—mostly because I don’t have a choice. I hold onto the counter to help pull myself up and once I do, I go light-headed and dizzy. If I give into the urge, I would sink back on the floor. The noise in the dining area is getting louder though and I don’t see the bat anywhere, so I know Linda is out there destroying my restaurant. That pisses me off, because so many of us have put in money and hard work. It’s not just me at this point. Black has insisted on naming the place Adelle’s but he hasn’t seen the tweak I made on the sign we’re unveiling in a few days.

  That’s if there’s anything left to unveil…

  I look around the room for a weapon of any kind—something to defend myself. There are knives, but I’m not sure Linda would respond to a weapon in the first place and in the second, I’m not sure I could stab anyone. There’s a gun in the safe upstairs that Black keeps, but I doubt I could bring myself to shoot another person, even Linda. I’m running out of options and time, so with a whispered, “What the hell,” I grab the largest knife in my kitchen and take off toward the dining room.

  I wasn’t prepared. I really should have taken time to prepare myself. Black is right. Linda is crazy and we’re talking ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest,’ crazy. Actually, since I’m on the Jack Nicholson theme, I think ‘The Shining,’ might fit better. She smashed a few things—like all of my table centerpieces—but, it looks like she dropped her bat in favor of some bright pink paint that she obviously brought with her.

  Seriously! What is it with this woman and pink?

  She’s currently spray painting the word whore all over my walls. Not the most original word, but at least Linda is consistent.

  “You thought you could steal my man, my life. He would have come back to me! You whore!” she screams as she writes the word on the wall again… Shit! Right over that picture of the French countryside that I paid five hundred bucks for! Now, I could probably shoot her—too bad I don’t have time to go and get the gun.

  “I followed you and made you pay! You even lost your damn hair and you couldn’t leave! I hate you!” she screams.

  I sneak over—although, she’s so crazed with her spray painting I doubt she could hear me—to the baseball bat and grab it. I hide the knife on one of the booth’s chairs. I might not be able to use it, but I have no doubt she would against me if I give her the chance.

  “Yo!” I yell out channeling my inner Dwayne Johnson, because I’m pretty sure if the Rock was here right now he could handle Linda pretty damn easily.”

  “You whore!” she screams, coming at me with a still spraying, paint can.

  Damn it! I didn’t think this through and Linda seriously needs another word to use. I duck, to avoid having my face painted. I’ve just gotten used to having blonde hair again and I have no urge whatsoever to go back to pink—at least hot pink.

  I hold onto the bat and choke up on it like I’ve seen the big leaguers do. It’s not that easy and I’d like to think it’s because I’m keeping my head down, but it’s probably because I’m not that athletic. But, right before the screaming-banshee-ex-girlfriend-from-hell gets to me, I swing hard. It connects with a loud thud and she doubles over. A second later she falls to the ground and I think I’ve won. I should have known better. />
  “You whore! I warned you to stay away! You refused to listen! I thought once your precious father’s place burned to the ground and you lost all your stuff you’d leave, but you didn’t!” she screams and I feel sick to my stomach. “You ruined everything! Black would have eventually come back to me if you had just stayed away!” she yells and then she grabs a serving tray she apparently tried to destroy earlier and throws it at me. I move so that it misses me and my stomach protests. I’m dizzy and breaking out in a sweat, but I fight to keep focused. Realistically I figure I have a concussion and I hope that’s all. I don’t have time to give into it right now, though.

  “He wouldn’t come back to you,” I tell her. “He hates you.”

  “He loves me! He craves what only I can give him! That’s why he keeps coming back to me!”

  Coming back to her? Maybe Black and I should talk more about Linda after all!

  “You nearly destroyed him,” I tell her. “You took his dog from him!”

  “That freaking dog! I hated the bastard. I drove him all the way to Oklahoma to a kill shelter and I laughed all the way home!” she laughs hysterically now and she tries to get up.

  Yeah… I could shoot her.

  “It’s safer for you if you stay on the ground. That’s the only warning you’re going to get,” I tell her, huffing. It’s hard to catch my breath for some reason.

  Linda ignores me, probably because she’s dumb as a bucket of rocks. So, I do the only thing I can. I swing the bat again and it hits much harder than before and this time against her knees. She goes down instantly. That skater chick—I forget her name—would be proud of me.

  “You—”

  “Whore,” I interrupt with a sigh. “I’ve heard you the first million times. If you’re lucky the state prison has courses you can enroll in to help your vocabulary, because you really need to broaden your horizons,” I huff out.

  “Addie!” Black screams, opening the door all at once and so hard that it springs back against the outside of the building. With my luck the door will need to be replaced now, too.

  “About time you got here, honey,” I tell him, trying to smile, but now with Black here and Linda curled up crying and holding her knees, I feel myself fading.

  Black is running to me. I don’t know why. Maybe he can see that I’m about to go under. He catches me about the time my knees give out. At least this time when the blackness pulls me under, it’s Black’s face I see last. I like that better—even if he does look scared to death.

  Chapter Sixty-One

  Black

  “Will you let me down?” Addie complains. “I can walk, you know.”

  “I know, sweetheart,” I tell her, my chest still tight.

  I kiss the top of her head and ignore her plea. I’m not going to let her down. I’m not going to let go of her. Not right now and I’m not sure I ever will again. She’s been in the hospital for the last twenty-four hours for observation. She had a major concussion and a couple of broken ribs. The doctors assume Addie was hit once on the head and then again on her side. Addie doesn’t remember, so the doctors figure she was already out when Linda hit her again. The thought of my precious Addie that defenseless while Linda was wreaking her special brand of crazy everywhere terrifies me.

  “I forgot how horrible the place was,” Addie whispers, looking around the restaurant at the chaos Linda left behind.

  “We’ll fix it back up,” I assure her. I take her over to the sofa and chairs that she had placed in front of the window for people to sit on while waiting for a table and I sit down, keeping her in my arms.

  “Not in time for the opening Monday. There’s no way. We’ll have to postpone and we already paid for so much advertising,” she says dejectedly. She doesn’t sob, but silent tears start streaming from her face and it breaks my heart. Somehow I think sobs might have been easier to take.

  I bend down and kiss the tears, taking them into my mouth and trying to banish them from her face.

  “Stop that crying, Princess Addie. Everything will be fine. I promise.”

  “I know. I’m being a big baby. It’s just that I was looking so forward to opening the doors next week.”

  “You think you’ll be able to cook?” I ask her, curious. I don’t want her overdoing it.

  “I think so. I hired a few line cooks and then your Mom will be here helping too.”

  “Then we just have to get the place cleaned up,” I tell her. “Honestly, Addie, I need you to hear me when I tell you this.”

  “I’m listening,” she says with a muted sigh, holding her head close to my chest.

  “It doesn’t matter if we open today, tomorrow, next week or even next month. Adelle’s Bistro is going to be a success. You are going to be a success.”

  “I love you, Black.”

  “And most importantly, my beautiful Addie, you’re still here with me and we’re together.”

  “Yeah,” she whispers, with a smile.

  “Yeah,” I agree and I lean down to kiss her carefully. I don’t want to hurt her more, but I need this from her. I need to constantly reassure myself that she’s alive, she’s okay and that she’s here with me. “I love you, Addie.”

  “Is this a private party? Or can anyone join?”

  “Daddy!” Adelle smiles, sitting up a little, although I still won’t let her out of my lap.

  “Hey, Princess. How are you doing?” he asks, walking over to us and leaning down to kiss her.

  “I’m okay, I promise. What are you holding?”

  “It’s a couple of buckets of paint. Thought we could use it on this place. It’s the same color of pale blue you used before and it has primer to help cover,” he winks.

  “No offense, Dad. It’s going to take more than two buckets of paint and you and the two of us to get this place back in shape,” Addie says wistfully.

  “That’s why he brought reinforcements, Orchid baby,” Ida Sue says coming through the open door carrying buckets that seem stacked full of cleaning materials.

  “Ida Sue?” she whispers.

  “There are advantages to being part of a huge family, Addie. We can be aggravating, but one thing we Lucas’s do,” Petal says, as she comes through the door carrying buckets too.

  “We stick together,” I finish, kissing the side of Addie’s head, just above her bandage.

  “Oh my God,” she whispers as Luka comes in behind Petal, Jansen is there with him. Next, Blue, Cyan, White, and Gray come in, with Kayla and CC right behind them. Titan and Faith are next and right behind them is my cousin Hope, with her man, Aden. Maggie brings up the rear smiling.

  “Mary would have been here too, but God help her soul, she’s watching the kids,” Maggie says.

  “You’re all…” Addie seems to lose all words and she’s crying again, but I figure these are happy tears. “This is too much,” she says finally and it’s my brother Blue who comes forward.

  “This is family, little sister and that’s exactly what you are,” he says kissing her forehead. That might be as many words as Blue has spoken at one time to Addie, but the thing about my twin is… when he speaks, it’s worth listening to. “Love you,” he whispers into her ear and that makes her cry a little more.

  “Who’s in charge? Where should we start first?” Gray asks.

  “I am,” Mom pipes up. “We’ll start stripping the walls down and painting. You boys do that. Us girls will start cleaning out the debris and putting it in the dumpster the Mayor had delivered. CT honey you’re with me. I have some paint stripper I’d like to try on Addie’s big fancy painting. It says it can only be used in a well ventilated area. I know it’s over a hundred outside, but there’s nothing we can do. I hope you don’t get too hot.”

  “Ida Sue!” Jansen growls. “I’ll help you with that painting.”

  “Hey! Is this a private party or can anyone join?” Green asks standing at the door with his son, Allen.

  “Oh my God!” Addie cries. “Black! Green Lucas is going to work at
my restaurant. The Green Lucas!” she giggles.

  I see the mischief in her eyes and if she was able, I’d spank her ass for it.

  “You’ll pay for that one, soon, Princess,” I tell her, whispering, as I kiss her lips.

  “I was hoping you’d say that,” she responds when we break apart. “I guess this is as good of a time as any to show you my surprise,” she announces, not only to me—but to all of us. Everyone stops what they’re doing and she looks over at Blue. “Could you open the closet by the entrance and pull out my surprise. It’s wrapped in a white packing blanket.” Blue immediately goes to do as she asks. “It’s heavy! You might need some help,” she adds and Jansen immediately goes over to help. They get it out and Jansen takes off the blanket and I read it with a grin.

  Lucas Family Bistro.

  “Well, hell,” I mutter, completely shocked.

  “Do you like it?” she whispers as everyone gives their shouts of approval, before going back to work.

  “I love it. There’s just one problem,” I tell her.

  “What’s that?” she asks, but she looks nervous.

  “Mayor, could you sit with Addie for a minute while I run in the back?”

  “Sure thing,” he says, as I carefully sit her in the chair.

  “Are you happy, Addie-girl?” I hear her father ask, as I jog away.

  “Ecstatic,” she assures him and that one word lodges in my heart and I know that’s what I always want.

  I make it up the stairs quicker than any man has ever climbed stairs in his life and I go straight for my lock box that I keep my pistol in. Addie doesn’t like guns, so I knew that would be one place she’d never look. I grab the ring box, take out the ring, leaving the box, pistol and all on the bed.