Sweet Sins

by E. L. Todd

  “Sean!”

  I looked up and saw Cassandra on the roof. “Are you okay?”

  “Mike’s in our bedroom! Hurry!”

  I couldn’t help her right now. She was too high and seemed to be unthreatened at the moment. I sprinted into the house and headed to the stairs. A body was at the bottom. The guy appeared to be unconscious.

  Without further thought, I ran up the stairs and saw pieces of wood on the ground. I was scared for my life. I admit it. If that made me a coward, so be it. But I held the gun steady and pointed it straight ahead, ready to blow someone’s brains out.

  “Where is she?” a voice demanded.

  “Check the bathroom.”

  There were two of them.

  I stepped inside and spotted one man moving dressers from a doorway. The other had Mike on the ground, a gun pointed at his face. Mike’s eyes flickered to mine but he didn’t react. He stayed still.

  I grabbed the guy by the back of the neck then pushed him to the ground. His gun went off as he lost balance. I stepped on his back then pointed the shotgun at the other intruder. “Put down the gun.”

  Mike scrambled for the pistol that fell on the hard wood floor. When he had it, he pointed it straight at the skull of the man below my feet. A gun was pointed at each guy. “Move and I’ll shoot your brains out.”

  The man across from me eyed his comrade but didn’t move.

  “I said put down the gun!” I kept the shotgun pointed at him. “Unless you shoot me right in the head, I’ll survive. But I promise you won’t survive a hit from a shotgun. Now do it or I’ll shoot you!”

  His hand shook before he finally tossed it on the ground. He put both of his hands in the air.

  “On your knees,” I commanded.

  He slowly moved to the floor.

  “Hands behind your head,” I snapped.

  He did as I asked.

  Mike kept the gun on the man on the ground. His eyes never left him.

  I stood still, keeping the gun pointed at him. I was too scared to move. The gun was heavy but my hands didn’t shake. Mike and I didn’t speak. We were both concentrating on our jobs. I knew the cops would be here soon and I wasn’t going to move until both men were in handcuffs. Cassandra was on the roof but she would have to wait.

  Silence stretched.

  “Mike, you okay?” I asked, still looking at the intruder.

  “I’m not hurt.”

  “Okay.”

  “Cops are coming?”

  “Yeah.”

  Silence fell again.

  “Is Cassandra okay?”

  “She’s still on the roof,” I said.

  He breathed a sigh of relief.

  I heard the sirens in the distance. They came closer as they pulled into the driveway of the house. Men shouted from the yard as they headed into the house. I heard dogs barking. Thank god they were here. I was so fucking scared.

  Their feet thudded against the floor as they moved up the stairs. When they finally entered the bedroom, the police officer aimed his weapon at me. “Drop your gun.”

  I lowered it then tossed it on the bed, away from everyone. Mike did the same.

  Then they came in and handcuffed the men, relieving us of our duties. I caught my breath, realizing how shaken I was. I turned to Mike but he was gone.

  He opened the window and helped Cassandra back inside. She was sobbing hysterically, unable to speak or do anything else. She wrapped her arms around him and sobbed, mumbling incoherent things.

  “Baby, I’m okay.” He held her to this chest and tried to calm her down.

  “God, I was so scared…” She felt his arms and his chest.

  “Everything is okay,” he said to her. “No one got hurt.”

  She wrapped her arms around him again and continued to cry.

  The officers asked if I needed medical attention but I said no. The entire episode passed better than I expected to. I thought I might be killed. I’d only used the shotgun a few times. I certainly wasn’t a trained gunman.

  “I’m so sorry I left you,” Cassandra said as she sniffed. “I didn’t want to leave, but our baby…”

  “You did the right thing.” His voice was calm, keeping her steady. “That’s exactly what I wanted, Cassandra.”

  “I’m still sorry…”

  Everything echoed around me but I couldn’t concentrate on anything. My body was still stressed, processing what just happened. It happened so quickly, but at the time, it felt like time had stopped. I needed to call Scarlet to tell her I was okay but I couldn’t move. I was numb.

  Cassandra pulled away from Mike then hugged me. I didn’t reciprocate the affection because I couldn’t react. I was practically dead. “Thank you so much. You saved his life…”

  My hand finally moved to her back. “He’s my brother.” That was all I could say. It didn’t even make sense.

  “Thank you so much.”

  I stared at the wall, unsure what to think or feel.

  Mike came to me then hugged me, holding me for a long time. I breathed a sigh of relief then I felt his embrace. That seemed to bring me back to reality. We were both okay. No one got hurt. No one died. “Thank you.”

  “You don’t need to thank me,” I whispered.

  “They would have killed me and taken Cassandra. I owe you my life.”

  “I always got your back.”

  He still held me. “I love you, man.”

  “I love you too.” I tried not to get emotional but I was falling apart.

  Mike pulled away. “Call your wife and tell her you’re okay.”

  “Oh yeah.” My mind was somewhere else. I still didn’t move for the phone.

  Mike took his phone from Cassandra and made the call. “Scarlet, it’s Mike. Sean’s okay.” He paused while he listened to her. “Yeah, he’s fine. Hold on.” He held out the phone to me. “She wants to talk to you.”

  I stared at it before I finally grabbed it and brought it to my ear. “I’m okay.” My mind was dissociated from my mouth. I couldn’t think straight.

  Scarlet was sobbing. “Are you hurt?”

  “No.”

  “Can I come to the house?”

  I was glad she stayed away and didn’t follow me. “No. I’ll come to you.”

  “Please hurry.”

  “I will.”

  “Sean, I love you. Love you so much.” She sniffed into the phone.

  “I love you too. I’ll be home soon.”

  “Okay.” She sighed then hung up.

  I handed the phone back to Mike then stared at the ground.

  Mike rested his hand on my shoulder but didn’t say anything. He was the one who had a gun pointed at his head, but he seemed calmer than I was. I was still in shock. “You okay?”

  “I just…I don’t know.”

  Cassandra watched the officer handcuff Zander and pull him downstairs. She gasped and more tears fell. “Oh god.”

  Mike put his arm around her waist. “It’s okay, baby.”

  “He was going to kill you…because of me.”

  “But he didn’t,” Mike said firmly. “That’s all that matters.”

  She sniffed. “I never would have forgiven myself.”

  “It didn’t happen,” he said immediately. “Don’t think about it.”

  I found my voice. “It was Zander?”

  Mike nodded.

  I still couldn’t believe it.

  The officer guided us downstairs where we were question about what happened. I answered their questions with no emotion. Mike took the lead and helped Cassandra get through it without sobbing. Two hours later, the cops finally left.

  The crickets chirped into the night and the ocean crashed in the distance. The night was calming, but my heart was still pounding a million miles a minute. “You want to stay at our place for the night?” My voice came out as a whisper.

  Cassandra nodded. “Please.”

  “Okay.” I walked out the door and watched Mike lock it behind me. Mike kep
t Cassandra close to him, supporting her with his strength.

  I walked to my car and realized it was still on. The events suddenly replayed in my mind. I still couldn’t believe it happened. After I regained my composure, I got in the car and drove home.

  Scarlet was in the driveway, crying. As soon as I opened the door she was on me. “Thank god.” Her arms circled my waist and she cried into my chest.

  This was exactly what I needed. I buried my face in her neck and finally felt safe, finally felt whole. I was so thankful nothing happened. My wife wasn’t a widow and I was in her arms, where I longed to be.

  “Are you hurt?” she whispered.

  “No.”

  She pulled away and kissed me, her lips tasting like salt. “What happened?”

  With a weak voice, I told her.

  “Mike and Cassandra are okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  She sighed. “I’m so glad everything is okay.”

  “Me too. Baby, I was so scared.” I wasn’t afraid to tell her the truth. “I thought I wasn’t going to come back.”

  Her eyes welled with more tears. “It’s okay to be scared, Sean.”

  “You don’t think I’m weak?”

  “No.” She said it firmly. “I think you’re brave. Without fear or risk, you can’t be brave. That makes you an even greater hero.”

  “Hero?” I shook my head. “I don’t know about that.”

  “I do.” She kissed my chin then rubbed my chest. “You’re the most wonderful man in the world.”

  “It was my brother. I had to do something.”

  “And you did.” She cupped my face and kissed me again.

  Mike and Cassandra pulled into the driveway and got out of the car. Scarlet ran to Mike then hugged him.

  “I’m so glad you’re okay,” she said into his chest.

  “That makes two of us.” He kissed her on the forehead then rubbed her back. “Sean saved us.”

  Scarlet turned and hugged Cassandra. “I’m so sorry about everything.”

  “It’s okay.” Her eyes welled with tears but they didn’t fall. “It was so scary…”

  “You’re safe now,” Scarlet said firmly. “Let’s go inside.”

  I grabbed Scarlet’s hand and pulled her into the house. Scarlet immediately went into the kitchen and made tea. She handed me and Mike a beer, something to take the edge off.

  Mike downed his in a single gulp then left it on the table. His eyes were hollow and empty.

  Cassandra leaned her head on his shoulder, her arm hooked through his.

  We sat at the table, quiet for a long time.

  “Are you still going to have the wedding this weekend?” Scarlet asked. Her arm was hooked around my neck, reminding me she was there.

  I was thinking the same thing.

  Cassandra looked at Mike. A silent conversation happened between them. “I’m marrying Mike on Saturday. I’m not letting this ruin the greatest day of our lives.”

  Mike nodded. “Then we’ll do it.”

  “Good,” Scarlet said.

  Mike looked at me, a sad expression in his eyes. “You’ll be my best man, right?”

  I wasn’t expecting the question. “You forgive me?”

  He smirked. “You just saved my life. Of course I forgive you.”

  A light smile crept on my lips then fell. “Well, that worked out.”

  Mike chuckled lightly. “You always got my back and I always got yours.”

  “Looks like we’re even,” I said.

  “Nah. We’re never even.” He clanked his beer against mine. “To the hero.”

  “I’ll raise my glass to that,” Scarlet said. She tapped her tea against my beer. “My husband, the hero.”

  I shook my head. “I’m not a hero. I did what any man would do.”

  “You obviously don’t know how shitty people are,” Cassandra said darkly. “Most men are cowards.”

  “But I was scared,” I whispered.

  “You think I wasn’t?” Mike asked. “When that gun was pointed at my face, I thought my life was over.”

  Cassandra covered her face and whimpered.

  “Baby, I’m sorry.” He held her close. “I shouldn’t have said that. Remember, I’m fine. Everyone is fine.”

  Scarlet rubbed my shoulder and tried to release the tension in my body. “You’re a wonderful man. I’m honored to have you as my husband.”

  “I’ll never be worthy of you,” I whispered.

  She kissed my ear then my neck. “I’ll show you how wonderful you are when you’re feeling better.”

  I smirked slightly.

  “Yes,” Mike said. “Give him lots of sex for saving me. He deserves it.”

  She rested her head on my shoulder. “I’ll see to it.”

  Cassandra moved into Mike’s lap and leaned into his chest, her eyes closed. She clutched him so tightly, it seemed like she would never let go. Scarlet clung to me just as much.

  I realized that risking my life wouldn’t have meant much if I didn’t have such a wonderful life to come back to. When I was scared of dying, it wasn’t the fear of not existing that got to me. It was leaving my wife while she raised our baby on her own, leaving her unprotected. That’s what scared me most. I was grateful I survived so I could be with her. That was my sole purpose in life, to be with my wife.

  “I’m not going to let some loser ruin my wedding day,” Mike said. “He’s going to jail and he’ll be there for a long time. I’m not going to let this bother me. It happened and we survived. Life goes on.”

  I nodded. “I agree. It’ll take some time to get over, but it would be worse to let it sabotage our plans and our lives.”

  Mike rested his head on Cassandra’s. “I’m sorry for the way I treated you, Sean. I overreacted.”

  “No you didn’t,” I said immediately. “My actions were wrong.”

  “I was entitled to be mad at you, but I shouldn’t have removed you as my best man. That was wrong.”

  “It’s okay,” I said. “Let’s just forget about it.”

  “Okay,” he said. “You know I love you, right?”

  “Of course I do.”

  He nodded. “Then it’s forgotten.”

  10

  Mike

  I took the next few days off from work so I could stay home with Cassandra. I knew she was scared even though she didn’t directly say it. When we went back to the house for the first time, she clung to me like a magnet, expecting a villain to jump out of the closet.

  I wasn’t scared. Zander was in jail and he would be there for a long time. If he ever got out, I knew he wouldn’t make a move again. It was foolish and stupid. Plus, I refused to live my life in fear. And robbers weren’t stupid enough to try and loot us. I decided to get an alarm system that covered the property. It was expensive and unnecessary, but I knew it would help Cassandra sleep.

  “I want a gun,” she said.

  No. There was no way I was giving her a gun. “We don’t need one, baby.”

  “What if someone does that again?”

  “They won’t.” I gave her a firm look. “Don’t worry about it.”

  “Mike, I want one,” she demanded.

  “We’re having kids soon.” I eyed her stomach then looked back at her. “Keep that in mind.”

  “We’ll put it somewhere they can’t reach it, like a safe.

  “It’s still dangerous.”

  She glared at me. “I. Want. A. Gun.”

  I sighed. I knew I wasn’t going to win this argument.

  “I won’t touch it. It’s yours. But I like knowing you have one in the house.”

  “You’ll need to learn how to use it. Being educated in guns is necessary if we’re going to have one in the house. But even if we put it in a safe, if someone breaks in, you really think you’re going to have time to unlock the safe and grab it?”

  “Then get a gun box, something with your fingerprints to get it out.”

  Man, she was determined. “Okay. I�
��ll think about it.”

  “No, you’ll do it,” she snapped. “I want to blow someone’s head off if I have to. No one is coming near my kids!”

  The protective side of her was coming out. I noticed it more often the longer she was pregnant. Her maternal instincts were coming out. She was a momma bear you didn’t want to cross. “Okay. Okay. Let’s worry about it after the wedding. We got too much to do.”

  She calmed down. “Okay.”

  “Baby, I would never let anyone hurt you. Don’t worry about that.”

  “I care about someone hurting you,” she whispered. “If I wasn’t carrying a litter, I would have stayed beside you.”

  “I would never want that. When I tell you to run, you run.”

  “No.”

  This argument was unnecessary and going nowhere. I decided to drop it. “I’m going to fix the door.

  “Okay.”

  I walked upstairs then grabbed my toolbox. I took off my shirt and started working. Cassandra leaned against the wall in the hallway with a cup of tea and a book. She glanced up at me from time to time, watching me work.

  “You like what you see?” I gave her a wink.

  “Why do you think I’m sitting in the front row?” She sipped her tea and gave me a playful look. I kept working until I replaced the door with a brand new one. After I cleaned up everything and finished the final touches, the place was just as it had been before. Our beautiful house was restored.

  Cassandra and I didn’t make love for the next few days. She said she was too stressed out and not in the mood. I didn’t pressure her. All I wanted was for her to feel calm and safe again. I’d give her whatever she needed.

  She had a hard time sleeping at night. She would toss and turn in her sleep, whimpering from time to time. I’d wake her up then whisper into her ear, reminding her I was there and she was safe in my steel arms.

  “Thank you for staying home with me this week,” she said over breakfast the next morning.

  “You don’t need to thank me, baby.”

  “I hate being scared. I’ve never been scared…”

  I gave her a firm look. “It’s okay. That’s normal.”

  She sighed. “It just makes me feel weak.”

  “We went through a trauma, Cassandra. It would be odd if you weren’t scared.”