Everything I Have (The Everything Series Book 2)

by A. K. Evans

  Levi pulled me out of my thoughts when he said, “So I want to make sure you have a better idea of what will happen here over the next few days and weeks. As you know we need you staying at Zane’s where the top of the line security is already set up. We’ll get security on your place, but until then we want to make sure you’re always covered by having you stay at Zane’s. Know that he isn’t planning to let you out of his sight much, if at all, but you should know that if he needs to be away for any reason, one of these guys, Cruz, or myself will be with you. We won’t intrude on whatever you are doing and we’ll be there solely to keep you safe.”

  “Um, Levi?” I called out.

  “Yeah, Em?”

  “I’m not sure if this puts a damper on the game plan, but Zane actually isn’t going to be around much for the next couple of weeks.”

  “Come again,” Levi said, his eyes narrowing.

  I took in a deep breath and responded, “I didn’t want all of this stuff I was dealing with and going through to take Zane from his passion so I kind of forced him into making me a promise yesterday. He’s agreed to continue training for the US Open.”

  “Lucky fuck,” Cruz murmured as he looked to Zane.

  “You don’t have to remind me; I fucking know it. Emme made some compromises on her end for me to agree to training and competing at the Open. Her workload is light, only a couple of shoots between now and then. Any additional shoots will be booked after the Open. If she needs anything she calls me first. If she can’t get me or if I can’t get to her quickly enough then she reaches out to one of you. I trust each and every one of you to make sure she remains unharmed and I know all of you would lay down your lives to protect her so I owe you.”

  “Oh,” I interrupted. “I have another question.”

  Levi smirked and shook his head. “What’s up, Emme?”

  “I haven’t had much of an opportunity to research all the details of your agency, but I was curious what you charge? I’m guessing this isn’t going to be cheap considering not only your reputation, but also the fact that you’re planning to have someone with me whenever Zane is not. Given his training schedule, I’m figuring the hours are going to add up quickly. I just want to have an idea of what I need to prepare for. I might need to work out a payment plan if your rates are more than I can afford.”

  Levi chuckled and dropped his head. Cruz full blown laughed, and the rest of the guys had grins. I looked to Zane, confused by their reaction. He gave me a soft smile, but didn’t say anything.

  “Did I miss something?” I asked.

  Levi’s eyes came to mine again and he said, “I’m sorry, Em. I thought you would have just known, so I was a little taken aback by your question. We’re doing this pro bono. You don’t have to worry about the costs.”

  “What?” I asked, shocked. “You can’t do that.”

  “Considering I own the firm I’m pretty sure I can do that, but I’m definitely curious to hear why you think I can’t.”

  “Um, well, it’s dangerous work and it’s a lot of hours. What if someone gets hurt or shot at?”

  “That’s already happened to all of us, Emme. I expect it’ll happen again. Hopefully not on your case, but if it does it’s part of the job we do.”

  My eyes nearly popped out of my head at the news that all of these men had been shot at at one time or another.

  “Ok, so you definitely need to charge me then,” I insisted.

  “Not happening, babe. Listen, here are a few things you should know. This firm is in high demand and we charge a lot for the service we provide because it’s the best money can buy. We’ve got plenty of other cases happening now that cover our operating costs and then some. You don’t need to worry that you are putting us out. Also, you’re my brother’s woman and the first good one I’ve ever met at that. If nothing else, that qualifies you for the family discount, which is always free. But Em, most importantly, as part of what we do here there are certain things we don’t take lightly. My guys,” he said as he motioned to all of them sitting around the table. “They need to know all the details of the cases happening here. Cruz and I brought them all up to speed on what you shared with us yesterday. They know what you’ve been through. If there is one thing they don’t tolerate it’s a man putting his hands on a woman or taking advantage of her sexually, especially after she’s already said no repeatedly. None of them would accept payment from you for the simple fact that they all feel, myself and Cruz included, that you’ve already paid plenty in this situation. We’ll get our payment when we catch the motherfucker that thought it was ok to do what he did to you. And Em, we will catch him.”

  My eyes welled up with tears and I dropped my head down to avoid their eyes. This was embarrassing. These men now knew what had happened to me and despite washing away the bad and getting the beauty from Zane last night I now felt the ugly creeping back in. Zane’s hand came over and wrapped around mine, while his other arm wrapped around my shoulders and pulled me into his body.

  Cruz took that opportunity to speak. “Emme, there’s nothing for you to feel ashamed of or embarrassed about. We all know that you might feel that way, but understand that nobody here sees you the way you might be seeing yourself right now. All we see is a woman who, unfortunately, was seriously mistreated and deserves a bit of a break after what she’s been through. In a situation like this when we are considering offering the work at no charge all the guys here have the option to say no before we officially take on the case. Assuming we have enough guys willing to do it to properly cover the case we take it. When Levi and I told them about you not one of them said they wouldn’t be involved. In fact, beautiful, they’re actually more motivated now because they’re each hoping that they are the one to find him.”

  I looked around the table to see them all nodding and smiling.

  “Thank you,” I barely rasped out.

  “You’re welcome, Emme,” Levi answered. “Do you have any more questions?”

  I thought for a moment and said, “Just one. You are going to be covering Zane as well, right?”

  Zane spoke up and said, “Em, I’ll be fine. You are the concern right now.”

  I pulled back from his body, turned to look at him, and said, “He threatened you Zane. And, I get that you consider me to be the top priority here; I have my own priorities. If something happens to you, where does that leave me?”

  I turned to Levi, my eyes pleading with his, and I begged, “Levi, please tell me you are going to cover him.”

  I could see Levi was struggling with it and his eyes went to Zane’s a minute before they came back to mine. “Emme, if he doesn’t want the coverage I can’t force it on him. He wants it, he knows he’s got it.”

  I turned my head back to Zane’s and a single tear fell down my cheek. “Baby, please,” I began, trying to swallow past the tightness in my throat. “Please let them do it.”

  He sat a moment staring at me when he finally mumbled under his breath, “Fuck me.” He turned his head to his brother’s and asked, “Levi, can you offer coverage on me when I’m away from any secured places?”

  I turned my head to see Levi smirking at Zane, but nodding as well. I let out a breath and slumped back in the chair. This was exhausting.

  With the formalities out of the way, Levi got down to the business. I gave him my schedule for photo shoots so he knew when he’d have to have guys covering me for sure. Zane told Levi that he would start training as early as tomorrow morning assuming I didn’t have another nightmare. Zane would train Monday through Friday for full day sessions, and half day sessions on Saturdays. Of course, that resulted in the guys learning that I frequently had nightmares, one as recently as that morning. This only served to motivate them more in their competition amongst each other over who was going to find Seth first.

  An hour later, Zane and I were back in his truck on the way to his place.

  “So, what do you think?” he asked.

  “About what?” I replied.


  “The guys. You good with all of them? Anybody make you feel uncomfortable?”

  “I think I’m good with them,” I answered. “I guess only time will tell, but for now I have no complaints.”

  “That changes for you, you tell me,” he demanded.

  “I will.”

  Just then, I heard my phone ringing in my purse. I fished around in my bag searching for it, finally located it, and pulled it out to see Charley’s name on the screen.

  “Hey, sweets.”

  “Hi, honey. How are you doing?” she asked.

  “Ok. Had a nightmare early this morning so it was a rough morning, but Zane got me through it. We’re actually just now on our way back from meeting with Levi, Cruz, and their crew of guys.”

  “Emme, I’m so sorry the nightmares are still happening. Maybe Zane’s brothers will find Seth and that will help put an end to them. Speaking of which, how did that meeting go?”

  “It went well. Everyone seems nice enough. I just feel bad now because they won’t let me pay them for their services. And, last night I talked Zane into training for the US Open so with him needing to be away to train they’ll need to have one of their guys with me until Zane finishes.”

  “Wait, I thought he said he wasn’t going to compete at the Open?” she asked.

  “He didn’t want to, but I asked him to not give it up. I don’t want Seth having any more control. If Zane doesn’t compete, Seth wins. So, I convinced Zane to train, but as a result, now I’ll be abusing their security services.”

  “Oh, Em. I’m so happy you could talk him into competing. He deserves it, but so do you. I’m glad you’re fighting back, honey.”

  “Me, too.”

  “So, aside from wanting to check in on you I was calling to give you some news. Yesterday, after we left the condo I had a long talk with Wes. I wanted to do something for you so Wes and I are flying Nikki and Monroe out this weekend. They’ll get here Saturday morning. I wanted to have you come here and spend the day at the house with us Saturday. I’m going to be inviting Elle and Greg, too, and I thought we could do some wedding planning.”

  “Charley, I’m going to cry now. Are they really coming out?” I asked, tears welling in my eyes and my throat tight. I loved this girl. I’m certain she hadn’t set a date for her wedding, but she was looking for a way to distract me from everything bad that was happening in my life right now.

  “Yes, Emme, they’re really coming.”

  “Thank you, Charley, to both you and Wes. I’m looking forward to it,” I said as Zane pulled the truck into the driveway.

  “So am I — can’t wait. I’ll text you later and let you know what time they’ll be here. Of course, you can come at any time you want. I’ll be staying here that morning; Wes is going to pick them up and bring them here before he heads into the office. He’s got some stuff to work on this weekend.”

  “Sounds great. I’ll talk to you later then. Thanks again, Charley.”

  “No problem, honey. Love you.”

  “Love you, too.”

  I disconnected the call, tossed the phone back in my purse, and looked to Zane, who had just parked the truck.

  “Your girls coming out?” he asked.

  I nodded and said, “Yes, Charley and Wes booked flights for them and they’ll be here on Saturday morning. Charley wants us all over to Wes’ place on Saturday; she’s inviting Elle and Greg, too, and she wants to do some wedding planning.”

  “I think that’ll be good for you, sweetheart. I’ll only put in a half day so when I’m finished I’ll head over there. You can stay as long as you like, but after a week of training I’ll want you close by.”

  “Thank you, baby,” I said as I put my hand up to his face and I leaned in to kiss him. Zane wrapped his hand around the back of my neck and gently squeezed as he kissed me back. When I pulled my mouth from his I looked him in the eyes and said, “Thank you for conceding in Levi’s office and asking them to cover you.”

  “Didn’t want to do it, Em, but more than that I couldn’t bear to see the anguish in your face when you realized nobody would have my back. I refuse to put you through that so I agreed.”

  “Zane?”

  “Yeah, Em?”

  “I have your back.”

  He grinned at me before he said, “Yeah, sweetheart, you do.”

  Chapter 22

  Emme

  “Hey, what are you doing in here?” I asked Zane as I walked into one of the guest bedrooms.

  After we returned from Cunningham Security a couple hours ago, Zane told me he wanted me to unpack my suitcases and put my things in his closet and dresser since I was going to be staying there for the foreseeable future. I started preparing for dinner first and then after we ate I took to unpacking. Zane left me to it, and when I finished he still hadn’t joined me so I went in search of him. I found him surrounded by stacks of snowboards and tons of snowboarding gear.

  “Just getting my gear prepped for tomorrow. I have all my pants, jackets, gloves, and hats already packed, and I just started tuning the boards. Want to have a couple that are fully prepped so I won’t need to do it before the weekend again. The team normally has a guy that will prep the boards for us, but I have my own way and it’s been working for me, so I’m sticking with that.”

  “I see. And what exactly are you doing to the board?” I asked.

  “I start by sharpening my edges like this,” he began as he showed me. He had a hand-held sharpener that he ran up and down all of the metal edges around the entire board.

  “And if I remember correctly the edges are used to stop, right?” I asked.

  He looked up at me, smiled, and confirmed, “That’s right.”

  “So, this part is easy, then. It’s like filing your fingernails or sharpening kitchen knives.”

  Zane chuckled. “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “Well, why do you have an iron?” I asked, noting the smaller than average sized iron off to the side.

  “For waxing the board.”

  “Waxing?”

  “This is definitely not the kind of waxing you are thinking about. We wax the board for speed. Here’s the wax,” he said holding up a square that looked like a bar of soap. “I hold the wax up to the hot iron and let it melt onto the board. Then I use the iron the same way you would if you were ironing clothes to make sure it is evenly spread over the entire board. After, I scrape down the base of the board using this plastic straightedge. It helps to ensure the wax has been absorbed into all the pores of the p-tex.”

  “P what?”

  “P-tex. It’s what the base of the board is made from and you want to have it soak up all of the wax that you can, especially if you are looking for speed.”

  “Wow. I never realized snowboarding required all this prep work. I thought you could just get on a board and go.”

  “You can. Some people do. But, you won’t be competitive if you aren’t tuning your board properly.”

  “Can I try to do one?” I asked.

  “You want to?” he retorted.

  I nodded.

  He handed me one of the boards and the file. I sharpened the edges just the way he showed me. Then, I heated the wax, allowed it to melt drizzling it over the board, and ironed it. After, I used the straightedge to help the wax get absorbed into the board. It didn’t take very long and was simple to do.

  “How did I do?” I asked.

  “Pretty fucking perfect, Emme.”

  I stood there and looked around the room. Zane had hundreds of boards there.

  “Do you have to do all of these boards?” I asked.

  He laughed. “Not today. I’ll do them all before I ride them, but I’m just doing this stack here so I’m good for the week.”

  “Ok. I’m going to go take a shower now and get ready for bed.”

  “Sounds good. I showered while you were prepping dinner and I should be finished with these by the time you are done in the shower and have dried your hair, so we’ll be able to go to bed
together.”

  “Ok, baby.”

  “Give me a kiss before you go.”

  I smiled at him before I leaned in to give him a kiss. At that, I took off down the hall back to his bedroom where I grabbed a sexy nightie and panties to take into the bathroom with me. I got undressed and hopped in the shower. While I was in there I came up with my plan to give Zane a little something that I thought he’d enjoy.

  I finished quickly in the shower, got out, and went about drying my hair. After I finished drying my hair, rubbing lotion on my body, and brushing my teeth, I put my baby pink, satin and lace-trimmed, front-closure nightie and matching side-tie panties on and assessed myself in the full-length mirror.

  Here’s hoping Zane was into this.

  I took one last deep breath, trying to muster up my last bit of courage since I’d never done this before, and walked to the door.

  As I stepped into the bedroom I found Zane in his boxer briefs lying on his side in the bed facing me, his head propped up on one hand. The second he saw me his eyes heated and a mouth-watering grin spread across his face. I took a couple steps toward the chaise lounge sofa he had positioned off to the side of the bed near the floor-to-ceiling windows. I stood there, and he still hadn’t moved.

  “What do you think?” I asked.

  “That I’m the luckiest fucking man in the world. God, Emme, you’re so damn sexy.”

  I gave him a coy smile and said, “I’d like to do something for you tonight, Zane.” I brought my hand up to the end of the bow I had tied at the front of the nightie. Gently pulling the string, I undid the bow and the satin slid off to the sides of my breasts. Bringing my hands up to the straps on my shoulders I coaxed them down my arms and let the nightie fall to the floor. As I stood there in nothing but a pair of baby pink panties, Zane finally moved. He got off the bed and walked to me. I held my hand up in front of me when he was only a foot away from me. He stopped immediately and his face grew concerned.