The guy drinks coffee on the porch for an hour usually, so if he’s not out there, then he’s gone. I make my way to the trees that line the edge of the property and go towards the neighbor to my left, leaving the houses behind us.
This stretch of the river’s edge is full of trees, and the further I walk, the denser the wood, because the houses further down are further from the water as the river curves, a safety precaution that a lot of natives have taken since the flooding years ago.
It is super-creepy walking through the trees after all the ghost stories Gran told me about this place, and I only feel more nervous when Tammy starts cooing and talking, making her baby chatter to fill the silence.
“Need potty, Teeny.”
Oh God in heaven, why did I insist on potty training her this week of all times, I snarl inside, bending my knees to set her down because she’s not wearing a diaper—refuses to, actually, now that she knows the wonders of a urine-free ass—and look around for a good spot to let her heed the call.
I gotta. This kid tells you one time only that she’s gotta go, and then she releases the floodgates. Just ask Lynx’s expensive rug in the den.
“Come on over here, honey,” I say, helping her squat against a tree.
She takes care of business, and it’s as I’m pulling her little panties up that I hear the snap of a branch and turn, freezing on the spot while trying to keep Tammy behind me.
Xavier is smiling, a gun pointed right at me while Ally looks straight at me and smiles.
“You thought I wouldn’t expect you to do something like this, Teeny? You think I’d be stupid enough to threaten you and just walk away? I know you, and I knew the only way to get you out of that house with my daughter was to make you run.”
I can’t close my eyes right now, but if I could, I’d be doing it while kicking myself in the ass. Oh fuck, I just played right into her hands, and I could scream right now for being so stupid, if not for the gun pointed at me.
“Tammy, come here!”
Ally’s yell and the tone of her voice have her whimpering behind me and clinging to my back, her little head buried against me as if seeking shelter.
I can’t run with her, because I’m on my knees. There’s absolutely nothing I can do, I realize, when Ally takes a step forward, her face turning ugly with anger.
“Tammy Lee! Come here.”
“Stop it! You’re scaring her,” I say, trying to pull her into my back with one arm and comfort her.
Ally doesn’t seem to care, just starts yelling curses at me before Xavier slaps her.
“Shut up! You want people coming out here to see what’s going on? Just get the kid already and take her to the car so I can do this,” he hisses, ignoring her look and turning to point the gun at me again.
Oh my God, they’re going to kill me, I think, panicking because I can’t let them take Tammy, even if I die, but how do I get her away from here?
“Just shoot her already! I’ll get Tammy when she’s too dead to fight me off,” Ally mutters, smiling darkly.
“Bitch I am not shooting her with my kid standing behind her. The bullet could hit her,” Xavier snarls, making me blink and shoot Ally a glance.
“Yep, you got it, Teeny. You thought I’d keep the brat if she was that loser’s kid? Not a chance.”
“But—”
“But nothing! She’s mine. I only had her so Xavier’s mother would shut the hell up about us being together, and now that she finally wants Tammy, I won’t let you keep her.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Agh! Is this really the time, Teeny?” she laughs, rolling her eyes dramatically. “Fine, let’s make this your last request, shall we? Xavier’s parents are traditional folks. They don’t like me and him being together, so I had Tammy, but they wouldn’t even see her. It’s taken two years, but they’re finally ready, and they will never forgive Xavier if we lose our kid because we didn’t look after her.”
“I…but why are you going to kill me? I’m your sister.”
Weak, but you gotta forgive me, okay? I’m this close to pissing myself as it is, and Tammy’s starting to wail behind me because she knows something isn’t right.
I’m quite frankly floored to know that Xavier is Tammy’s dad, but right now, I don’t have the time to think about it at all past respecting him a little for not shooting with Tammy behind me.
“Sister? You’ve only ever stood in my way! You drove Mom away with your constant tattling to Gran. You always lectured me about what I was doing, and then you refused to sell the house to help me out. Don’t you get it, Teeny? I want that house, and I want you gone so I can have my happily ever after with Xavier and his family and my money!”
I really don’t think that’s happening, not after the way he just slapped her so hard her nose is bleeding. I don’t say that though, not with that gun still pointed at me and Tammy screaming behind me.
“I didn’t drive Mom away. She left,” I say, stalling for time because I’m out of options right now. “And the house? You won’t get it, Ally. I have a will. Gran made sure I was set and ready before she died. I changed it last year. If I die, the house gets sold and the money gets put in a trust for Tammy. She’ll only get it when she’s eighteen and ready to go to college.”
That’s the truth.
Ally doesn’t like that at all, and I flinch when she walks right up to me and slaps me, rocking me back so that Tammy and I both fall into the tree trunk.
“You stupid bitch! You always take everything. First the house and now Tammy. What the hell do you even want her for, huh? You’re with some rich guy. You don’t need a kid or that stupid house.”
Well, I do, but I refrain from pointing that out because she goes back to Xavier while I twist and try to calm Tammy, who is all-out screaming by now.
“She’s so pathetic. You could have stayed with him in that house and lived a good life. I knew you wouldn’t though, knew you wouldn’t tell him what I said and that you’d run. Why?” she asks, as if genuinely curious.
“Why what?”
“Why not tell him and let him fix your problems? Xavier was convinced he and those scary-ass brothers of his would come looking for us, but I knew better. At least I thought you’d keep it quiet. So, why not tell him?”
I manage to calm Tammy enough that she’s only hiccupping now and turn to Ally, smiling sadly.
“Because I love him enough not to ask him to make that choice. He’s had enough sadness and death in his life. I won’t bring any more to his door,” I say, cringing when she laughs hysterically and Xavier rolls his eyes.
“Well, bravo! All that love just got you killed. Do it, Xavier!”
I hear a noise right before Xavier does and see him flinch and go down with Hawk standing over him. Lynx is there too, grabbing Ally, and just like that…it’s done.
My eyes are filled with tears as I clutch at Tammy and look up at Lynx, meeting burning blue eyes hard with emotion.
Chapter Sixteen
Teeny
“I can’t believe you did that, Teeny!”
Lynx keeps yelling and pacing, his agitation making me feel terrible as I sit on the sofa and try to relax, the adrenalin that was pumping through me long gone after hours spent giving a statement to the police and trying to calm Tammy.
She clung to me for hours, until Rain finally took her home with them, promising to bring her back in the morning so I could get some rest. I’m strung tighter than a bow where I am sitting, but I keep still and let Lynx yell, knowing that his anger is a result of the fear he must have felt.
I was relieved but confused to see Hawk and Lynx at a time when I was sure I was done for, but Rain finally explained to me that Hawk had been standing in the kitchen brewing coffee when he saw me sneaking out back to the woods.
He called Lynx, who immediately made an illegal U-turn, and they followed, just minutes behind me and the others who’d been waiting for me to make a mistake.
And it was a mistake
, I think now, trying not to cry when Lynx finally stops pacing and stands to glare at me with his hands on his hips.
“I will tie you to the goddamn bed if you so much as think about leaving me again, Albertina Hughs! You understand that?”
He yells the words at me while pulling me into his arms, the heat and safety I feel when he holds me making me melt into him with a sigh.
“I’m so sorry. So sorry. I didn’t want you to—”
“I heard you the first time, you foolish woman,” he growls, pushing me away just far enough to look down into my eyes. “You love me enough not to make me choose death?”
I can’t stop the tears that form or the love that blooms in my chest when I look up at him, my love, the man who saved me and will probably do so as long as I need him to.
“Yes.”
“Well, good, because I love you too, you crazy fool! Jesus, Teeny, I was so scared when I heard Tammy crying and walked up to see that gun on you. I thought you were lost before I could get the chance to tell you how I feel and beg you to stay. Forever. As my wife and the mother of our daughter,” he whispers, his eyes going wet.
My own aren’t dry, and I feel a sob wrack me when he kisses me, keeping me pinned in his arms.
“But what about not wanting—”
“I want you, Teeny. Always. Because you make me feel free and safe and loved, and that’s what I wanted all along. I just didn’t know it. Say you’ll stay with me, Teeny. Tell me you love me, only me, and want to be with me forever. Tell me you’ll only ever dance for me and love me when I’m a silver fox with a sexy imp for a wife. Just tell me something, because I won’t let you leave me again, Teeny, and that kid, she’s mine too.”
I sob at the words. No, they’re not poetic, and he’s not giving me much of a choice here, but what he has given me is everything I will ever want and need. Him. Just him.
“Take me to bed, Wylder, and convince me,” I purr, laughing when he kisses me hard and does just that.
It’s hours later when we’re snuggled close and spent that I grin up at him and feel my heart split when he looks down at me with love.
“I think Hawk has a thing for Mika.”
He’s still laughing when I kiss him, and I promise to love him just like he asked. Only ever him.
BOOK FIVE
Chapter One
Mika
The worst thing about surviving cancer is the part where everyone looks at you like you’re just one diagnosis away from death. I go for checkups every six months, even eight years after kicking cancer’s ass, because if I don’t, my parents have a mental breakdown and my sister Leila walks around like a nervous wreck watching my every move.
I hate that, hate that I don’t get to live like I always wanted to because, even alive and free of the painful disease, I still have people look at me and think of me as Mika, the girl who had cancer.
So, I just follow the rules most days and toe the line to keep them off my back. I bet my parents and Leila would shit a brick if they ever knew that I didn’t take that big ol’ college degree and strike out on success as I told them I did.
Nope, I worked in a tattoo parlor for a few years while my best friend Morty answered the phone as Granger Brokers. I can’t say why I woke up the day of graduation and knew that I couldn’t do it. I just did.
So, I told them all I got this high-flying job, and got a job answering phones while watching my friends ink the weirdest things into people. I was happy, for the first time in my life, and I thought that I could go on like that forever.
No one at Morty’s knew about my illness. They treated me just like everyone, and that was so new to me that I wanted it to last forever. It didn’t though. Poor Morty had a heart attack right there in his chair one day and only survived because one of the customers in the shop at the time was a doctor.
Talk about fate. He closed a month after that, his wife begging him to consider his health. I lost my job then, and I could have gotten one right away, with Dad’s help, of course, but nothing felt right.
So, I lost my apartment and had to move in with Leila because I had no money, no job, and honestly, I just didn’t care. Until I realized that life doesn’t stop just because I’m sad and fueling the highest pity party on earth.
I thank God every single day that my sister’s brother-in-law Lyon gave me a job as a secretary for his construction company, because I was going to call Dad the next day and ask him to help me get a job with one of his old cronies.
Not that I don’t appreciate my dad. It’s just that he’d make my life hell by telling his friends to take it easy on me, not stress me out. Here at Wylder’s, I don’t get special treatment. The crews all give me shit and laugh when I curse them out. Al and Lyon, my bosses, don’t molly coddle me, and I really just enjoy being somewhere where guys have to take my shit or risk their clock cards getting lost.
Leila lets me rent her house. Correction, Leila tried to give me her house after she moved in with Lyon, but I told her I’d sleep out on the streets if she didn’t let me pay rent.
So, I live in a nice little place not far from my sister and the Wylders, and I like my life. Most days. Today…not so much.
“But I thought we were so good together, Mika. Come on, baby. Admit it. You miss me,” Joe says, grinning at me from across the table at Hendricks pub, the only place I will deign to eat barbecue in this city.
“Joe, I told you it’s not going to work. You want all this stuff from me, and I can’t give it to you,” I mutter, hating that I feel sorry for him after what he did.
“I said I was sorry, Mika. Okay, so you don’t go in for threesomes! I get it. I won’t suggest it again.”
Looking at Joe, his blond good looks and baby-blue eyes, his swimmer’s body and boyish face, I snarl inside and groan. I do find him attractive, just not…
Just not in a way that could make me want to be with him. That way. Ever again.
“But that’s not even the point, Joe, and I tried to explain when we had that fight. You like living in a tent for two days at a music festival and having sex while everyone around us is bombed and drunk. I don’t. You like going hiking with your friends, and I’d rather lose a finger than sweat outside on a trail where a snake could bite me. You want threesomes. I want…nothing with you,” I say with brutal honesty because Leila told me not to string him along and I won’t.
I just want him to leave me alone and maybe get together with another chick who likes him for his immaturity. I was way past all this at sixteen, when I first started feeling sick and then got diagnosed at seventeen.
The partying and drinking just became trivial to me, and I never really felt the need for them again. Almost dying will do that to a girl, trust me.
“You are so cold, you know that?! Christ, and here I was, willing to go to that stupid convention with you,” he snarls before slamming his chair back and stomping off.
Oh brother, I groan, watching him throw a hissy fit as he slams out of the bar, and everyone looks at me as if I just shot a kitten.
“What? You never seen a woman tell her boyfriend she’s a lesbian before?” I snarl, chuckling when they all look away, wide-eyed and acting as if I’m some sort of idiot for not wanting that fine specimen.
“Once. I saw it once, and it ended with the guy crying and begging her to give him a chance to be what she wanted. It became a comedy when she yelled that unless he lost his cock, she wasn’t interested.”
I groan, this time out loud, and turn to the owner of that deep growl, hating that my nether parts give a twinge when I meet the deep blue eyes of Hawk Wylder.
“Oh my God. Is there no place on earth that I can escape you?” I mutter, taking a huge sip of my rum and coke as he takes the seat Joe just vacated and sits staring at me silently. “What?”
He shrugs at the not-too-pleasant tone I use and drinks his beer while watching me fume. Great, just great, Joe. You had to make me meet you here tonight of all nights when I forgot that Hawk’s in town and
loves this place.
“Nothing. I’m just surprised to see you alone, is all. Where are all them friends Leila says you have?”
Long gone after I broke up with Joe, I think, wondering if toilet papering houses is still illegal.
“Don’t care, Hawk, since I don’t usually invite my friends along to break up with a guy who just can’t get the message.”
“He’s right. You’re acting really cold tonight, and that isn’t you, Meek. So, tell me what’s up.”
“Oh, sweet God, please don’t tell me you’re trying to get all deep and meaningful with me, dude. It just isn’t you. Are you running a fever? Drunk? Got a head wound after one of your super-top-secret jobs?” I ask, eyeing him across the table because, as God as my witness, he may annoy me but he’s the most gorgeous man I have ever laid eyes on.
Hawk is my sister’s brother-in-law to be, one of triplets with her man, Lyon, and Lynx, the youngest. They’re practically identical, and from a distance, I would mistake one for the other, but up close, they’re all different men.
Lyon is intense but kind and loving, Lynx is a laugher with eyes that hold mischief, and Hawk, he’s the brooding scary guy who’ll break a man with nothing more than a flick of his pinkie.
The man is always intense, hardly ever smiles or laughs—I’m convinced his face will crack if he does—and he growls and barks more often than not. If he wasn’t so moody and scary, I would have a crush on him. A serious crush because he’s just so big and strong-looking that I would have a wild time with all those muscles.
He sighs at my rudeness, but come on, it’s not as if he’s ever been nice to me either, so screw him, and shakes his head before signaling the waitress to bring another round.
“I already know you, Mika, and I know that you piss people off when you want to avoid talking. So, quit wasting your breath, and talk. What’s up with you? Lynx told Leila you didn’t say two words at work today and that you actually let Norman Wendell call you stupid without breaking his hands off at the wrists. That’s not the ballbuster we all know and…well, it’s just not like you. Something is obviously wrong.”
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