“I don’t know he and Soph left not long after you did. He spoke to Connor’s sister then left.” Connor has a sister?
“I didn’t know he had a sister. So what is the plan of action now?” Oscar knows everything that goes on in and out of the office, he’s like a big brother, always watching.
“Priority number one is Winter. We can’t allow that bastard to get anywhere near her. Everything else can be put on the backburner or get Skye to do it.” That sounds good to me.
“Okay, I’ll be taking Winter with me tomorrow when I go and see Katelynn. Keep me updated on Ryder.” I tell him and I feel eyes on me and see Winter is sitting up on the bed looking at me curiously.
“Will do man, let me know if you need anything.” This is why I love my team; they will drop anything if I need them. No hesitations.
“Will do, thanks Oscar.” With that I hang up and I text everyone letting them know I have found her, that she is safe and I walk over to the bed with Winter watching my every move, she hasn’t taken her eyes off me.
“How long have you been awake?” She still looks fucking sad, like anything could make her cry.
“Since you got off the bed.” She says and pulls her knees up to her chin and wraps her arms around her legs whilst resting her face on top of her knee. I hate that she does that. I’ve noticed she does it when she’s scared or worried.
“Why are you curled up Sweets?” She looks at me blankly then her eyes move to her legs, and I see the realization hit her. She didn’t even know she’s doing it.
“I don’t know, but we have to talk. I can’t go with you to see Katelynn tomorrow.” Her voice is resigned, sad and I can still hear the tears in her voice.
What the fuck? “Why not?”
She glares at me. “What if he follows us? He could hurt her. I’m not letting that happen. I can’t have anything happen to anyone else.” She is adamant but I can hear the fear in her voice.
“Your right. I’ll call Mom and cancel.” I still have my phone in my hands, and I go to recent contacts, I’m about to swipe on mom’s number when it’s snatched out of my hand. I look up and see Winter staring at me. She looks mad.
“Sweets, what the hell?” She just raises her brow at me.
“Samuel Mitchell, you even think of canceling this date you have with that little girl I will personally castrate you.” I look at her in disbelief. She can’t be serious.
“Oh, I’m deadly serious. That little girl has been through enough, so you are going to go and you are going to enjoy spending time with her. You are not going to rush just to get back home.” Damn. She’s a bossy thing. How the fuck did she know what I was thinking?
“But Sweets, what about you?” Her face is so mad. She sits up and pulls out her cell from her pocket, she starts typing furiously, her fingers moving quickly. Then she stops, a few seconds later I hear her phone beep, she glances down at it, and a huge smile comes across her face. She types back and then faces me.
“I have that sorted out. I’m going to spend the day with Steven, that means Luke and Scott will be over. Also, Sophia will as well. So I’m covered.” Fuck, she’s right. I don’t want to leave her. I hate the thought of her not being near me while that fucking crazy bastard is still out there somewhere.
“Fine.” She smiles and I pull her to me. I fucking love this woman. There is nothing in this world I wouldn’t do for her. “But you have to stay with one of them at all times.” She looks like she wants to argue. “It's non-negotiable Sweets, I need you safe. You promise that you will stay with one of them, preferably Steven or Scott at all times and I won’t cancel on Katelynn.”
“Why not Luke?” She asks sounding confused.
“Because Steven and Scott carry guns on them at all times, its second nature to them. So do you promise me?” She glares at me, but I see the smile she’s trying to hide.
“Yes, I promise.” I feel so much relief. I will be talking to Scott and Steven, I want as many people around her as I can get, without making her feel crowded.
“Are you hungry?” I doubt she ate in the hospital, so she hasn’t eaten since this morning.
“No, I’m not hungry. I’m tired, though, but I don’t have any clothes.” She looks upset about not having any.
“Okay, give me a second.” I look pointedly at my phone on her lap. She looks down at it like it's fucking evil and passes it to me. I call Scott.
“Hey Scott, are you busy?” I ask him as soon as he answers the phone, not giving him the time to speak.
“I’m fine thanks for asking, how are you, Sammy?” Funny.
“I’m okay. Are you busy?” I hear him sigh and speak to someone. I hear a woman telling him to hurry. Oops, I’m about to cock-block Scott.
“What do you need?” He sounds resigned like he knows he’s going to be cock-blocked.
“I need clothes for Winter and me, can you either come here and stay with her while I get us some or can you get them for us and bring them here? I can’t leave her by herself, and she looks fucking tired. I’d say she’d be asleep by the time you get here.” He doesn’t hesitate.
“I’m scarred for life after getting Soph clothes when we were staying at the warehouse, I don’t want to be scarred from Winter. I’ll come to you, and I’ll stay with her. Where are you staying?” I rattle off the address, and he says he will be here in a few minutes.
“What will you need Sweets?” She looks like she’s calculating something.
“How long will we be staying here? We obviously can’t go back to our apartments.” She’s right her apartment is riddled with bullets. I haven’t even seen mine yet. We still haven’t figured out how he managed to get into her apartment, where he was shooting from and then into my apartment and make his escape. It’s frustrating as he was so close to us and he evaded us.
“I don’t know, Sweets. Depends on how long it takes to get cleaned up.” She nods and goes back to calculating, she then pops her head up and a smile forms on her face. She starts typing away on her phone. What the fuck?
“Um, Sweets?” She put her finger up, and I wait. She finishes typing, and I hear my phone beep, I look down and see she sent me a message. I look at her, and she’s smiling at me.
“I sent you the list that way you wouldn’t forget anything.” She says with a shrug.
I read the message and chuckle, does she think we’re here for a month?
Sweets: My Kindle, which is in the top drawer of the dresser in my bedroom. I will need 7 sets of underwear. 7 nightdresses. I will need a week’s worth of clothing, so make sure you bring my jacket, I trust you to select which clothes to bring. My toothbrush and toothpaste and toiletries. My chargers, one for my phone the other for my Kindle, both are plugged in the plug in the bedroom. I will need my handbag and chocolate. I definitely need chocolate.
I laugh at the chocolate demand and text Scott.
Me: Will you make a stop to get Winter chocolate?
Scott: Shit, she’s on the rag. I’ll get loads of chocolate.
What a fucker.
Me: She’s stressed.
Scott: Trust me, man. I have been around Winter PMSing, and it’s not a pretty sight.
Me: Don’t be an ass.
Scott: Bro code dude. I’m helping you out.
Me: Whatever.
“Hey Sammy, did you just ask Scott to get me chocolate?” I hear her quiet question, I should have realized by how quietly she asked to tread extremely carefully.
“Yeah, I thought you may need some.” I hear her quick intake of breath and hear her phone beep.
“So you were discussing my period?” What the fuck? How the hell does she know that? I look at her, and she’s looking down at her phone. Oh, that fucker.
Me: You told her we were talking about her. What the fuck is wrong with you?
Scott: Dude you are dating my sister. I’m here to get you into as much shit as possible. I do the same to Nathan. What gave you the impression you would be different?
M
e: Fucker.
I can’t be mad at him, having him say that is pretty amazing. I’m glad she has a family that gives a shit about her. I look over at her, and she is just staring at me.
“Finished talking about my period yet? Or would you like to know how long it will last? Maybe what symptoms I get?” I’m standing here in shock, how am I meant to answer that? Does she really believe that I would do that?
“Sweets that fucker is lying, I asked him to get you chocolate, and he said It.” She bursts out laughing. I take it in loving the sound.
“I know, Scott may be a fucker, but he told me from the start what he had said to you. I was just joking.” Her face has a happy look and I want it to stay that way.
“Sweets, are you okay? Today had to be rough on you.” I see the fear seep back into her eyes.
“Have you ever killed anyone?” She asks me, which makes confuses me.
“Yeah, Sweets I have.” More than one, but she doesn’t need to know that.
“How do you move on? How do you stop the guilt?” She has tears in her eyes.
“Sweets, what happened to Connor wasn’t your fault. Sweets don’t take that on.” She has tears in her eyes.
“But it is, he wouldn’t have died if it wasn’t for me. It is my fault. I’m a danger to everyone.” I watch as the tears fall from her eyes. Guilt is a motherfucker. I know that she can only overcome this herself, I will help, but in the end, only she can see she never caused any of this. I walk over to her and pull her to me.
“I promise you Sweets, this wasn’t your fault, and we are going to get through this.” She turns her head towards me.
“Promise we will get through this? I feel like my heart has shattered.” I kiss her forehead. I have a lump in my throat and I swallow it down.
“Sweets, I swear to you if it’s the very last thing I do, you will get through this, we will do it together.” She places her head on my shoulder.
“I love you, Sammy.” I look at her and see the love in her eyes. I lean down and place my lips against hers, she leans into me, I sweep my tongue into her mouth, and she wraps her hands around me. Just as I slant my head to deepen the kiss, there’s a knock on the door. Winter pulls back, a smile on her face. I place my head against her forehead.
“I love you too Sweets.” Her smile is the biggest I have ever seen her have. She closes her eyes and she reaches for my face and holds it with both hands, she kisses my lips I’m about to say something when there’s another knock on the door.
“Sorry Sweets got to get that, it’s Scott. We will continue this conversation later.” I kiss her lips once more and go to open the door. I look through the peephole and see Scott talking to a hotel employee. I open the door and hear Scott’s angry voice.
“What do you mean you didn’t find out. I want to talk to your manager.” The employee who looks like he’s seconds away from pissing himself nods and runs away. I turn to Scott and wonder what the fuck just happened.
“There’s a bouquet of flowers for Winter, I read the card, it’s definitely that fucker. The employee doesn’t know who delivered them or who ordered them. So I am waiting for his manager, and I’m going to get Dwayne and Oscar here and see if they can look through the security footage.” Fuck this is all she needs right now. Scott hands me the card, and I grit my teeth, I want to fucking kill this motherfucker. I know that when Winter reads this she’s going to withdraw again.
“So he is definitely following me? But how? I wasn’t at the apartment when he was shooting at you? So how did he know that I was here? Shit! I paid by card. He found me by that right?” She has her arms around her stomach. She has fear in her eyes again.
“We don’t know how he found you, but yes your card could be how, we will find out how he did it Sweets,” I tell her, trying to not make her feel worse. She nods, walks over to Scott and kisses his cheek.
He pulls her into a hug and whispers to her. “He isn’t going to get you Wints. I will kill him before he hurts you again. I promise.” Winter nods, walks over to me and kisses my cheek, I hear her phone buzzing on the bed. She walks away from us, and I let Scott into the room and close the door. Scott pulls out his cell, and I walk further into the room and see Winter is on the phone, it must be Sophia. She looks up and sees me watching her, she smiles at me, her head starts to look down, but something must catch her eye because her head snaps up and she starts walking over to me. She pulls at my hand and takes the fucking card I forgot I had and starts to read it, she tells whoever is on the phone what it says.
“My Darling Winter, what happened today wasn’t meant to. All I wanted was you to be with me. I want us to be together forever. What we had that night four years ago proved how great we are together. We will be together again babe. I’ll see you real soon.” Fuck. Just hearing her say the words that fucker wrote makes me want to tear this city apart and find the bastard. I turn and see Scott is staring at Winter, his face is set to a grim expression, he turns to me and sighs. I walk over to him and lower my voice since Winter’s still on the phone.
“What did Dwayne say?” I ask him. I watch as he sighs and starts to rub the back of his neck. He does this when he’s frustrated.
“He’s on his way, he said he will call Asher to see if he could stay here, I’m trying to have as many men as I can get in this hotel to make sure Winter’s safe. Oh send a list of what you need to Luke, he and dad are going to both of you and Winter’s apartments to get what you both need.” I sigh in relief; I don’t have to leave her tonight.
“Thanks, man.” He just nods in acknowledgement. I type out a message for Luke telling him what we need and thank him for going. I hear Winter say goodbye, and she will see them tomorrow. There is a knock at the door, and Scott goes to deal with it while I walk over to the bed where Winter is sitting.
“He’s never going to stop coming after me is he?” I want to say yes he will stop and make the fear go away but I can’t, I won’t lie to her.
“No Sweets, he won’t stop until he has you or he’s in prison. I’d prefer it if he were dead, but as long as he is away from you, then I don’t give a fuck if he’s behind bars.” She nods but doesn’t say anything, I hear Scott saying thanks to the manager. He comes and stands in front of the bed.
“So the manager has given Oscar and Dwayne full reign on their security footage. Dwayne is also speaking to the employee at the florist who spoke to the fucker.” Scott says, and I feel useless, I’m meant to protect Winter, but this fucker just keeps getting closer and closer to her. Scott’s phone rings and I pull Winter to me. I kiss the top of her head.
“We’re not going to let him get to you okay.” She doesn’t say anything. “Maybe I should cancel tomorrow; it doesn’t feel right leaving you here,” I tell her. I’m being serious; I have a feeling in the pit of my stomach. She still doesn’t move, but she does speak.
“You even think about it Sammy and I will go for your balls.” She says it with a growl that I instantly move my hands to cup my balls, and she starts laughing. “Scared Sammy?” Her voice has laughter in it. I want to laugh, but the truth is, I’m freaking frightened she will go for my balls.
“Yeah, Sweets I am.” She lets out a laugh, and I can feel it through her body.
“Don’t be scared Sammy. I won’t ever hurt you!” She is being so serious; her eyes are alight with fire with the thought of me being hurt. She’s protective, Soph told me about her years ago. I remember the conversation and I thought she sounded too good to be true. I honestly thought that Soph had exaggerated her.
~*~
“So who is the person you're most excited to see when we get home?” Skye asks, we’re on leave, and I just want pizza, beer, and sex.
“My family, my sisters are going to drive me mad. But they are going to fuss over me.” Smithy says with a big smile.
“Please! Your family will be fussing over me. They love me more.” Sophia says making Smithy nod his head agreeing with her.
“Who are you excited about
seeing Soph?” I watch as Soph’s eyes shine brightly.
“Other than my dad and brothers, I’m most excited to see my best friends. Maddie and Winter.” I hear Smithy tut and look and see he’s staring at Soph looking mad.
“Soph, I thought we discussed this? You can’t have any other best friends. Why would you do this to me?” Smithy says making us all laugh. Having a bond that Smithy and Soph have is unique, we all grow bonds while being deployed, we need to. You have to know who you have watching your six. But the bond these two have is amazing, I’m actually a bit jealous.
“Listen, Smithy, I love you, but we have an agreement, we do not talk about our sex lives. Ever. So for me to talk about mine, I’m going to meet up with Maddie and Winter, we are going to go out, and I am going to have sex and the next morning we will discuss it.” I want to laugh and say she’s joking, but I don’t think she is.
“Wait. Women actually do that? They talk about their sex lives? Like in graphic detail?” Oscar asks.
“Yeah, ever had a woman tell you she’s meeting her friends the next morning?” We are all nodding.
“Yeah, that’s her giving the low down on you,” Skye says, and she and Soph laugh.
“Do you rate them?” Smithy asks cautiously. I don’t blame him; this is something we have to know. By the laugh coming from Skye and the huge smile on Soph’s face they do.
“Sometimes we do. It’s never anything bad, so don’t worry guys.” Soph replies causing Smithy to scoff.
“Worried? Me? Please, Soph, you know me, all the ladies love me, no complaints, just praise.” Smithy says, and Soph starts to gag.
“Anyway, Maddie is real quiet; she can be a bit of a loner. Winter, she is the life and soul of the party. I love them both so much, we are all protective of each other. Winter, she is fiercely protective of those she loves. When I was dumped the night after losing my virginity, Winter keyed his truck.” Soph tells us, she starts laughing, probably remembering it.
Deadly Obsession (Deadly Series Book 2) Page 17