That was so true. For all of us. There was nothing we wouldn’t do for this woman. Even the impossible.
“We take back the Alliance. We announce it right now. Go back to the vault. Make the announcement. And gather whoever comes to us. Get our girl out.”
Warden ran a hand through his hair as the rain pelted down. It kept starting and stopping. “Trace, that seems like it’s going to take some time. That is going to take… days at least. That’s too much time.”
“We don’t have a choice. Unless someone else has a better idea.”
Judson stepped forward. “We can halt them from doing anything to her, taking her anywhere. That much we can do today. Come on. We need to go to the vault. Trace is right. But before we take control of the Alliance, we’ll make Everly safe. That we can do.”
This was the Judson I’d been waiting for. He was going to call a cessation to any and all Alliance activity in preparation for new leadership. Whoever had her now wouldn’t so much as be able to move her from one room to another without breaking Alliance law, which would result in their immediate execution.
I picked up my phone. We needed a car, and we needed it yesterday.
* * *
Everly
Now
I knew that voice. It couldn’t be. I stepped toward the sound. Maybe I was dead. Maybe I had been struck and that sound, Warden’s low voice, called to me to come with him. I paused by the car. I wasn’t in my right mind. Maybe I was losing it altogether. Maybe…
A strong hand yanked me forward, pulling me into the car as he shut the door behind us. I was face to face with Warden. I touched his face, not even thinking not to, running my fingers over the long slope of his nose, feeling the whiskers that were long enough to almost be a beard. He smelled right and…
“Everly.” The car jerked forward, and he drew me against him. Who was driving? I couldn’t see them. “You okay? We knew there was a possibility they’d go for you because they know they can’t now and…”
I shook my head wildly, my hair going everywhere, falling in my eyes. I could hardly see him. That was fine. I couldn’t breathe either. I didn’t need any of that. “How?” I somehow managed to get that word out.
He drew me to him, bringing my head to his forehead. “Did you think we weren’t okay?”
“She killed you. Burned you to death.” I choked on every word until I sobbed against him.
“Well, that at least explains why you went around confessing to things, even things you didn’t do. You didn’t kill both those people in the Caribbean. According to Derrick, you only took out one.”
I didn’t even remember what I’d told the now dead Mister Alliance. There was only Warden and the words he was saying… we. That meant they were all okay? “She didn’t kill you?”
Reality rushed back into my brain, but it felt more like fantasy. How could this be happening?
“No, she didn’t kill us, and we didn’t know you thought that. I’m sorry, love.” He kissed both my eyes. “Have you eaten or slept?”
They’d brought me food, but I hadn’t touched it. “No.”
“Okay. We’re heading home now. All will be well.”
With the knowledge they lived came other problems. “We have to run, and I killed Alyssa. I have to somehow make that okay for Judson and there is no making that okay. I…”
“Judson is not upset with you. Hold on.” He grabbed his phone. “We don’t need to run. I’ll explain it all but first…”
He clicked a button on his phone, and Judson’s voice came over the speaker.
“Are you okay? You got her? I know Derrick took him out. That much I’ve heard. Report. Is she hurt? I’m ready on the plane…
“Jud,” Warden interrupted him. “She’s okay physically. Maybe a little dehydrated. She hasn’t eaten. But she needs to hear from you specifically. She’s…”
“Darling,” his voice was low over the phone. “I know you were in an impossible situation. We can speak more about it later. But all is well. I promise. I love you.”
The tears flowed freely down my cheeks. “Okay, Jud. I… I am sorry. I would never cause you pain and I…”
“Yes. I know. See you in just a few minutes.”
Warden disconnected the call. “See? It’s okay. And Derrick is too if for some crazy reason you worried about that. He’s the one who took out the guy on the street, obviously. There won’t be more than that. Things are going to get under control.”
There were so many questions in my mind that I couldn’t vocalize them all. Instead, I pressed my head down on his shoulder. He was here, and he was okay. His heart was beating.
Warden had always been wonderful about knowing exactly when to be quiet. Right then, he just held me and that was what I needed. I lifted my head. “Who is driving this car?”
He cupped my cheek. “Man’s name is Edward Stewart. He works for us now. Well, he sided with us. We’ve taken back over the Alliance, almost. We’ve started the process. No war. No schism. The old fashioned way. We’re going to make a return to the days of my grandfather. Things will be… civilized and I know it’s hypocritical, but I don’t mind destroying things to rebuild them right now.”
We had people again. And Alyssa was dead. Was any of this possible?
“Come here.” He tapped his lap, and I lay down in it, placing my head where his hand had been. He ran his hands through my hair. It was so soothing, so bizarre to feel him alive when he should have been dead. “You’re safe, and for the first time, we’ll be able to assure that.”
“Are we going back to Destin?”
He shook his head. “We’re keeping that house. It’s yours. We don’t really get a say in it. We thought you’d keep it. I couldn’t imagine you getting rid of it since Kade gave it to you. But we’re all in agreement. We need a headquarters as much as a home. We never thought about it before because he’s so private but then…”
I interrupted him. “Are we talking about Vermont? Please don’t get me wrong, I love it there. It’s stunningly beautiful. But I don’t want to hide on an island and never see anyone again. I need a town. Oh, forget it. I’m not getting a say in this. I’m…”
“It’s not Vermont,” he interrupted me right back. “Montana. We can easily convert Derrick’s home into what we need. It’s big enough, remote enough. There’s a town. And we can have Alliance meetings as needed there.”
I loved that house in Montana. “Derrick is okay with that?”
“Haven’t you realized that we are always okay with whatever you want? You aren’t just… our woman. It’s more than that. Something we’ve all realized. Don’t worry about it now. Just rest. We’ll all be on the plane together. And things will move from there.”
I believed him. Whatever was left to figure out, we would… together.
* * *
By the time I got to the plane I’d pulled myself together. I was tired to the point of delirious. If someone had told me that aliens landed and they wanted to give us a one-way ticket to Trace’s Mars I would have believed we were on our way there.
Everyone turned when I boarded the plane. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the pilot I’d met when we’d first returned to Boston. Derrick’s pilot. He was here. We had people.
I needed to say something to these five men who had come to mean more to me than anything else. When Warden stepped around me to enter the plane, I finally found my voice. “I’m so glad you’re all not dead. So glad.”
“The confessing makes sense. She really did believe we were dead.” Warden rubbed my back. “But we’re all fine. Thanks to Kade. Thanks to Judson. Thanks to finally figuring out what track we’re supposed to be on.”
Trace was closest and gave me a tight hug. He smelled so good. I pressed my nose closer to him. “Love you.”
“Me, too.”
I hugged each of them, feeling their strong arms, their presence on the plane with me, their individual natures, the way they filled me up inside. I didn’t really care wha
t we did next. I was just so glad we were going to get to do it.
* * *
Derrick’s home—now all our home—showed in the distance. I leaned forward in the car to get a better look. Next to me, my D smiled. “I think she’s glad to be home.”
“I am.” I still hadn’t slept. I’d tried several times on the plane but hadn’t gotten there. I wondered if it was possible to get to a place where I wasn’t going to have to sleep at all.
The house was as we’d left it the day we’d left to go get Derrick’s surgery. Had it been that long? Someone had cleaned it, but he had a company that came and did that. Maybe he’d been home while we’d been separated. But I was struck just the same how nothing had changed within the walls when everything altered elsewhere.
They’d been right. This was where we needed to go.
The rooms were divided up. Derrick had plenty of them, and in the meantime, when he did talk, it was about renovation. He was going to make this place even bigger.
Trace walked over to me, taking my hand. “Come on, beautiful. Let’s go take a shower.”
That sounded like a wonderful idea. Although, I wasn’t sure I could rinse everything that happened off of me, ever.
21
Warden
I watched her go upstairs with Trace. Everly was exhausted. I could see it in every move she made and every word she didn’t say. This had hit her as hard as anything I’d seen. She thought we were dead, and it had… wounded her to her very soul. I understood. Thinking she was dead would end me. I loved this woman, every ounce of her soul, every thought in her head, every cell on her skin. I loved her until I couldn’t think for loving her.
“We’re set up.” Kade pushed back from his computer. “Firewall is steady, and I don’t think we have any direct challenge right now. You should be able to work.”
I was going to get us going. The first thing I had to do was stabilize the economy. Everly would like that. She could see that there was good to be done on our end. I’d never been focused on that before but now, if we moved forward the way we wanted to, it had to be with some altruistic ends or we’d never get our girl on board.
And we needed her to buy into this or it wasn’t going to work.
We didn’t agree on very much except for things that came to Everly. All five of us couldn’t have picked a restaurant to eat dinner if we’d had to in order to save the world. But we could make decisions when it came to putting her first, and we could easily do what she told us as if we were born to do so.
I would follow her to the pits of hell and then carry her out when she needed to leave. I’d do anything for her, forever.
There was no question. If we were going to do this, if we were going to be the Alliance so that we could keep the world around us consistent, then she had to lead it. Everly was going to have to lead the Alliance.
I ran a hand through my hair. I really didn’t know what she was going to say when we told her. If she said no… this would all fall apart.
* * *
Everly
The hot water pounded down on me, and I closed my eyes. Trace stepped into the water with me. I hadn’t invited him in, but the invitation had been implied given that I hadn’t thrown him out of the bathroom when I’d dropped my clothes and gotten under the spray. He pulled me up against his chest and started rubbing shampoo into my hair.
I sighed. There was something so nice about having my hair washed by someone other than me. I’d never get enough of it.
“Tilt your head forward. Keep your eyes closed.” I did as he instructed, happy to take direction right now. The shampoo rinsed out of my hair, helped by Trace’s gentle hands. When my hair was clean, he washed me with soap. “I like taking care of you. I never get to do this. I’m the one who plots and pushes. But I want to be gentle with you, Everly. I want to love you.”
I leaned back, arching my neck until he could kiss my lips. He joined our mouths, and I drowned in the moment as the warm water surrounded us in its embrace. This was our cocoon.
Finally, I pulled back just enough to be able to say the words I needed to say. “I love you, and I know you love me.”
Trace scooted around until he sat down on the built-in shower seat on the other end of the shower. He extended his hand, and I took it, walking toward him. His smile was fast. “Do you think Derrick was thinking shower sex when he had this installed in here?”
I shook my head. “He had almost nothing to do with the design of this house. But I certainly love that this is so convenient.”
He nodded. “Me, too.”
Trace drew me closer to him until I straddled his lap. His hard cock pressed up against the entrance to my pussy, but as we kissed, he made no indication that he wanted to hurry this along. Instead, I stayed right there, straddling his lap while I made love to his mouth.
“I thought you were dead twice now, Trace.” I ran my fingers down the side of his face. “So help me, if you do that to me a third time I am going to expire from the worry of it.”
He shook his head. “I don’t plan to spend a day being away from you, so you won’t need to worry about that.”
I loved that idea. It was crazy and probably not at all doable. People had to spend days apart, and yet right then it was just what I needed to hear and what I wanted more than anything. I didn’t want to be without him or any of the others ever again. It that made me needy, then so be it. I was needy, and I didn’t give two fucks.
I reached between us, feeling his cock, running my hand over the top of it. He moaned against my mouth and let go of my back to pinch both my nipples. A jolt of electricity traveled up my spine. “Yes.” I didn’t say as much as groaned that word. He took that to mean just what he should have and did it again.
I shuddered. I loved the nip of pain right now. It was cleansing like the shower itself, it was bringing me back from that jail cell, from those hours of being in that dark place where they didn’t exist anymore.
He replaced his hands with his mouth and sucked. I ground against him. Pain and pleasure mixed together, and he wasn’t even inside of me yet. He lifted his hips, pressing harder against me. I panted. I wanted more.
I lifted myself up to grasp his cock hard in my hand. He pulled back to look at me, raising his eyebrows. “Want it?”
“So much.” I pressed myself down on him, letting him stretch me, letting him fill me up. I moved quickly. I no sooner had him inside of me before I moved again, pulling out and doing it once more. He moaned. Yes, he liked that and that was just what I wanted. I leaned forward to rub against my clit on one of the passes. I shuddered. This was heaven.
He tugged my head forward until he could reach my lips. I understood what he wasn’t saying. I could have it my way… to a point. This was Trace. He wasn’t gentle, not even when he was caretaking, and he wanted to kiss, so damn it, I’d better comply.
I was happy to obey because we were going to get off, and it was going to be the sweetest thing ever. We drove into each other, it was like both of us needed to get to a finish line but neither one of us could cross it without the other. I dug my nails into the back of his neck so hard I was sure I would leave a mark. He growled, jerking his hips up one more time. My body burned for release, it practically demanded it.
My breath caught in my throat, and I knew it was happening. I held on for dear life as pleasure seemed to storm through my body, leaving me trembling in its wake. I gasped, biting down on my lips. Inside me, Trace grew impossibly hard a second before he finished.
I collapsed on top of him but he held me to him. Both of us were nothing but limbs and laughter. I loved how it felt to have so much joy post sex that I could do nothing but giggle. Trace bit down on my shoulder, his own laugh a low one.
“You might be trying to send me to an early grave, Everly.”
I looked up at him and smiled. “I told you. No more dying.”
He nodded. “That’s right. Come on. You need to go to bed.”
My stomach grumbled. �
��I need to eat something.”
“That, too.”
* * *
By the time I’d choked down a granola bar someone had left by the side of my bed, I was practically asleep sitting up. I turned off the light and drifted. Two people joined me in the bed, and I rolled to the center to accommodate them, hardly waking. I was pretty sure it was Kade and Derrick. Arms tightened around me while someone else pressed my head against his chest. Kade. I recognized the slight cinnamon to his scent.
I tried to open my eyes, to tell them how much I loved them being there, when I heard a door open and close. One of the others was coming. I really wanted to…
Derrick put a hand on my head. “Sleep, Evs. Nothing to do until tomorrow when there will be lots to do.”
“Need anything? I just came to check.” It was Warden’s low voice.
I didn’t need a thing. Just more of this, so much more.
* * *
With wakefulness came clarity. I’d no sooner opened my eyes than the reality of something hit me hard. Next to me, Derrick breathed deeply. Kade was also out cold and my head was still against his chest. He snored lightly. I hated to move either of them, but given that I’d just realized it had been days and days since I’d taken the pill and Trace and I had just… yep. No condom.
Kade lifted his head, staring down at me. “Something wrong?”
I kissed him. “Might have gotten myself pregnant last night.”
He blinked. “Really?”
Derrick tightened his arms around me. “That would be okay, Everly. Things are going to be different now. You’re going to be safe. Baby would be safe, too.”
Deadly Truths: Kiss Her Goodbye #3 Page 24