All In: An Everyday Heroes World Novel (The Everyday Heroes World)

by J. L. Drake

  I quickly rearranged some lights around the ornament to help catch the angles his handprint made and hurried to change into something dry.

  Just as the kettle screamed to be removed from the burner, I heard Carter at the door. I tossed the tea bag and rushed to open the door.

  “Hey, babe…” My heart stopped, and my blood sank to my feet.

  “Hi, honey,” Myles said through a clenched jaw.

  “Myles,” dropped from my lips, and suddenly my fight kicked in. I slammed the door, but his shoe stopped it from closing. Ever so calmly, he used his force to pull the door out of my hold and moved himself inside.

  I knew I should scream, or kick, find something to hurt him with, but my body was suddenly stricken with paralysis. I was stuck in fear, completely at his mercy.

  The click of the lock made my body break out in a cold sweat. Images of our history flickered like a flip book in front of me. Broken bones, bruises, back-handed slaps, nearly drowning me in the tub when he thought I was cheating. My mind tried to catch up to what he might do now, but I couldn’t drag my mind away from the past. I had to force myself to concentrate to stay in the now and fight, fight for everything I had worked so hard for.

  Sweat lined the collar of his wrinkled dress shirt, his eyes were bloodshot, and saliva pooled at one corner of his mouth. His chest rose and fell rapidly, and the tremble in his hands had me on high alert.

  He looked wild. Deranged. Unhinged. Definitely not the dapper playboy he liked to portray.

  “So, this is where you’re living?” He slowly walked over to my bookshelf by the wall and picked up a photo of Jessi and me from when I first moved in. The sign I was holding read A New Start. “Amusing.” He snickered and set it down so hard the glass in the frame rattled.

  I inched toward Carter’s sweater that was draped over the back of the kitchen chair with the tips of my fingers and let it slip to the ground in a silent motion. The less Myles could discover of my new life, the better.

  “A tree?” He tapped one of the ornaments and made it swing violently against the rest. “Presents?”

  Oh, shit.

  He pushed aside the tissue paper and pulled out the sexy one-piece Carter got me.

  “Seems you’ve been busy.”

  “I could say the same about you,” hopped off my tongue, and my eyes bugged out the moment I digested my own words.

  “The fireman?” he asked, but I knew he knew.

  “Yeah.”

  Breathe, Ari.

  “Hm.” He circled the couch and came toward me, and with every step he took, I took one backward. Until I hit the wall and was trapped. The hairs on my arms stood at attention and pulsed to the savage beat of my heart. Half of me felt betrayed. I had promised myself I wouldn’t be a victim again, not to Myles or to anyone, but the other half of me understood it was out of my control. I knew how strong he was. It never helped me to fight back before; he always won.

  His finger ran down the side of my cheek, and I turned away in disgust. He clucked his tongue in disapproval and held my chin tightly as he repeated the action.

  “Don’t,” I warned, feeling my mind slip to a different place. A place I didn’t like.

  “Nice to know I wasted a decade on a whore.” One second, I was fuming, and the next, my cheek burned with fire. He flexed his hand like the slap hurt him and not me. With all my might, I didn’t cower, touch my face, or cry out. I just kept my eyes on his face and dug deep inside me for strength.

  “Now,” he tapped the side of his nose with his thumb like he was a legit gansta, “it’s time for you to come home. Play time is over.”

  “What?” I blurted. “You’re insane.”

  “Insane?” He repeated, and his eyes flared. Before I could react, his hands snapped around my neck and squeezed my vocal cords. “You haven’t even seen what I’m capable of yet.”

  The pain was unlike anything I had ever felt before. Air tried to slip past his hold, but it wasn’t enough. Black spots formed and made it hard to focus on him. The room tilted to the side and snapped back all at once.

  “Tell me what he said to you!” Spit hit my check as I clawed desperately at his tight grip. “Tell me what Chester said to you before he killed himself!”

  “Nothing.” I tried to form the word, but it came out in pieces.

  “Bullshit! You two were always close. He wouldn’t have come to you if it was nothing!” I could see my reflection in his glossy eyes. To think this was a man I had once loved and thought was my forever. How had things ever come to this point? His soul was so bent from years of misuse and deceit it had finally snapped completely.

  “Myles,” I cried out as his hands loosened just a bit. I knew I only had moments before I passed out. “Nothing, said nothing.”

  His tongue ran along his bottom lip before he roughly let me go, and I slumped to the ground, tasting the salt from my tears and fighting to catch my breath.

  “Get your shit. We’re going home.”

  “What?” I could barely hear him over the ringing in my ears. Suddenly, he was back in my face screaming for me to get up. I reached deep within myself as my hand touched one of my workout weights behind me, and with all my might, I swung it up and hit him in the head and sent him flying backward.

  I scrambled to my feet and staggered to the door but was grabbed by my hair and tossed backward over the couch.

  “You’re my fucking wife, not a hotshot in a fire-retardant suit’s plaything. I will not share you with anyone else.”

  He stood over me with a hand to his forehead. Blood ran between his fingers, and he looked at it then picked up a heavy glass vase that would surely end my life. I struggled to catch my breath and process what was about to happen.

  “Please, Myles.” I felt a hot tear roll out of the corner of my eye and travel down my neck, getting lost in my hair. “You don’t even love me.”

  “What does love have to do with anything?”

  “It’s everything!” I wanted to cry, for me, for Carter, for Walker, for my family, for anyone who had been in an abusive relationship. Where was my justice? Where was my win? Was this just all some sick joke that the powers above played on me? I had made it out, only to be sucked back into this sick, warped hole. Above all, where was my strength? I was disappointed in myself. I was a victim again after all.

  He raised the vase over his head, and I closed my eyes and said a goodbye to this life and only hoped my next would be kinder.

  No!

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Carter

  With a bundle of star gazer lilies in my arms, I raced up the stairs to our building and greeted Otis, who held up his new gloves.

  “Looking good, my friend.”

  “You two are good people.” He opened the door. “More flowers?” His face scrunched up like he was confused. “That’s a lot of flowers. You must have really done something wrong.” He chuckled.

  “What do you mean?” I was thrown by his comment.

  “I just let the delivery man up with the big bundle of yellow roses.”

  “What?” My body locked in place as his words absorbed through me.

  “The flowers that were delivered a bit ago.” He disappeared out back and returned with the logbook. “The man said you had arranged the whole thing, so I assumed…”

  My stomach sank as I looked up at Otis, who caught wind of my sudden mood change.

  “Has he left?” I tried keep my voice even.

  “Ah?” He took a moment to think. “I don’t think so.”

  “Shit!” I tossed the flowers and raced for the elevators.

  “Carter?”

  “Otis!” I shouted as I repeatedly hit our floor button, knowing the first-floor steps were being cleaned. “Call 911, now!” He raced off as the doors shut, and I paced the tiny box, feeling sicker by the moment.
When it stopped on the floor below ours, I nearly took a woman out as I pushed her aside and raced toward the stairs. Taking them three at a time, I tried to steady my mind for what I was about to walk in on. I nearly tripped as I yanked the key from my pocket. I tossed my body into the door before I fumbled with my keys and tore it open.

  “Stop!” I screamed at the man in front of me with a glass vase over his head. I couldn’t see Arizona, but I knew she was there. I knew she was his target. I prepared myself to hit him low and hard.

  The piece of shit moved his psychotic gaze over to mine and slowly lowered his arms. A part of me was relieved, but now I knew I needed to deal with him myself. A hundred and one scenarios raced through my head. I knew the law. I knew what I could and couldn’t do. I wasn’t about to put myself behind bars. No, I would make sure whatever happened tonight, he would be the one in metal cuffs, and I would keep Arizona safe.

  “Hey! You wanna fight, you fight me.” I quickly dropped my jacket and tried to keep his focus on me. It was working until Arizona made a noise and I saw him tune back in to hurting her. “Hey,” I shouted and played the dirty card, “I’m the one your ex-wife is sleeping with.”

  That did it.

  “She’s not my ex,” he barked.

  “Yeah, she is.” I moved closer. “She filed for divorce and wants nothing to do with you.”

  “She doesn’t know what she wants. She’s weak, worthless and weak.” He dropped the vase and lifted a hand to wipe the blood on his face from a cut on his forehead, then turned to me like he was ready for a fight.

  “She was strong enough to get away from you.” I chuckled just to hit him below the belt. “She’s one of the strongest women I’ve ever known.”

  “That so?” He pushed his sleeves up and raised his fists.

  “Only cowards hit women.” I could see him losing control by the way he shook his head at my comment and lurched around. “If you want to fight someone, be a man and fight a man.”

  “You have a death wish, don’t you, fireman?”

  “I stare death in the face every day. You’re no challenge, Myles.”

  He took a lousy swing, and I had plenty of time to duck and punch him in the gut. He stumbled backward and fell to the floor next to Arizona.

  “That’s it?” I almost laughed at how pathetic he was, but I was quickly outsmarted when I saw just how Myles Young played the game of life.

  He hauled Arizona to her feet by her hair and jammed a knife to her throat.

  “A sucker punch for a life?” He laughed and hugged her close to him. “Now what, fireman? You gonna hit me again? Nah, you’re going to watch me slice her useless throat and watch her life drain out.”

  Holy hell, he is bat shit crazy.

  Arizona’s eyes found mine and she mouthed, “I’m sorry,” before I saw his muscles flex to push the knife into her flesh.

  “Drop it!” Officer Ivan moved into the room with his gun drawn, and three other officers followed suit. I took a breath for what seemed the first time since I saw Otis on the stairs.

  Myles dropped the knife and let go of Arizona, who slumped to the floor in shock. I leapt forward and caught her before her head could hit the floor. I cradled her in my arms, totally unprepared for the wave of fear that swept over me. I had interacted with Myles in the only way I knew how, man to man. I couldn’t fathom the dark depths of a mind like his. I pressed my lips to her white ones and kissed her back to me.

  “On your knees,” one of the officers ordered and pushed him down to the ground. “Hands behind your back.” The sick son of a bitch slowly did as he was told, then they roughly cuffed him.

  “She’s my wife.” His words were cold as ice as two officers dragged him back up onto his feet and toward the door. “I did nothing wrong but visit my wife. She hit me first, Goddam it! You can’t touch me! Do you know who my father is? I’ll have you all sued!”

  “Carter.” Ivan pulled my attention to him, and he nodded at Brooke, our EMT. She looked at me with such sympathy I wanted to close my eyes and disappear.

  Today could have been the end of us. The end of her.

  “May I?” She waited for me to pull away, and I watched while she quietly spoke to Arizona about what she was doing. A board was place under her body, her neck was placed in a brace, and she was lifted onto the stretcher and wheeled out toward the elevators.

  I went to follow when Ivan held up a hand to stop me.

  “I know, I won’t keep you long, but give me something to keep them off your back.”

  Shit. He was right, so I tried to get my head on straight and provide him cliff notes.

  “Speak to Otis, the doorman. He can fill you in on his part, but basically, some flowers arrived for her, the same ones her ex had been taunting her with for about a week now. He sent them to her work, to the rec center, now here. I guess he pretended to be a delivery man. Otis allowed him entrance to upstairs. When I arrived with more flowers, he thought I must have done something wrong, because an arrangement was just delivered. After Otis told me she already had a delivery, he showed me the log, and I put two and two together and raced up here. I saw him standing over her with a heavy glass vase ready to hit her with it. Shit, it would have killed her. I managed to get his attention on me, and he took the bait and took a swing at me. I punched him, and he hit the floor, but then he suddenly had a knife and was holding it to her throat. I didn’t have time to think. Thank God you guys arrived.”

  He took a moment to scribble on his pad, and I glanced down the empty hallway, growing more anxious by the second. I needed to go to her. “You don’t have any weapons on you?”

  “No.”

  “Does she have any?”

  “Just Mace, somewhere, from what I understand.”

  “And you don’t have any idea why he showed up now?”

  “I have my suspicions, but nothing concrete.”

  “Which are?”

  “His co-worker was dating my sister. Arizona met him when we were at a party at my mother’s. She told me something pretty bad about him, so I told my sister, and she dumped him. My guess is he went to Myles with it. Myles probably snapped. He’s been unraveling since Arizona left him.”

  “Well, this should be enough to get him out of her life.”

  “I sure as hell hope so.” I spotted Jasper hunched under the table in the living room. His eyes were huge, and his back was up. I quickly scooped the moody guy up and rubbed his head, and to my surprise, he purred. Poor little guy was probably pretty scared with all that was going on. “Maybe we should call a truce, hey, buddy?”

  “Carter!” Otis flew through the door looking very red in the face, he was obviously very upset. “Is she—?”

  “She’s okay, Otis.”

  “Was this my fault?” His desperate eyes found Ivan’s. “I’m sorry, sir. He told me he was a co-worker. I had no idea. I’ll give you any information you need, anything at all.”

  “You’re not at fault here, Mr. Otis, but I would like your statement. Carter is anxious to check on Arizona.”

  “You got it. Please go, Carter.” He nodded toward the door as he took the seat Ivan offered. “Oh, and please, Carter, send my heartfelt apologies to Ms. Lexington.”

  “Of course.” I shut Jasper away in the bedroom with an extra bowl of his food in fear he might slip out while people were coming and going. I gave Otis a pat on his shoulder as I waited for Jessi to arrive so I could go. Ten minutes later, she came racing in and tossed her arms around me. I gave her a quick recap and handed her my keys. I needed someone to lock up after everyone was finished here.

  “Just keep me in the loop, that’s all I ask, and give her my love.” She looked like she might be sick.

  “I promise. Thanks.”

  With a quick look over my shoulder, I raced down the hallway and down the stairs, barely missing a collision with
the caretaker as he swept, and flew out the door. The freezing rain matched my mood. Though I was scared to no end for Arizona’s safety, there was a level of anger that coursed through me, so I skipped the cab and sprinted all the way to the hospital.

  In hindsight, I wished I had taken the cab, because my soggy shoes squeaked loudly as I raced across the lobby and into Emergency, where I was told what bed she was in.

  As I got closer, I heard her voice, and it calmed my nerves.

  “Really, I’m okay,” she protested as a nurse prattled something off to her about concussions. “I really just want to go home. When can I be released?”

  “Do you have anyone to take you home?”

  “Hey.” I pulled back the curtain and her face sagged with relief. The male nurse glared at the sudden interruption. “Sorry, babe, I had to hang back and answer questions.”

  “Are you her husband?” The nurse put his hands on his hips.

  “Boyfriend,” Arizona chimed in. “The boyfriend who will be driving me home if you would please release me now.”

  “Hi. I work with the NYFD, so I’m here often. Sorry we haven’t met.” I gave him my best smile.

  “Fine.” He snapped the iPad open and started to tap away on his chart. “She had a nasty bang on her head, so we need you to watch for a concussion. There’s some bruising along the throat, but nothing time won’t heal. She also has a small cut near the jugular.” He looked at me over his glasses, and his eyebrows went up. “The liquid stitch should hold and fall off by next week.”