Hold on to Hope

by Jackson, A. L.

  It left him disoriented for the one second needed to isolate him.

  Make him vulnerable.

  I shouted, “Attack.”

  And Milo—my sweet old boy—he did.

  He protected the way he’d been trained to do.

  Milo went for his arm, mauling at the flesh, teeth tearing and ripping.

  Chris dropped to his knees.

  Howling in pain.

  When Chris scrambled back for the knife that had dropped to the floor, Milo went for his neck.

  Lights spun through the windows, flash after flash, and I raced for the door and flicked the lock just in time to allow a herd of officers to come stampeding through. Seth was at the helm with his gun drawn, eyes on me before they were dragging to where Milo tore into Chris’s neck, going for the throat, because my boy knew this was a fight to the death.

  Evan stood right outside Everett’s door.

  His breaths heaving.

  His eyes meeting mine as the officers swarmed the house.

  And we might have had hurts stretched out between us.

  Wounds that had been inflicted.

  Traumas we didn’t know how to navigate.

  But we knew—we knew what we were fighting for.

  He was fighting for me.

  For Everett.

  For us.

  Exactly the same as I would forever fight for them.

  Thirty-Four

  Evan

  Lying in our bed, I gazed at her through the early morning light that trickled in through the drapes of our bedroom window. The girl stared back at me. No chance we could tear ourselves away.

  It was what we’d done the entire night, neither of us able to sleep after what had happened.

  No words really said.

  Just silent, unspoken resolution.

  Everett was fast asleep in the middle of us because we couldn’t bear for him to be out of our sights, and Milo was in the mix of it, curled up at the bottom of the bed at our feet.

  Our family.

  She slid her hand across the mattress over Everett’s head, reaching out to trace the lines of my face. “I am so thankful you came back to me.”

  I knew she was whispering it so quietly, words little more than a breath that caressed my face.

  “And I’m so thankful you came back to me.”

  Her head shook slightly. “I guess I really didn’t leave you, Evan. I just got lost in the fear for a while. The same way as you did. You were just gone a little longer.” A wistful smile tugged at one side of her mouth.

  Emotion clogged my throat. Trying to process through all the information and facts and raveled ends. How was it possible to be so repentant, to want to beg for forgiveness for your greatest transgression, and know you would never take it back, would never change it, if given the chance?

  Everett was the gift that had been given.

  I brought her hand to my mouth. “You’re right, Frankie. That is exactly what I was. Lost. Lost without you.” I reached out, toying with one of those untamed curls, tucking it back behind her ear as I stared at my best friend.

  My partner.

  The girl who had always been meant for me.

  Maybe it’d taken a little while to finally get to where we both fully knew it. Where there was no going back. No questions or barriers left between us.

  “Could ask you for forgiveness again.” No doubt, the words were nothing but shards of broken sounds coming up my throat. My gaze dipped to Everett before it returned to her. “But I won’t. I won’t because I already know that you know how much I regret hurting you. You already know how much it kills me that you went through that alone. But I also know it would only hurt you and Everett more if I lived in that regret.”

  I swallowed hard, chest stretched tight, my love and devotion so thick I was sure it had manifested in the room.

  Become a living, thriving entity.

  I laid my hand on her cheek, brushed my thumb over her trembling bottom lip. “You have taught me the most important lesson in life, Unicorn Girl. Every day that you ran free and loved without question and pushed me to love you back? You were teaching me that every single day counts. None of us know how many we’re going to be given, but what we do know is each one we take for granted is one that has been lost. And I don’t want to waste any more. Not a single one.”

  I tightened my hold on her face. “And I am ready to chase after every single one of those dreams.”

  Her teeth clamped down on her bottom lip, those brown eyes soft and warm and drinking me down. “I don’t think I ever really let go of them, never stopped believing in them, and they were granted when I least expected them.”

  Her attention had drifted to Everett, her hand slowly rubbing his back the way that she did. She looked up at me. “I will love him for all the days I have, Evan. I will choose to protect him. I will choose to stand for him. The same as I choose to stand for you.”

  “Frankie,” I murmured, brushing her cheek, her nose, her chin.

  My insides twisted in affection.

  I loved her.

  Loved her so badly it hurt.

  Her brow pinched, and her tongue darted out to wet her lips. “I’m sorry for what happened to her. He’s going to need us to love him even harder because of it.”

  Disbelief pulled through my senses. A wash of quiet sadness.

  Ashley was gone.

  Found strangled in a hotel room in the next town over. Freak Fucker carved in her forearm with what was thought to be the same knife he’d brought here.

  Did I hate her for doing it? For trying to set me up? Manipulate me out of money? Did I hate her for putting Everett in the danger that she had?

  Yeah.

  But I also respected the fact she’d run when she’d found out she was pregnant. That she’d done what she had to protect him, as stupid and greedy as she’d been. But I had to believe that maybe she’d simply gotten mixed up with the wrong person. Was being manipulated herself before she’d realized what she was doing and changed course.

  Kristoff Manning, aka Chris, the piece-of-shit half-brother I’d had no clue existed, would survive.

  They’d finally linked the description I’d given with a fingerprint that had been lifted from Frankie Leigh’s house. It’d hit, but rather than coming back with information about Ashley’s brother, that fingerprint had belonged to a twenty-two-year old from Birmingham, Alabama who’d grown up with a single-mom and had a history of mental illness and a string of arrests for petty crimes.

  Fathered by Dane Gentry. Same as me.

  Maybe he’d been manipulated, too. Brought up in a chaos and fear and hatred so extreme it had shaped him into a vile, sadistic bastard.

  But that didn’t change what he’d done.

  The horrible crimes he’d committed and the ones he’d intended to carry out.

  Hating me because he felt like I’d had some kind of relevance in the fucked-up family tree that needed to be ripped up from the roots.

  “I hate that Everett will forever have that part of him missing, but you and I both know what it’s like for a parent not to want us. To abandon us. We both know what it feels like. And the only thing we can do is fill him with all the love we can give him and support him in the times when he’s feeling the loss. That’s what Rynna did for you and what Kale did for me.”

  She chewed at her lip. “But our parents didn’t love us or want us, Evan. My heart tells me that his did. That she loved him so much she was willing to sacrifice everything for him.”

  I nodded, hating to agree but knowing it was true.

  Frankie Leigh slowly sat up, crisscrossing her long legs and facing me, hair falling around her, shirt falling off one shoulder.

  So damn pretty in the rising morning light.

  She lifted her hands, earnestness bleeding out.

  YESTERDAY I WAS TERRIFIED I WASN’T ENOUGH FOR HIM, EVAN. TERRIFIED THAT I MIGHT FAIL HIM. THAT I WOULDN’T BE GOOD ENOUGH. BUT I HAVE NO QUESTION THAT HE NEEDS ME, EVERY
BIT AS MUCH AS I NEED HIM. EVERY BIT AS MUCH AS I NEED YOU.

  I eased up, getting onto my knees, leaning over the girl and taking her by the face. “I saw what you were willing to do last night. I saw it, and I know you meant it. You are more than enough. You are everything.”

  I leaned in.

  Kissed her slow.

  Loved her soft.

  Silently promised her that was what they were going to be.

  My everything.

  I grinned at her lips when I felt the movement on the mattress, my forehead dropping to hers as I looked to the side to find Everett on his knees. Giving us one of his scrunched up, adorable grins.

  Pointing at us with that little finger. “Da, Fi-Fi, Ehvie!”

  He laughed like it was the funniest thing, and I was laughing, too. I swiped him into my arms.

  Felt his giggles float into the air.

  Ricochet from the walls and echo in our hearts.

  Milo perked up, ears twitching, old guy crawling slowly up to get snuggled in with us.

  Our real hero from last night.

  Holding Everett in one arm, I reached out and cupped Frankie’s cheek. “Unicorn Girl . . . let’s soar for the stars.”

  Emotion crested her face, and she brushed her fingers through Everett’s hair, kid bobbing an arm at her to get her to take him into hers. “Just as long as you two are flying by my side.”

  Epilogue

  Frankie Leigh

  Two Years Later

  Sunshine poured into the backyard. The Alabama sky as blue as could be. The trees surrounding our home were full and lush. Surrounding the yard in a hedge of protection.

  My pulse thudded when I glanced at the clock.

  Almost noon.

  I stepped the rest of the way out onto the patio.

  Everett noticed me the second that I did, and he hopped up from where he was playing in the yard and raced my direction. “Mommy! Is it time? Is it time? Daddy said he was going to be here when the sun got way, way, way up high in the sky, and look it. It’s so high.”

  Kai did circles around Everett’s ankles, yipping and barking and wagging her tiny tail in excitement.

  I wondered if the sweet girl could feel it. The anticipation in the air. The feeling that everything was getting ready to change.

  “It is way up high, isn’t it? It’s almost time. You should come inside.”

  Everett stopped where the lawn met the wood and hopped onto the patio with two feet. “Dids you see that? I jumped so high. Almost as high as the sky.”

  Love overflowing, I ran my fingers through his soft hair. He grinned up at me, sending me one of those smiles that shattered me. Tied him to me.

  Sometimes it was hard to fathom the love that I had for this child.

  I knelt down a little so I could kiss him on the forehead. “You are such a big boy. I’m so proud of you.”

  I searched his emerald eyes. “Are you ready for this?”

  “Yes! It’s my favorite day!”

  I heard the car pulling into the front yard. Everett’s eyes bugged out in excitement.

  God, he looked so much like his daddy in that second that I couldn’t stand it.

  “He’s here, he’s here, he’s here!” He clapped and did some kind of dancing jig that pulled a giggle right out of me. “Wet’s go. Come on, Kai. We gotta go fast.”

  Everett bolted through the house, his footsteps banging on the wood floors, Kai’s nails clicking as she raced alongside him. The girl basically refused to leave his side.

  Chest tight, I followed them to the door where Everett stood antsy, waiting on me to unlock it. The car came to a stop, and we stepped out.

  I met Evan’s gaze through the windshield of his car.

  That energy surged.

  I’d always thought it impossible. The connection that I shared with this man. But it’d only grown.

  Amplified.

  Deepened with the commitment we shared.

  This life.

  This home.

  This family.

  Those emerald eyes flashed devotion.

  Admiration.

  But it was me who was so incredibly proud of him.

  Evan had stepped up to take a chair on the board of A Lick of Hope. He’d committed his life that he’d once feared inconsequential campaigning for awareness for genetic heart disorders.

  I’d taken over the marketing of the actual lollipops. Getting them into stores across the country to help spread the word.

  Together, as a team, we were making a difference.

  Evan cracked open the door while Everett was jumping all around at my side, clapping his hands over his head and shouting, “You see my puppy.”

  Affection pulled at the corner of my mouth, and Evan stood from the car.

  Emotion crashed.

  Tugged and strobed and pulsed.

  My smile trembled.

  Evan sent me that look that promised he understood me in every way. That he would never cut my wings. That he would be there with me every step of the way.

  That we were doing this together.

  That it was right.

  Finally, I moved, knees weak, heart in my throat.

  Every sensation heightened.

  I reached my hand out for Everett. “Come on, little man.”

  “Okays!” He hopped down the step at my side, and we followed the walkway to where Evan had moved to the backdoor of the car.

  He opened it, dipping down for a minute before it shut.

  The little boy stood there with his hand wrapped up in Evan’s.

  Scared and unsure and nervous.

  Evan heard about this little boy who’d been in the system for the last two years.

  Abandoned.

  Forgotten as if he couldn’t be heard.

  His dark eyes met mine. My spirit shivered. And I realized my breaths had gone short and my heart was racing and the world was spinning a little faster than it had been before.

  I got down onto my knees in front of him.

  Gravity.

  He tightened his hold on Evan. Evan watched down on me with a tender smile.

  I lifted my hands. HI, DOMINIC.

  His eyes lit. Shyly, he signed, HI, before he buried his face in Evan’s leg. Warily, he peeked out.

  Nerves and hope.

  And that was the only thing we wanted to give him.

  Everett chattered at my side, going on about all his toys and asking Dominic if he wanted to play.

  My smile was soft, and I edged forward a fraction. WE ARE SO HAPPY YOU ARE HERE.

  I gestured behind me before I turned back to him and lifted my hands with the promise.

  THIS HOUSE IS LOVE.

  It was, and the only thing Evan and I wanted to do was fill it with more.

  Let it overflow.

  I took Dominic’s hand.

  Energy flashed up my arm.

  I felt staggered.

  Unprepared for what I would feel.

  I glanced back at Evan. My heart clutched in my chest.

  The man so beautiful and strong and right.

  I was floored by the love.

  By the joy.

  By the belief that this was where we were supposed to be.

  No. None of us knew the number of our days. None of us knew what each of those days would bring.

  But Evan and I?

  We chose to live for every single one.

  We chose to live life loving with everything that we had. Chose to never let go of the ones that we loved most.

  And no matter what life brought our way, we would forever hold on to hope . . .

  THE END

  * * *

  Thank you for reading Hold on to Hope!

  I hope you loved Evan, Frankie Leigh, and Everett as much I loved writing them! They are forever going to be in my heart!

  Can’t get enough of this family?

  Start where it all began with Rex and Rynna in SHOW ME THE WAY

  New to me and want more? I rec
ommend starting with my super-hot, raw rockstar series, Bleeding Stars!

  A STONE IN THE SEA

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  Also by A.L. Jackson

  Confessions of the Heart

  More of You

  All of Me

  Pieces of Us

  Fight for Me Series

  Show Me the Way

  Follow Me Back

  Lead Me Home

  Hold on to Hope

  Bleeding Stars Series

  A Stone in the Sea

  Drowning to Breathe

  Where Lightning Strikes

  Wait

  Stay

  Stand

  The Regret Series

  Lost to You

  Take This Regret

  If Forever Comes

  The Closer to You Series

  Come to Me Quietly

  Come to Me Softly

  Come to Me Recklessly

  Stand-Alone Novels

  Pulled

  When We Collide

  Hollywood Chronicles

  A collaboration with USA Today Bestselling Author, Rebecca Shea

  One Wild Night

  One Wild Ride

  About the Author

  A.L. Jackson is the New York Times & USA Today Bestselling author of contemporary romance. She writes emotional, sexy, heart-filled stories about boys who usually like to be a little bit bad.

  Her bestselling series include THE REGRET SERIES, CLOSER TO YOU, BLEEDING STARS, FIGHT FOR ME, and CONFESSIONS OF THE HEART.

  If she’s not writing, you can find her hanging out by the pool with her family, sipping cocktails with her friends, or of course with her nose buried in a book.