“Yes, really. If you’re worried about leaving Ruth behind, she’s welcome to move in here with us until she’s ready to move elsewhere. I know Evie’s offered Charlie’s old house to you. I’m not saying forever, Autumn.”
He rolled her onto her back and hovered over her. “I don’t think your mom would appreciate seeing me do dirty things to you.”
She grinned up at him. “No, I’m sure she wouldn’t.” Her expression sobered as she stared at his handsome face. “I love you so much.”
His mouth crashed onto hers before she’d finished speaking and she kissed him back with equal fervor. When his fingers slid between her thighs, she welcomed his touch, craved it after being apart for what felt like a lifetime. He stroked her slowly, one finger slipping into her as his thumb brushed her clit.
She broke the kiss and moaned. God, she loved the way he touched her, setting her skin—her soul—on fire. She was still wet from their previous encounter, so she pushed him onto his back and sat astride him, rubbing her sex up and down his cock, coating him with her arousal.
It wasn’t long before he was completely hard again, and Autumn raised her hips just far enough to position him at her entrance. She slid down onto him in one smooth stroke, not stopping until he was buried all the way inside her.
Cody flung his head back and gritted his teeth. “Shit.” His hands gripped her hips. “You’re so fucking tight I’m going to come right now.”
She smiled at him, lifting her long, dark hair up to the top of her head. “So come.” Autumn began to move her hips, riding him wantonly. She no longer had any reservations about sex and her enjoyment of it, and was a willing and eager participant when it came to Cody.
He did come first, and when he’d stilled, he flipped her on to her back and settled in between her legs, licking her to orgasm. After their breathing had returned to normal, she felt the pull of slumber.
“Can you stay tonight?”
His question had her opening her eyes again. “Absolutely.”
They kissed one last time, and then got comfortable and settled in for the night. His hand drifted back to her belly, and she smiled in the dark.
27
October
Autumn unpacked the last of her boxes and placed her books on the shelves. Cody had ordered some gorgeous bookshelves for her as a surprise and they currently sat in one of the spare bedrooms.
The other was going to be the nursery, although they’d yet to set anything up. She’d been putting together vision boards for what she liked and sharing them with him, but they were holding off on decorating anything for now until she was settled into the cabin.
Her new home. She already loved being there, even though she’d only moved in a few days previously. It felt like home to her.
Cody had made room for her everywhere. He’d cleared out a couple of large cupboards and drawers in the kitchen for all of her baking supplies. She kept everything neat and tidy, but not once had she felt like an intruder. This cabin, that she’d grown to love so much, was now her home.
Their home.
Their baby’s home.
In order to avoid the inevitable storm, Autumn and Ruth had waited until her father had gone out of town for business to move their things out of the Grant residence. They would speak with him upon his return to let him know they’d moved out, but after talking at length both women had agreed it best to wait until Jed was absent to move their possessions.
Between the Whittaker men, their ranch hands, and Gus Collins, Ruth had been moved into Charlie Steele’s old house with a minimum of fuss, while Autumn’s belongings, such as they were, had been taken to Cody’s cabin.
Neither woman had wanted to bring much with them, but Ruth had some heirlooms and keepsakes she hadn’t wanted to leave behind.
Ruth was relishing the idea of living on her own for the first time in her life and had already made a list of all the things she wanted to do. Autumn was thrilled for her mother, who had finally found the courage to start a new life for herself.
She also hoped once her mom was comfortable with her new life that she might start dating Gus Collins, a man who did make Ruth happy.
Autumn had been so busy moving over the last few days that she hadn’t had a chance to write in her journal. Cody was at work, so she had the place to herself. She decided to make a nice cup of herbal tea and settle down to note the whirlwind of changes in her life.
She went to her tote to dig her journal out, but it wasn’t there. Frowning, she stood still for a few moments, trying to think of where she’d put it. After checking both her bedroom and the other room with no luck, she went through the kitchen, small dining room, and living room.
It wasn’t anywhere to be found. Shit.
She stood in the middle of the living room, hands on her hips, thinking furiously about where it might be. And then it hit her: she’d left it at her old house on the kitchen counter.
Sighing with relief, she grabbed her keys and cell and climbed into her car. Fortunately, her father wasn’t due to arrive home until the following day, so she could just dart inside, grab the journal, and come home again.
Home. Once she’d started the engine, she peered at the cabin where she now lived with the man she loved. She’d found her home. With Cody.
Fifteen minutes later, she pulled into the long driveway of the Grant ranch and parked around the side of the house. Had she not been in such a rush to grab her journal and leave, she might have noticed the old, run-down truck sitting around the back. But she didn’t, instead coming around to the front.
Autumn got out of the car and headed for the front porch but stopped dead in her tracks when the screen door creaked open and out stepped the one man she’d hoped to avoid. Her heart froze when she saw what he had in his hands. One held the purple journal she’d come over to collect. The other had a shotgun, his finger wrapped around the trigger.
“Come to get this?” He waved the journal at her. The look on his face was downright menacing, and Autumn had never been so terrified in her life.
“Yes.” Her voice was shaking and she shivered, but she tried hard not to show her fear. It would be like waving a red flag at a bull. “May I please have it?” She held out her hand, trying to ignore the tremble in it.
He stared at her, rage visible in his eyes. Oh God. He’d read it. He knew everything. Knew she was pregnant, how long she’d been dating Cody.
Autumn couldn’t help but stare at the shotgun. It was currently pointed at the floor, but all he had to do was raise it and press the trigger, and she’d be dead. He was perfectly capable of killing her, and her heart began to thud madly in her chest at the idea.
She didn’t want to die, not now. Not like this. Her hands flew to her stomach, unconsciously shielding her baby.
The action didn’t go unnoticed by Jed, who narrowed his eyes. “So it’s true. You let that disgusting Whittaker boy touch you. You spread your legs for him and he knocked you up.”
“Dad, please—”
“Don’t you dare!” he roared. She shrank back in terror. “You’re not worthy of referring to me by that title, you fucking whore, after everything I’ve done for you.”
Jed’s face had gone red and a large vein on his forehead was visible, his anger palpable. She knew there would be no calming or reasoning with him.
Tears welled in Autumn’s eyes as she tried desperately to think of how she was going to extricate herself from this situation with both her and the baby unharmed.
“Do you know how revolted I was to read this piece of crap?” He held the journal up. “How disgusting you sounded? Spreading your legs like the slut you obviously are for the first man who’d look at you. How long did it take you, hmm? Let’s find out.”
To her horror, he opened the journal up to a random page and began to read her words aloud. Words that were only meant to be seen by her. Her innermost private thoughts.
He spat them out as though they were acid, sullying everything that had b
een precious to her. The blossoming of her relationship with Cody, and how much it—and he—had come to mean to her.
She’d even written, in great detail, about their sex life. Words that had thrilled her when she’d formed them now sounded dirty and shameful. He kept going, reading passage after passage, his anger increasing with every page.
She begged him to stop. He tainted everything with his anger and disgust, and by the time he finally stopped talking he’d worked himself into a frenzy.
When he lifted the muzzle of the shotgun and pointed it straight at her, Autumn closed her eyes and began to cry.
“Get up here.”
She scurried onto the porch as commanded but kept as far back as she dared. It wouldn’t be enough distance to stop her from perishing from a gunshot wound, but she didn’t want to be any closer.
Jed threw the journal onto the ground and the loud clatter it made startled Autumn. “Turn around.”
She stood her ground, terror unfurling deep in the pit of her stomach. Tendrils of fear rose up and curled around her heart. If she turned around, she’d die. “I don’t want to.”
“Turn around. I won’t tell you again.”
“Please don’t do this.”
He raised the gun a little so it was level with her stomach. “You want this kid dead before it’s even born?”
For the second time, her hands flew to cover her belly, but she knew that wouldn’t stop any serious injury. Knowing she had no choice, she very slowly turned around.
When the safety clicked and she felt something cold against the back of her head, she knew it was the muzzle of the shotgun. Tears ran down her face and she made no attempt to stifle her cries. “Please don’t kill me or my baby, Dad.”
Autumn had hoped using the name might sway him, just a little, but it had the opposite effect. “I’m not your father anymore, you worthless whore. How could you betray me? I raised you better than this.” She felt the slight waver of the gun against her head. “I guess history will be repeating itself.”
It took her a few moments to understand what he was referring to, but then it clicked. Aurora Whittaker and Jacob Grant had been murdered by her father after wanting to start a new life together and daring to plan one.
She closed her eyes again and, as tears coursed down her cheeks, silently prayed that Cody and her mom knew how much she loved them. That somehow they’d learn to live without her.
“Jed, put the gun down. Nice and slow.”
Her eyes snapped open as a familiar voice spoke loudly. She blinked rapidly to clear her vision, and it was then she spotted the police cruisers that were parked a good distance away from the house.
Sheriff Gus Collins was standing in front of one, and Autumn’s heart began to beat faster when she saw Cody behind the other. He was leaning over the trunk, his gun pointed at them.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” her father roared. “Get off my property, Collins. You’re not welcome here.”
“I’m afraid I can’t go anywhere until I know Autumn is safe. Why don’t you put down the gun and we’ll talk?” Gus placed the rifle he was holding on the hood of his cruiser behind him and held his hands up. He walked slowly toward them. “I’m here to listen, Jed. Why don’t you let the girl go and we’ll talk, just the two of us?”
Jed let out a strangled noise and spat on the ground. “You must be joking. I have nothing to say to the man who’s fucking my slut of a wife.”
The tendrils of fear around Autumn’s heart squeezed, and she struggled for breath.
“I’ve never slept with Ruth, Jed. She’s a good woman who’s loyal to you. She’d never cheat on you.”
Her first instinct was to defend her mother, but she feared that if she spoke she’d only inflame the situation, so she kept her mouth shut.
Instead, she gazed at Cody, who’d skirted around the cruiser and was now also walking toward them, staying behind the sheriff. His gun was in his left hand and he kept it trained in their general direction.
“Not another step.” Jed’s command could be heard loud and clear. “You take one more step and I’ll blow her head off.”
She froze in place, too afraid to so much as breathe. Her father was in such a rage that she knew he might just pull the trigger, and she didn’t want to do anything to antagonize him. She didn’t want to die. She certainly didn’t want the man she was desperately in love with to witness her death.
“Come on, Jed.” Collins’s voice was gentle and calm. “There’s no need for any of this. You’re scaring your daughter.”
“I’m supposed to care about this whore?”
The sheriff was now close enough that Autumn could see his face, and soon enough Cody was, too. She gazed at her boyfriend, and once she knew he could see her lips, she mouthed ‘I love you’ to him.
He didn’t smile or show any reaction. When Gus started talking again, Cody mouthed the same words back to her. If this was to be the last time they spoke, those were the words she wanted him to hear. Or, more precisely, see.
It was clear Sheriff Collins was attempting to negotiate a peaceful ending, but Autumn couldn’t see any end to the standoff that didn’t involve her impending death. If she was going to die, she would do so with her eyes wide open, because she wanted the last thing she saw to be the face of the man she loved.
And it was Cody’s face she was staring at when the gun suddenly went off and everything went black.
28
Autumn waited to feel the bullet pierce her head. Waited for the pain to blast through her body and prayed it wouldn’t last long. She heard yelling in the distance, saw Cody and Collins running toward her, and her legs gave way underneath her.
She slumped to the ground, no longer able to stand, and reached up a hand to find the bullet’s entrance.
But there was no hole. When she pulled her hand away and looked at it, there was no blood. It was only when she turned to look behind her that she saw it wasn’t herself who’d been shot. Her father was lying on the ground, his body still. Blood poured from a gaping wound on his shoulder, and there was no life in his eyes.
She wasn’t dead. Jed Grant was.
That realization had Autumn back on her feet and throwing herself into Cody’s arms as he mounted the steps in one go. He held her tightly, one hand cupping the back of her head. “I love you so much,” she sobbed, her arms wound tightly around his neck.
“I love you, too, darlin’. I’m never letting you go.”
“You’d better not.”
They loosened their grasp on each other just enough so they could kiss, and Autumn didn’t feel like she could ever kiss him enough. Their lips met over and over, and she hadn’t even realized tears were streaming down her cheeks until Cody kissed them away.
“Thank you.”
She thought he was talking to her until she noticed he was gazing over her shoulder. When she turned around, she finally understood what had happened. Her mother was standing in the doorway of the house, the screen door pushed open and shotgun in hand. Her eyes were glazed over, as if in a trance.
“I told you, you son of a bitch.” She pushed the body with her foot. “I told you if you ever threatened my daughter I’d shoot you where you stood.”
Ruth placed the gun she was holding down on the ground and looked up at Autumn, Cody, and Gus, as though only just realizing she wasn’t alone. “I had to shoot him, Gus. He was going to kill my Autumn.”
The sheriff stepped around Autumn and Cody, who were still wrapped in each other’s embrace, and went over to Ruth. “It’s okay, honey.” He carefully placed a hand on her arm. “It was justifiable homicide.”
Ruth’s eyes filled with tears as she stared at the body of her husband. “Oh my God. What have I done?”
“You saved me and my baby, Momma.” Autumn reluctantly stepped away from Cody and raced into her mother’s arms. “You saved us.” The two women cried their hearts out, both relieved that years of abuse were finally over, but sad it had ended th
e way it did.
Collins stepped off the porch to use the radio, and after a few moments Cody went over to the women and wrapped his arms around them both. Autumn felt completely safe for the first time in her life, in the embrace of the two people she loved most in the world.
“The ambulance is on its way.” Collins was standing at the foot of the steps, and he held out a hand to Ruth. “You’re both going to hospital for an examination.”
“I’m fine, Gus.” Ruth took his hand and stepped into his embrace, and it was obvious from the way she trembled that shock was setting in and she wasn’t as fine as she proclaimed.
Autumn’s heart ached, that her mother had been forced to shoot her father dead. She went to her and didn’t murmur a thing when Ruth grabbed her and hugged her tightly. “Are you okay, baby girl?”
“I’m okay, Momma.” She reached back for Cody and grasped his hand tightly when he took hers, their fingers twining together.
They stayed that way until the ambulance arrived. Collins insisted both women be taken to hospital and told them Cody would follow the ambulance, and he’d be along as soon as he could. Autumn didn’t want to be away from the man she loved, but there wasn’t enough room for three of them in the back.
Once they arrived, the two women were taken to a large room, enclosed with blue curtains. Ruth had made it clear in the ambulance she would not be separated from her daughter, and that had obviously been relayed to the hospital because they were kept together.
Cody arrived several minutes later and he stayed by Autumn’s side, kissing her repeatedly and stroking her hair. She was so glad to have him close because everything that happened was starting to really sink in and she was exhausted. Physically, emotionally, and mentally.
The doctor on duty was known to them, and he gently examined them. He declared them both physically healthy, but stated he wanted to keep them in overnight for observation. Once he learned Autumn was pregnant, he whisked her and Cody off to a different room with a fetal heart monitor.
Finding Home (Being Home Book 2) Page 22
