by Jc Emery
“We’re real,” he says. His hands travel up and down my arms as he pulls me in against his chest. “We're real, and that scares the hell out of you.”
I suck in a deep breath and hold it in as long as I can. It comes out shaky. My hands are unsteady, and my head is doing that foggy thing again. This is a dangerous time for my brain to turn to mush.
“Are we now?” I raise an eyebrow and try to fight off the way his words make me feel, but it’s useless. I love him. I guess this is just a part of being in love.
“As real as anything fucking gets, Little Bird.”
He tips my chin up and takes my mouth. He’s commanding and smooth and so, so perfect. I melt into his touch, forgetting where we are. I breathe him in when we break apart and reluctantly walk away. We can’t do this here. It’s a terrible time to get all hot and heavy.
“Just so you know,” I say, looking over my shoulder with a smile on my face, “you’re stuck with me now.”
“Nobody I’d rather be stuck with, babe,” Diesel says and kisses my shoulder as he walks ahead of me. A shiver runs down my spine.
“You two make me sick,” Amber mutters from beside me. We spread out, each of us with a hand on the guns on our hips, ready to pull and fire when ready.
Diesel leads us into the woods behind cabin twenty-five. The trees are thick enough to provide a camouflage for us as we approach. It’s not enough to be completely unseen either, though, and with the plethora of wildlife in the area, there’s enough noise to make it near impossible to tell the difference between human and animal sounds. Still, we trudge on into the depth of the woods, doing our best to avoid detection. Coming up on cabin twenty-eight, we each find a tree to hide behind. The cabin is super small but well kept, and it’s the best hidden rental we’ve seen since getting here. The other cabins have a clearing of at least five feet on each side, but not cabin twenty-eight. This one has bushes and trees pushing up against the sides of it. As far as hideout cabin rentals go, this one is pretty top notch. But just like Forsaken’s safe house and Ian’s cabin, nothing can stay hidden forever.
I try to keep my head in the game, checking the area around me. Diesel’s got the closest position to the cabin, with me on his left, and Amber on his right. I know she’s cool under pressure, but this is asking a lot, even for her. She seems steady enough. She’s got perfect form, I can’t see any shaking of her limbs, and there’s this stillness about her. I look to Diesel and find the same calm about him. Amber’s childhood was pretty similar to mine. That’s kind of how it is when you’re a club kid. You grow up knowing the awful things that happen in the world, never being shielded from the violence, and always paying attention to how the brothers carry themselves. They’re not always around to keep us safe and shit happens.
Diesel picks up a large rock, gives us his signal, and throws the rock at the cabin. The rock hits at the bottom corner of one of the front windows, creating a small crack in the glass but a loud enough noise to startle whoever may be inside. If we’re lucky, it’s just Rig and Zander. If we’re not, we’ll find out.
Moments later, Zander rushes out the one and only exit I see. Amber stiffens in place but takes a deep breath and waits for Diesel’s signal. He’s wearing the same clothes Amber described him as wearing the other day when he went missing, but he looks pretty clean. He stands tall, with an annoyed glare at the bushes in front of him. Diesel gives me the signal, and I poke my head out so Zander can see me. I have a good line of sight on him, but just when I do, Rig rushes out of the cabin with a gun in his hand. He grabs Zander’s upper arm and pulls him back toward the front door.
“What’d I say about running out like that?” Rig shouts and replaces his hand on Zander’s neck from his arm. Zander pulls away, his jaw locked and irritation obvious in his eyes.
Amber moves her feet, causing a branch to snap beneath her. She curses quietly to herself, but it’s too late. Rig’s heard something. He raises the gun to Zander’s head and tries to pull him back into the cabin. Zander resists but not well enough for me to leave it up to him. I holster my gun back on my hip and step out from behind the tree with my arms raised.
“Aunt Elle!” Zander shouts and moves toward me. Rig doesn’t let him go. He just shoves the gun into Zander’s temple even harder.
“Should have known you’d find us,” Rig says in a clipped tone. I have all his attention right now, which is a good thing. Even the quiet chirping of a nearby bird doesn’t catch his attention.
“Taking my nephew’s a damn good way to get my attention,” I say. “Now, I have your money in the truck. What do you say to letting Zander go? You and I can walk over and get the cash.”
“Bullshit,” Rig shouts. He shakes with anger. His sudden, jerky movements terrify me.
I don’t say a word because the last thing I need is for him to snap and accidentally pull the trigger. Not only can I not stand to lose the boy, but I can’t lose him right in front of his mother’s eyes. Neither of us would ever recover from it. Another problem—I don’t have the money. We didn’t have time to get it, but he hadn’t even called us to set up an exchange yet. Getting the call from my guy with a hit off the call Rig made to me the other day was a blessing. Otherwise, we’d still be sitting around, waiting to hear something.
A branch snaps loudly in Amber’s direction. Out of the corner of my eyes, I can see her stomping on the thick branch as she forces it to snap in several places. It’s just enough of a distraction for Rig to point his gun into the woods. I meet Zander’s eyes and nod firmly. He pulls away, catching Rig off guard, and throws himself on the ground nearby before crawling away. Rig’s furious face turns beet red as he realizes he’s lost the only thing keeping him alive.
Everything happens so fast. Diesel and Amber step out from behind their trees, and the three of us march forward, shouting at Rig to drop his weapon. He refuses, and like the idiot he is, he’s frantically pointing it at each of us. A distinct popping noise sounds from my right, like a mix between a BB gun and someone shooting off bottle caps or something. Rig’s eyes widen and his jaw goes slack. He doubles over with a hand over his gut. I take a look at Amber to find she’s got a suppressor on the end of her gun. She takes a few more steps toward him, fires again, and continues closing in on him. He clutches the gun in his hand and tries to angle it toward her, but she’s not having it. She pops one into his forearm, causing him to drop his piece.
I run up to Rig with Diesel by my side. He takes possession of Rig’s gun and pats him down for more weapons. Rig tries to struggle, but Diesel punches him in the face, again and again, until he knocks him out. I’m not taking any chances with this asshole, though, so I still cuff him and then step away to call the cleanup guy I have on the job today. He’s a creepy fuck, but he can make a crime scene disappear better than anyone I know. I had him hang back near the entrance so he only had to show up if it was necessary. Knowing Amber’s temper, I knew we weren’t going to get out of here without some bloodshed.
I keep my distance from the scene before me while I wait for the cleanup guy to arrive. Once he gets here, we can go, but I want to take in this moment before it passes. Amber’s on the ground with Zander tight in her arms. She has tears streaming down her face, and if I’m not mistaken, so does he. She’s clutching him so tight to her chest that they could be tears of desperation because he can’t breathe. I’m not about to tell her to lighten up, though. She needs this.
Diesel finishes with Rig and comes to stand beside me. He doesn’t say a word, but he takes my hand and gives it a squeeze. I let a smile light up my face at his touch. These little moments mean so much to me. I don’t know what tomorrow holds, or next week even, but I do know that I’m going to be here, hanging on to him. The fear in the back of my head tells me to pull away and leave him before he leaves me, but I don’t want to. I want to stay and hold on for as long as I can. I’m tired of being so alone.
“You’ve been mad at me, huh?” Amber says as she looks into Zander’s eyes.
He looks down and shrugs his shoulders. He’s taller than her, with broader shoulders and a thick neck. Still, as she cups his cheek to force him to look at her, it’s hard not to see him as a little boy. “You’re mad because the older you get, the more you need your dad around. Knowing who he is probably doesn’t help. Well—” she pauses and hitches a thumb in Diesel’s direction “—this is Diesel. He’s one of your dad’s brothers. So it looks like the jig is up.”
“Are you serious? We really get to go to California?” Zander even sounds like a little boy now. I try to savor this moment, knowing there’s few of them in his future. His voice will keep dropping until it’s as deep as his dad’s, and he’s going to grow hair all over his body, and he’s going to muscle up. And every bit of the little boy I fell in love with will be gone.
“Yeah, baby. I can’t promise he’s going to be what you want him to be. I have it on good authority that your dad’s become a really good man, but he’s got his issues. I just don’t want your heart broken if he isn’t the dad you want and need.”
Zander gives a firm head nod and shrugs his shoulders as he mumbles, “It’s cool.”
It’s anything but, but he won’t admit that.
“She’s doing the right thing,” Diesel says quietly.
“Yeah,” I agree. “It’s time she comes home.”
“She’s not the only one who needs to come home,” he says with a squeeze of my hand. I turn to face him and get nice and close.
“I’ll start looking for an apartment,” I say with a smile. He shakes his head.
“No, I’ll find us a place. I don’t trust your judgment. I’ve seen where you live now.”
“There’s nothing wrong with my—wait. You’re going to find us a place?”
“You’re my woman?”
“Yeah.”
“Then yeah,” he says. “You think now that I’ve seen you walking around with a kid on your hip and a smile on your face after you’ve spent all this time acting like you don’t want or need nothing or nobody that I’m just gonna let you get away? Fuck that. You let me in, and I’m staying in now. I’m going to be up your ass so often that when I got business to take care of, you’re going to fucking celebrate just to get a moment alone.”
“Don’t suffocate me.” I eye his mouth.
“You’re gonna love it,” he says. It sounds more like a warning, but there’s a smile in his voice and on the curve of his lips, so I don’t care.
“I already love it,” I say and take his mouth, knowing that whatever comes our way, we’ll work it out. Once the cleanup guy arrives, we’ll leave and I’ll help Amber make arrangements to make her move to California. Life will settle back in to the new normal, whatever that may be, and we’ll only get stronger as a couple. Because I love him, and I’m tired of running from anybody who could possibly hurt me. If reliving the situation between Amber and Wyatt has taught me anything, it’s that I need love in my life just as much as the next person does. I’d rather get hurt than live in a bubble.
Diesel cradles my head in his heads, takes his mouth from me, and presses our foreheads against one another. He breathes in deep and sighs heavily.
“I’ve wanted you for years. Waited for you. Now that I got you, you gotta know, babe, I’m not letting go and I’m not taking you for granted.”
“I’ve been waiting for you, too,” I say on a shaky breath. “I just didn’t know it.”
The End
Wyatt and Amber’s story continues in Haunt.
Follow JC Emery on the web for regular updates and information regarding future releases. Thanks for reading and please, if you have a moment, leave a review.
xx JC
Acknowledgements
Thank you to my readers, my friends, and my family for all your love, patience, and encouragement. To my Jewels for always being there for me. To all my wonderful author friends who help by sprinting, working through plot, or just plain kicking my ass in gear. Huge thanks to Danielle Sanchez for taking me on and resisting the urge to shake me.
I love you all—now onto Haunt!
About the Author
As a child, JC was fascinated by things that went bump in the night. As they say, some things never change. Now, as an adult, she divides her time between the bad-ass bikers, sexy law men, mythical creatures, and kick-ass heroines that live inside her head. A San Francisco Bay Area native, JC has also called both Texas and Louisiana home.
These days she rocks her flip flops year-round in Northern California and can’t imagine a climate more beautiful. Her dream is to own her own Harley and she feels compelled to tell you that she is Team Peeta all the way. JC is the author of the Bayonet Scars series, the Ladder Company series, and the Men with Badges line.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
About the Author
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
About the Author
