His muscles were straining and veins were pulsing in his neck.
Gertie was heavy.
Travis never once uttered a sound.
Not when he stepped down into the hole.
Not when he gently squatted down.
And not when he laid the unmoving form into the hole I’d half dug.
Evander pulled away from me and looked down into the hole.
His shoulders were slumped, and he was staring down into it like his heart was breaking.
I took hold of his hand and brought it up to my mouth, placing a single kiss to the knuckles before tucking the big hand into my chest and clutching it tightly.
“Please cover him up.”
Those were the last words Evander said the rest of the night.
***
Two days later
A lot had happened in two days.
The Texas Ranger, Griffin Storm, had shut down the Hostel Police Department.
Until a special election could be held to elect a new police chief, no one would set foot inside of the station again.
The information that a computer analyst had been able to scrounge up on not only Fowler, but also Walter and Balthazar, had been pretty damn impressive.
The man, Jack from a business called Free, had gathered the information in less than eighteen hours.
His partner and wife, Winter, had also been a major player in finding the information.
Using the information he’d been provided, Texas Ranger Griffin Storm had decided that Fowler not only wouldn’t be getting his job back, but he’d also be facing charges—and a lot of them.
Some of those charges related to his involvement in manufacturing charges that led to the false imprisonment a man following a conviction for crimes that he did not commit—that man being my man.
Another man named Wolf—Travis’ former brother-in-law—had also arrived. He’d put his skills to use and had focused in on Evander’s brother, Walter.
After a search of his home, as well as an examination of his cell phone records and eyewitness accounts, it was determined that Walter had been in cahoots with Balthazar—providing him with information and services that only a dirty police officer could provide.
And Balthazar’s one remaining employee, a man named Ramirez, had copped a plea, according to Travis’s understanding.
All of the information we received was secondhand, and only came to me by way of Rafe and Travis, who came by daily to check on Evander. An Evander who’d done nothing but remain silent over the last few days.
I’d stayed at Evander’s side through all of it—learning that his brother was dirty. Learning that he’d been exonerated of all the charges that he had been convicted of previously, thanks to information that was gained from the statement that Ramirez gave when he took his plea deal. And finally, when he learned that the State of Texas would be contacting him to discuss compensation for falsely imprisoning him.
Which had been a hard pill to swallow.
Ramirez could’ve just as easily given up this information four years ago, keeping Evander out of prison.
But he hadn’t, and now a man had four years of his life stolen from him, and there wasn’t a damn thing that would ever make that acceptable, not even a payout from the state.
“Is there anything else?” I asked Rafe.
Rafe looked at me, studying my eyes, and then shook his head.
“Went over to your place and cleaned up,” he hesitated. “Took care of the animals again. Brought them over to Travis’ place, though. Didn’t think bringing the dog here would be smart.”
Rafe’s call on that was a good one.
Evander was devastated.
He was lost without Gertie, and I couldn’t blame him.
“I have something else I have to take care of, and I likely won’t be back in town for about two weeks. That leaves the crew shorthanded with Evander out, too.” He weighed what he had to say next. “I think you should tell him he’s needed at work. Maybe returning to his normal routine will help.”
I doubted it, but I’d try.
I’d do anything for Evander.
Chapter 29
Someone asked me where I saw myself in ten years. I told them I didn’t even know what I wanted to make for dinner.
-Text from Kennedy to Evander
Kennedy
Three weeks later
Everything was back to normal—or at least as normal as you could get.
Hostel was a small town.
It hadn’t taken long for the town to learn that Evander had been innocent of all charges.
It’d taken even less time for them to hear that Evander had beaten someone to death with a baseball bat—though beaten was a strong word. Really, he’d just hit him, but it’d been enough to kill him in one blow. It didn’t matter to the town that Balthazar was a drug-dealing pimp, and had been in his house uninvited and had just shot his dog when Evander had done the deed.
They still saw him as the enemy.
And I was fucking tired of it.
Evander may be going through the motions—working and participating in life—but he wasn’t back to normal yet.
And that was in evidence now.
There I was, standing in the middle of the supermarket aisle where the pregnancy tests were located, and I was listening to some woman whisper about Evander.
Evander was at the end of the aisle looking at something, unaware that I was looking at pregnancy tests and wondering if I could sneak it into the cart without him noticing it.
He was only a few feet away from the two women—both baseball moms who obviously couldn’t help themselves—as they talked about him as if he wasn’t standing right there.
And I finally lost it.
Marching down the aisle—four pregnancy tests still in my hands—I started yelling.
“Don’t you fucking see?” I screeched, throwing the tests at the two women. “This man is so fucking perfect. He has the patience of a saint and all y’all can fuckin’ do is talk about him like he’s a fucking criminal. Well, guess what, bitches? He fucking isn’t! He’s a good, honest, hard-working man who was targeted by a dirty police force. He hasn’t done a damn thing to deserve the asshole attitude y’all are dishing out to him,” I huffed out a humorless laugh. “Fuck y’all. Fuck you and fuck you.” I threw my last pregnancy test at them and hit the blonde in the side of her shocked face. “Just go fuck yourselves.”
Okay.
I could tell that I wasn’t as eloquent in my wording as I probably could have been, but I was so tired of it that I couldn’t hold it in any longer.
The two women just stared at me in shock.
Evander, the loving, gentle giant that he was, just bent over and picked up the box that had bounced close to his feet after hitting the other chick on the neck.
He read the box and then turned those beautiful eyes up to me.
“You have something to tell me?”
I gritted my teeth.
And then I started to cry.
“I have a lot to tell you.”
Then buried my face in my hands and let all of the emotion of the last few weeks rush out. All the grief, the sadness, my worry for him.
All of it came tumbling out.
“I’m sorry.”
Two words.
But they were apparently exactly what I needed to hear.
“It’s okay.”
“It’s not,” he countered. “And for what it’s worth, I’m thankful that you gave me this time, but I’m sorry that doing it hurt you.”
His repeated words had me bringing up my head.
“I know.”
He dropped his mouth to mine, and then wrapped his arms carefully around me.
“You’re pregnant?”
I shrugged, leaning my head back to stare into his eyes.
“I don’t know.”
He threw the box into the cart and
then let go of me, but only long enough to pull me with him back to the other end of the aisle.
He stopped long enough to grab four more boxes, and then he calmly walked with me to the front of the store.
There, he unloaded our purchases, paid for them and then walked me out.
All without saying a word.
In fact, the silence continued until we got home, where he opened the boxes and then held one out to me as he guided me into the bathroom. “All right, time to pee.”
I balked.
“I can’t pee with you standing right here.”
He held out the stick, jiggling it in my face.
“Pee.”
I sighed, took the wand from him, and then did the deed.
All while blushing profusely as he stood over me and calmly waited for me to finish.
I set the test on the counter, finished up, washed my hands, and then shifted nervously from foot-to-foot.
He wrapped his arms around me from behind, as we both watched the pink plus sign rapidly appearing in the tiny window.
The big man at my back buried his face into my neck and started to laugh.
“We’re going to have a baby.”
I nodded, staring at him like he’d lost his marbles—which I was sure that he had.
“What’s wrong with you?” I asked when he wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes.
He was laughing so hard he was crying.
Holy shit, something was wrong.
The man had literally gone crazy.
“What are you laughing about?” I repeated, worried now.
He grinned, then pulled me into his arms again and touched the test almost reverently.
“I’m…happy.”
I frowned.
“A lot of shit has happened,” he said. “I’ve lost a brother. My dog. My sister fucking hates me now…but I’m so fucking happy.”
I stayed silent.
“Don’t worry about me anymore, K.”
I snorted.
“No,” he repeated, curling his hand around my jaw. “I’ll get there, but in the meantime, I need you to keep being you.”
I could do that.
“Okay?”
I did the only thing I could do. I nodded.
“As long as you love me,” he continued. “As long as you’re there when I wake up in the morning. As long as you’re here when I get home at night.” He pressed a kiss to my lips. “As long as you’re in my life, then I can do just about anything.”
With that, he walked out of the room, and I was left standing in the middle of the bathroom, my heart overflowing with joy.
“As long as you love me, I’ll do the same for you.”
What he said in a shout from the other room, however, had me nearly squealing with happiness.
“And you’ll be marrying me in two months, too! No lip!”
Epilogue
Of course, I have flaws, but my boobs normally distract people from them.
-Kennedy to Evander
Kennedy
“I can’t believe he bought you a two-thousand-dollar bean bag as a wedding gift.”
I looked over to the man who said that. Travis, Evander’s boss.
I smiled at him in return, managing to make it only a little bit strained.
“It’s the best thing you’ll ever sit in,” I told him. “Try it.”
He looked at the huge, hulking blob in the middle of the floor, and immediately shook his head.
“I can’t,” he sighed. “I have to meet Hannah.”
Hannah, the woman who had given birth to his child. The woman whom Travis loved but wouldn’t be with due to some misguided loyalty to another woman.
I seriously felt awful for Hannah. Truly awful.
I knew how it felt to be second best, and my heart ached for her. The heartache on Hannah’s face every time I saw her was enough to make my heart ache.
I hated it.
And I think I even hated Travis a little bit for it, too.
He’d been good to Evander. He’d saved my life. Hell, he was even going to be the godfather of our child, but I hated what he was doing to Hannah.
I hated it with a passion.
“Baby?”
I blinked, surprised to find Evander standing in front of me.
“Hey!” I said, smiling at my husband. “What’s up?”
My husband.
We’d only been married four hours earlier, and we were now attending our wedding reception in the middle of the club owned by the Hails. I still hadn’t met Dante yet, though.
I’d heard a lot about him, but he’d remained elusive to me.
“Yeah?” I grinned at him.
My eyes raked up and down his body.
God, he looked so good in a tux.
He’d surprised me by wearing one. I hadn’t expected it of him.
In fact, as I’d been walking down the aisle, I’d been looking for the man wearing jeans and a lavender button-down shirt that I’d bought for him only yesterday.
What I hadn’t been looking for was a man who was tall, dark and debonair in a three-piece suit.
Now, though, the jacket had been shed, which didn’t surprise me.
He’d been sweating when I had made my way up aisle to him.
The club was hotter than hell, and I’d said as much in front of the preacher who married us.
He’d given me a raised eyebrow, and I’d slapped my hand over my mouth.
“Baby?”
I blinked, taken out of my contemplation of my man’s assets.
“Yeah?” I repeated, this time actually paying attention.
“Your nephew is on the phone.”
I blinked, surprised to find that he was.
I hadn’t spoken to my nephews or my niece since my sister had died.
Not that I hadn’t tried.
I’d tried a ton.
I’d called. Called my dad. Called my brother.
None of them had given me Darren’s forwarding address, and none of them had told me where I could look for him.
In fact, Darren had even gone as far as to change his freakin’ number.
Evander had said that he could find the number for me if I wanted it…and, one day, I would.
That day would be one year exactly from the day that Darren had ripped away all I had left of my family from me. That’s when I’d ask for that number.
It hurt, but I was willing to make that sacrifice for the kids, even though he would never give me the same courtesy.
“Really?” I asked in awe.
He nodded, and then held out my phone to me.
I’d given it to him to hold since he had pockets, and I didn’t. He’d been taking pictures with it of me and him, or of other random stuff that would make me smile later on, all night.
“Thank you,” I whispered, taking the phone.
He winked at me and walked away, taking Travis with him.
I nervously placed the phone to my ear, and started to cry the moment I heard my sister’s son’s voice for the first time in what felt like forever.
Evander had done some digging into my past one fateful night my father had said a few choice words to me about how I ‘wasn’t good for nothin’.’ From there, he discovered that our parents hadn’t actually split their children evenly and that was that. Apparently, a long time ago, my father had tried to contact me for my brother. When I’d ‘written’ back, I’d explained to them that I wanted nothing to do with them.
Only, I hadn’t written that letter. I hadn’t even known a letter existed, or that my father had tried reaching out to me.
He’d shared this ‘letter’ that I’d written to him a few months after Trixie’s death, then told me to leave. I’d taken one look at the handwriting and had known instantly that my mother had been the one behind it.
My ‘letter’ had also explained my brother’s and sister’s initial h
esitancy toward me.
After explaining this to my father, he didn’t believe me. So…I’d given up.
It wasn’t worth my time, or my happiness, to tried to convince a stubborn old man that I wasn’t the asshole that he thought I was. Especially when he wouldn’t give me the time of day.
Though, every once in a while, I still tried to bridge that gap.
It never worked.
So, for now, I tried to be happy that my sister’s children were allowed to contact me again.
It would have to be enough.
“I can’t wait to tell you about the home run I hit!”
I grinned, stood in the middle of my wedding reception, cake in hand, and felt pure fucking happiness course through me. “I can’t wait to listen.”
Then I thanked my lucky stars as DJ promised that he’d call again tomorrow because his dad was tired of his ‘insistent’ whining.
Whatever. I’d take it.
I’d take anything Darren was willing to give.
***
Two hours later, it took both Evander and I to roll the huge bean bag into our living room.
We’d made the mistake of opening the enormous thing at the club. Then we tried to stuff it back into its bag—only getting part of it in there since there was no way in hell that the whole thing was going back in the bag no matter how hard we tried—so we could put it onto the flatbed part of Travis’ tow truck for transport back to our place.
Travis had helped us get it to the front porch before he’d been called away on a recovery, leaving us to shove it through the front door of our house on our own.
Well…I’d helped push. Evander had gotten it in the most of the way before he had forced me to wait outside until he got it through the door.
“Now,” he said as he walked over to me, bending at the waist and then lifting me up into his arms.
I squealed and threw my arms around his neck, holding on for dear life, even though I knew he wouldn’t drop me.
“But we forgot to feed the goats!” I cried out.
I’d decided to hold off on getting more chickens, so the only farm animals I had at the moment were my goats and my dog.
My dog that still was a bit unsure about Evander and didn’t try to hide it.
One day, I would get more chickens. One day, I would forget that Balthazar had ordered his minions over to my place to ‘give a warning’ that I hadn’t heeded. That warning being that he decapitated every single chicken that I owned.
Hail No (Hail Raisers Book 1) Page 22
