I forced myself to walk over to the barrier, looking as casual as possible. I’d probably catch hell for it if anyone realized what I was doing, but I was willing to risk it. I’d helped take down a drug-dealing human trafficker who was probably a murderer. I think I’d get a bit of a pass if I talked to my girlfriend instead of standing around with my thumb up my ass, waiting to be told what to do next.
“I know I’m probably not supposed to be here,” she said, twisting a long strand of pink hair around her finger. “But I was worried when I didn’t hear from you.”
I leaned across the barrier and gave her a quick kiss. “I’m sorry. Some of the guys didn’t want to come willingly.”
“But you got him?” Her eyes darted around, and I knew who she was looking for.
I nodded. “We did. They put him in a car all on his own and took him out of here about thirty minutes ago.”
“So, it’s over? He’s gone?”
I reached out and took the hand that was worrying at her hair. “He’s never coming near you again.”
“You can’t know that,” she said, squeezing my hand. “What if he gets out?”
“Half the guys we’ve arrested are already asking to make deals. He’s going away for a long time.”
The relief on her face made me want to step over the barrier and put my arms around her, but I’d been working on keeping my hands to myself around Austin until Cheyenne said it was okay.
“Can we go home?” Austin said, reaching up to tug on my hand.
“Oh, uh, yes,” I said with a smile. I reminded myself it was natural for a kid to want to be at his own place. “You can go back to your apartment whenever you’re ready.”
“No.” He shook his head as if I was dense. “Your home. Cheyenne isn’t any good at Uno. We’re going to play again, please?”
I looked at Cheyenne as I answered, “You two are welcome to stay as long as you want.”
“I-I have to tell you something.” Cheyenne’s cheeks were red, and for a moment I thought she was going to tell me that we were done, that she’d only needed me to protect her and I’d taken advantage of that. Then she said the words that I’d been waiting all my life to hear. “I love you. I was too scared to say it before, but I need you to know that.”
I lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles. “I love you too.”
“You two are adorable.”
I looked over to see Ramon and Joey, both grinning at me as they came over. “Ramon, Joey, this is Cheyenne and Austin.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Joey said. “And let me say in advance that if you ever need someone to kick his a…” she looked down at Austin and corrected herself, “butt, give me a call.”
“I’ll be next in line to help,” Ramon said.
“Thanks.” I glared at them both. “It’s nice to know where your loyalties are.”
Joey shrugged. “Gotta tell it how it is.”
“Did either of you come over here for something other than giving me a hard time?”
“Yes, actually.” Ramon said. “We just heard that all of the teams checked in. That house of girls you told us about, all of them are on their way to the hospital. Well, except the woman who was running the place. She’s been arrested.”
“Excuse me,” Cheyenne said. “Was one of the women named Resa?”
Joey gave her a funny look. “Yeah. There was. She was pretty beat up, I guess, but she’s on her way to the hospital with the rest.”
Cheyenne looked at me, and I knew what she wanted to know without her even having to say it.
“It’ll probably be tomorrow before she’ll be allowed to have visitors,” I said. “Once she’s medically cleared, she’ll have to give her statement, and that can be exhausting.”
“Okay.” She sighed, clearly frustrated, and I didn’t blame her. Resa had saved her and nearly died for it.
“I’m guessing you know her,” Joey said.
Cheyenne nodded, the tight expression on her face saying she was waiting for Joey to say something about her connection to a prostitute.
“Does she have your phone number?”
Cheyenne nodded.
“I’ll pick up a burner phone and take it to her.”
Tears shone in Cheyenne’s eyes. “You don’t need to do that.”
Joey looked at me, then at Ramon, before turning back to Cheyenne. There was something soft about my friend’s face. “When I was fifteen, my best friend ran away. She came back a year later, five months pregnant, with track marks up and down her arms. All the people who’d told her family they were praying for her safe return suddenly didn’t want her at Mass. A couple years ago, she called me out of the blue to tell me that she was getting married and that she wanted me to be her maid of honor. She said I was the only person who’d stood by her, and that if it hadn’t been for me, she might not have made it. Not because I did anything special. I was just her friend.”
“Thank you,” Cheyenne whispered.
I reached out and punched Joey’s arm. “Yes, thank you.”
“I hate to break this up,” Ramon said a moment later, “but we need to head back. We’ve got a mountain of paperwork to start on.”
I looked down at Cheyenne, and she smiled at me.
“We’ll be there when you’re done.”
I leaned down and gave her a quick kiss. I wanted more, but we’d have plenty of time for that later. Neither of us was going anywhere. This was just the beginning.
Thirty-Four
Slade
I had a date with Cheyenne in a couple hours. Well, technically, it was a date with Cheyenne and Austin. We were doing pizza and movies. I’d never really paid much attention to kids’ movies, but I’d been getting a crash course in them over the last couple days.
Right now, however, there were some other people I needed to talk to. Members of my own family. I’d exchanged messages with Jax and Cai both this week, mostly to ask them for advice about Cheyenne, but yesterday, Cai had reached out about a video conference call because whatever they needed to talk to me about needed to be done as close to face-to-face as possible.
“Hey, guys,” I said as they both popped up on my screen. “How are things going?”
We made some small talk, but it didn’t last long. I didn’t know what was going on, but they both looked…grim. There wasn’t really another word for it. Not angry or anything like that.
“Okay,” I said finally, “you guys are freaking me out. What’s going on?”
“A month ago, I received a letter from Grandfather.”
Leave it to Jax to say it so bluntly that it took me a moment to register the words.
“You got a what from who?”
“Grandfather wrote a letter and left it with a man named Bartholomew Constantine,” Jax continued. “Basically, it said that our parents’ accident might not have been an accident. Grandfather hired a private investigator – that’s Mr. Constantine – to investigate, and there’s some evidence that supports the theory that someone might have caused the wreck on purpose.”
Someone might have – someone killed my parents and my sister. Murdered them. That’s what Jax was saying. I understood the words, but what they meant, that was something I couldn’t get my head around.
“I…” I shook my head. “I don’t even know what to say to that.”
“Trust me,” Cai said, “we both get it.”
“Have you talked to this PI?” I asked.
“I have,” Jax said. “He was young when Grandfather hired him for the case, but he’s still around. He talked about some of his evidence with me, but he’s hit a bit of a wall. He wants to talk to all of us, see if we can help him find a new lead. Grandfather hadn’t let him talk to us before so we might have something that he didn’t know and that might help him solve the case.
“We were kids,” I said. “I don’t remember much.”
“It’s not really us he thinks is going to have anything useful,” Cai said carefully. “We might know som
ething based on things that happened before the accident, but it’s–”
“Blake,” I interrupted as I realized where Cai was going. “He wants to talk to Blake.”
“The kid was there,” Jax said. “He was so young, he might not remember anything, but it’s worth a shot.”
“Do you think that’s one of the reasons Grandfather wanted us to make amends?” I asked.
“I think his main reason was for us, but he did have Constantine send me the letter, which I think means he didn’t want the investigation to die out with him,” Jax said.
I shook my head, trying to make all this information make sense. “Why didn’t he just talk to us about it when we were old enough to understand?”
“Do you really think any of us would’ve listened?” Cai asked. “After Grandma Olive died, we were all more like five strangers who shared a house than we were a family.”
He was right. “Still,” I said, “I would’ve wanted to help.”
“I don’t think Grandfather thought he could handle it,” Jax said. “Not the investigation part of things, but what it would mean to take us in to talk to Constantine. Four boys, who had their own issues with sharing feelings, being brought back to that place over and over? He would’ve had to hire a psychologist to help us process what we were going through, because he never could’ve done it himself.”
“True,” I agreed. Then I sighed. “This means the three of us need to talk to this PI, and we need to convince Blake to do it too?”
“That’s about it,” Cai said.
From the grim expressions on my brothers’ faces, I knew they were thinking the same thing.
No way in hell would Blake willingly go back to Boston so he could relive the worst moment of his life with three brothers he barely knew anymore.
We had our work cut out for us.
Thirty-Five
Cheyenne
I ignored Austin as he begged me to take him to Slade’s place. We’d been having this discussion every day since the day we’d come back to our apartment. Even mild-mannered Estrada had gotten to the point where she’d had to resort to ignoring him until he stopped asking. He’d always been good about accepting a no, but when it came to Slade, Austin was more stubborn than I’d ever seen him. Even in his terrible twos, he hadn’t been this bad.
The worst part was, I wanted to go to Slade’s too. Hell, when he’d come here on Saturday night, I’d asked him to stay over even though I kept feeling like we should say we were moving too fast. I couldn’t help it. I had a hard time being away from him. I didn’t tell him that though. I knew he loved me, but no guy wanted a clingy woman. Which meant I’d smiled and told him I’d talk to him later when he’d left yesterday afternoon, rather than asking if he’d like to stay a little longer.
We needed to take things slow. That’s what a normal couple would do. I’d let Slade lead, and we’d go at his pace.
I’d only been home for an hour or so after exhausting every possible job opportunity within walking distance, but I was still thrilled when Estrada showed up to ask if she could take Austin to the movies and out for some ice cream. I needed to think through some things, and it was easier alone. The past few weeks had completely turned my world upside-down, and everything was changing.
Resa was out of the hospital, but she’d chosen to take the Feds offer of immunity and witness protection in exchange for testifying against Seleste and Fernando. She’d come by to say goodbye, and I knew the only time I’d ever see her again would be at the trial. It was sad to think she wouldn’t be there for me anymore, but I was happy for her. She deserved a second chance.
I was getting one of those too, though mine didn’t come with a clean slate and a change of scenery. Not that I wanted it to. I had too much in this life that I wanted to keep. I only hoped I could.
I was thankful that Fernando was gone and DDD was closed, but now I had no income at all. We were out of money, and if I didn’t get a job soon, we’d be homeless. Estrada would let us stay with her, I knew, but I didn’t want to take advantage of her kindness.
I finished drying the last of the dishes and was hanging up the dish towel when someone knocked on the door. I glanced at the coat rack, thinking that Austin might have left his jacket behind. It wasn’t exactly cold outside, but the wind was brisk. His jacket wasn’t there, but Estrada wouldn’t have needed to knock either. She had her own key. I was still trying to figure out who it could be when I looked through the peephole and saw Slade on the other side.
“This is a nice surprise,” I said as I opened the door. “It’s a bit early for you to be off, isn’t it?”
He gave me a quick kiss before shutting the door behind us. “Did Estrada pick up Austin already?”
My mouth fell open, and I poked him in the arm. “You told her to come get him. Are you really that desperate for sex?”
He grinned and wrapped his arm around me, pulling me against his side. “I’ll admit, it’s always on my mind when it comes to you.”
I wrapped my arms around his waist and leaned my head against his chest. “I know how you feel.”
“As much as I’d love to take you to bed right now, I actually came over to talk.”
I looked up at him, frowning. I didn’t like the sound of that, but I let him lead me over to the couch where the two of us sat down. He’d saved my life, taken care of me. I had to trust him enough to hear him out.
“This morning, my boss’s boss called me into his office.” He laced his fingers between mine. “Apparently, Neely was at the bottom of the food chain when it came to the people in Fernando’s pocket. He was definitely looking to move up in the world.”
“But you know who the people are, right?” My stomach twisted, and I hoped I didn’t sound as nervous as I felt. With Fernando and Seleste in jail, I’d thought I was safe.
“Most of them,” he said, “but it’s going to be a long process to get everyone behind bars.”
“Great.” I pulled my hand free. “So I need to watch my back. Got it.”
He gave me an exasperated look and took my hand back again. “Will you let me finish? What it all boils down to is that it’s going to be safer for me to get out of Texas.”
“Oh.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Go ahead.” I tried a smile, but I wasn’t feeling much like smiling now. I’d thought Slade and I were different, that all the warnings my mom and Resa had given me didn’t apply to Slade and me.
Apparently, I was wrong.
“I’m being transferred to Boston.”
“Where your family is.” My voice was flat, and I wondered if I’d manage to make it through the rest of this conversation without breaking down.
He nodded, his expression serious now. “I want you and Austin to come with me.”
I hadn’t been expecting that.
“I know it’s fast.” He spoke more quickly now. “And I know we haven’t been together long, but I don’t want to lose either of you.”
“I don’t want to lose you either.” I squeezed his hand hard. “But what if I go with you and you…get tired of me?”
He raised our hands and brushed his lips across my knuckles. “I know that the world is an unpredictable place, but I’ve seen couples who have loved each other so thoroughly that nothing short of death could tear them apart. My parents, and my grandparents.” He gave me a sad smile. “My parents didn’t get a chance for a long life together, but my grandparents were married for forty-one years.”
“They sound wonderful,” I said wistfully. “I wish I could have known them.”
A sad smile played on his mouth. “I wish you could have too. I’d never really given much thought to love, but I’d always believed it existed because I’d seen it in them.”
He cupped my face and pressed his mouth to mine in a hard kiss. Then he rested his forehead against mine.
“When I look at you, I finally understand what it was my father felt when he looked at my mother, what Grandfather had f
elt when he looked at Grandma Olive.” He closed his eyes. “Please, Chey. Come with me. Let’s start over in Boston together. There’s an art school if you want to go there. Or if you want to design tattoos, you can do that too. Or come up with something else entirely. I’ll support you in whatever you want to do. All I care about is that we’re together. You, me, and Austin. A family.”
I’d heard it all. That love was a joke. That if I ever wanted a man to look at me twice, I’d have to leave Austin behind. That I was no better than my mother because the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. I’d eventually lose everything because I couldn’t have it all.
But she’d been wrong. Slade wanted me and Austin. He wanted us to be a family.
I nodded because I couldn’t speak, the emotion was too thick in my throat. We had details we needed to work out, but whatever it was, we could handle it together. “Yes,” I finally managed to say. “I’ll go – we’ll go with you.”
His entire face lit up, a smile stretching from ear to ear, eyes burning bright. He crushed me against him, his mouth coming down hard on mine. I grabbed his shirt, pulling at it until he broke away; he tugged it over his head. I scrambled out of my clothes and climbed onto his lap. Some women might want the sort of lovemaking that was gentle and sensual, but not me. I wanted Slade to make love to me the way we both wanted it.
“Fuck,” he growled, squeezing my hips and grinding me down on his lap. His cock was hard, pushing his zipper against my sensitive skin. “Need inside you.”
“Yes, please.” I bit his jaw, a sharp thrill going through me as he pinched one of my nipples.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said, leaning me back so he could latch onto that same nipple.
“Yes, you do,” I said as I buried my hands in his hair, holding his head in place.
I yelped as he sank his teeth into me, then sucked on my nipple. Hard.
“See?” I gasped as I squirmed on his lap. “You like it.”
He raised his head. “Damn right I do.”
The Hunter Brothers Complete Box Set Page 50
