by C. A. Harms
He must have instantly noticed my expression because for the first time since he came home from work he laughed.
“I didn’t get the result I wanted today, but it shouldn’t stop me from being thankful for what I do have,” he stated.
I still remained quiet as Nan lifted her body and stood on weakened legs. “Now that I’ve diffused the tension in the room, I’m going to bed,” she said as she started to walk toward her bedroom. “If you’ll remember that I may be an ole lady crippled and worn out yet my ears still work fine, I’d be mighty grateful. Because there are just some things a granny should not hear while trying to sleep.”
I could hear her laughter all the way down the hall and I knew my face must be red.
When it came to Winnie Willard, she had no boundaries.
She was getting easier to handle, yet sometimes, moments like these, she still threw me for a loop.
“We need to invest in some insulation for these walls,” Chase said, which only made me laugh. “At least the walls to our bedroom anyway.”
I gave him a skeptical look and he grinned.
“You do know that I have no intention of letting you move back to that apartment, don’t you?” He was completely serious. There was absolutely no indication that he was playing around.
“Chase,” I said, and he shushed me.
“You’re where you belong now. You and my baby are home. There really isn’t any reason to argue.” And he didn’t allow me to. Instead he lifted me up and moved me to his lap where he proceeded to kiss the argument right out of me.
And due to the fact that only moments ago he was broody and cranky, I didn’t see any reason to revisit that, not right then anyway. But very soon he and I would have to have this talk, and hash out his expectations as well as mine.
***
How did I get to this moment?
I wasn’t complaining, not even a little.
In fact I was so unbelievably thankful that I felt overwhelmed by it all.
Had I thought seven years ago that I’d be where I am now, feeling the way I felt, I would have spent the last seven years counting the moments until Chase found me.
Sometimes, most times, I still felt like it was all a dream.
He was a true southern gentleman through and through. He loved and cared with all he had.
As his body moved against mine, his soft kiss along the side of my neck continued upward toward my ear. Those sweet words of love and pleasure he whispered in my ear only added to the erotic feeling of the entire exchange.
Chase was a very giving man.
Very giving.
“You feel so damn good,” he groaned as he pumped his hips a little faster. “Mine,” he said in a demanding tone. “All mine.”
And I was.
Completely, without an ounce of doubt, his.
I could feel my body reacting to the way he moved inside of me. The spot deep inside that he continued to stroke over and over as he rotated his hips.
“You’re so close,” he whispered.
I arched my back, threw my head back and he continued to thrust his hips. There was no reason to agree with what he already knew. The man had practically memorized me.
That deep ache inside me grew more intense and my stomach tightened and I curled my fingers in to his shoulders.
“There you go baby,” he coaxed me. “Let go.” He trailed his tongue over my ear and pumped his hips faster. “Give it to me, sweet girl.” And I did.
My body shook in delightful bliss as he groaned deep in my ear from the reaction of my orgasm.
“Yes,” I said in more of a sigh, just before Chase groaned out his own release, burying his face into the crook of my neck to hide it as much as possible.
We really needed to come up with some type of sound blocker. Because this whole attempting to be as quiet as possible during intimate moments was proving to be more and more difficult each time.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chase
“We got him,” Ryan announced as I entered the station.
“What do you mean you got him?” I asked, suddenly feeling a rush of anger shoot through me.
“Charlie,” he clarified.
“And no one fucking thought to call me.” I should have known right away. I should have been here when they brought him in.
I pushed past Ryan only to be stopped by Noah when he stepped in front of me to block my path.
“Move,” I said.
“Can’t do that, brother.” He crossed his arms over his chest and showed absolutely no signs of moving any time soon.
“I wanna see him,” I said as I stepped up to him.
“That’s not a good idea,” he declared, only pissing me off more.
“How the hell can you two stand here and protect him?” My hands shook with urgency. I wanted to wring that piece of shit’s neck. I wanted to beat him until he was begging me to stop. “You two gave me so much fucking shit when I first started dating Trinity. Hell, you gave me shit for months. Made me jump through hoop after hoop to prove I was worthy, yet the man who hurt her is in that next room and you two want to protect him.”
I was disgusted.
How could they do that?
“You think this is fucking easy?” Normally it was Ryan who would have fired back at me, but not this time.
Noah flared up.
The calm, collected, keep the peace man.
He uncrossed his arms and stepped forward, squaring his shoulders.
“Do you think that both Ryan and I didn’t have the same rush of anger burst through us when we first heard he was here? I wanted to beat the shit out of the kid and ask questions later.” Noah was seething as Ryan stepped up to diffuse the growing tension.
“It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, not making him pay for what he did to Trin. No one gets away with hurting my family. But we can’t. We took an oath to serve and protect and whether we fucking like it or not, that includes that piece of shit in there too.” Noah was always the calm one, so I knew in that moment just how hard this was on them too.
“It isn’t to protect him,” Ryan said as he stepped up to my side. “I can’t let you in that room because it is you I’m trying to protect. You have Trinity and a child to think of. If you’re sitting in a jail cell yourself, fighting for your freedom then how in the hell will I explain to Trinity that I let that happen?”
“You’ve seen the women in our family,” Noah said, sounding much calmer than only moments ago. “He’d never survive if he let that go down.”
I smiled as I envisioned each one of the Sawyer woman standing before Ryan giving him hell. It eased a small amount of the tension I felt I was drowning in.
“How did you find him?” I finally asked after we had all taken a moment to calm down.
“Garett got a call about 3:00 a.m. from Charlie’s father. Apparently Charlie had called him drunk and stoned out of his mind asking him for help.” Ryan took a seat at his desk while Noah and I sat in the chairs across from him. “His father knew picking him up and bringing him home wouldn’t get him the help he truly needed, so he called the station and gave his son’s location.”
“He turned his son in?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Ryan replied. “He told us that day he knew he couldn’t help him anymore. So Garett and Bill went and picked up Charlie and brought him in. He’s been sleeping it off in a holding cell since.”
“I wanna be in there when you talk to him about the break-in.” Ryan instantly began to shake his head no, but I already made up my mind. Nothing would stop me from being there when we read him his rights for hurting the woman I loved. For attacking the woman carrying my child.
“He hurt her,” I said, fighting with everything inside me to control my anger. “We may not have known that Trinity was pregnant at the time of the attack, but damn it, Ryan, that asshole could have been the cause for her losing my child. I need to be there.”
“I can’t let you go off�
��” he began, only I interrupted him before he could say more.
“I just want see his face when we tell him he’s being arrested for his actions that night. I want to witness his tormented expression when he understands that he is going to jail for what he did to her.” I took in a deep breath. “I won’t touch him, I can promise you that.”
Ryan stared back at me for what felt like forever before he finally nodded his head in agreement.
***
My jaw ticked with irritation as I looked the pathetic excuse for a man square in the eyes. He didn’t much like me looking at him because he continued to look at his hands folded together on the table before him instead.
He looked filthy and strung out. Obvious signs of drug abuse were all over him. Track marks on his arms, sunken eyes, and rotting teeth. The guy was pathetic.
It took all I had not to leap up from the chair I sat in and wrap my hands around his neck, strangling him as he struggled against me to get even one ounce of air.
I could almost see it play out in my mind.
But Ryan made sure the chances of me getting to Charlie were next to impossible. He not only blocked my path but Noah and Joe, another officer, did too. I was sandwiched between them all with no other choice but to just stare at the son of a bitch who attacked Trinity.
“Where were you the night of August second?” Ryan asked, and Charlie looked up at him with a dead look in his eyes. “And before you decide to tell me some kind of lie, I already know the answer. I already tested the fingerprints we found at the location of a break-in and can assure you that you are a match.” Ryan turned around the file that was on the table in front of him and opened it. Just inside was a picture of Trinity after the attack. Her lip was freshly stitched, her eyes were closed and tears were glistening on her cheeks.
I fisted my hands and could feel the anger radiating throughout my body. I shook from the adrenaline coursing through my body.
“So again, I ask you, where were you on the night of August second, around eight-thirty p.m.?” Ryan stared at Charlie, not once taking his eyes off his.
I had to give it to the kid; he tried like hell to hold it together. He sustained eye contact with Ryan, never once hiding his despair.
“I didn’t mean to hurt her,” he whispered, and it was in that moment I saw fear in his eyes. “I was going through some pretty bad withdrawals. And I just didn’t have any other way of getting money for my next fix.” He still looked at Ryan as he continued.
“I came around the corner on Main by Mr. Warren’s shop and that’s when I saw the girl.” He shrugged and his lip trembled just slightly as he took in a deep breath. “I just wanted the money, that was all. But when she tried to run, I panicked. I never meant to hurt her.”
He then looked around the room at each of us, one by one. Before his gaze met Ryan’s once again. “She’s all right, isn’t she?”
I couldn’t hold back. I knew I said I would, but I just couldn’t.
“She has nightmares, every night.” I tried to breathe in deep to control myself from lunging toward this asshole. “She was lifeless when we found her, and we all stood in the hospital for hours hoping and praying that she’d be okay. While you were out there getting high, she was in the fucking hospital, recovering.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, now looking at no one other than me. “I truly am.”
I believed in redemption. I believed in second chances because most everyone had an ability to learn from their mistakes.
But right then I just couldn’t.
Because this was Trinity we were talking about. This man hurt her and no amount of apologies or remorse would ever make me forgive what he put her through.
I knew I could no longer stay in this room. Because if I did I would not be able to hold true to the promise I made to Ryan.
I needed some air.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Trinity
Olivia spun around so we could all see her in her dress. And she was beautiful, like an angel.
Maybe it was my hormones, who knew, but I couldn’t keep the tears at bay.
When I looked around the room I noticed then that everyone else had that same misty eyed look I knew I wore.
“Alena, I love it,” Olivia gushed as she smoothed out the silk material that hugged her waist and pooled out just beneath her hips. It truly was a masterpiece. “I’ve thought about this dress, even envisioned it in my mind. How it would feel, every detail, and this right here,” she said as she spun around once again to look at the mirror behind her. “This is so much more than I imagined.”
“I’m so glad you love it. It looks amazing on you.” Alena looked over the dress, giving off that designer look I knew too well. It was one I’d seen her wear often.
She was analyzing the fit, each inch and every detail. Looking for even the smallest imperfection.
I’d give my left leg if she found one, because I knew she wouldn’t. Alena had, over the last few months, spent countless hours perfecting this gown. She was so meticulous with every single stitch.
Anything less than absolutely perfect would not have been accepted in her eyes.
Today was the first day I stepped foot back in Sassy Ladies since the night I was attacked. To say it was unsettling would have been an understatement.
But I pushed forward because I would not let some angry man take away something I loved.
Not again.
This place had always been a place I felt safe. A place I treasured. I wasn’t about to let that change.
“I can’t believe my little girl is getting married in less than a week,” Tammy gushed as she hugged Olivia. “I just know your momma is looking down right now with such love and pride.”
That was all it took before the tears began to fall from the eyes of everyone there.
I didn’t know Claire, Olivia’s mother, but I did know that if she was anything like Olivia, it wasn’t a shock how so many people adored her. Olivia had a heart of gold. Sassy, bullheaded, and commanding as the rest of them but the girl was without a doubt one of the sweetest people I’d ever known.
***
When Bailey pulled up in the driveway of the Willard place to drop me off, both of us nearly had a heart attack.
There on the front porch, perched upon a six-foot ladder, was Nan.
She had a broom in her hand as she swatted it from side to side, reaching toward the peak of the porch.
“What in the hell?” Bailey gasped as she shoved her car in drive and moved quickly. “Belle, baby, entertain Billy,” she announced as she hurried off toward Nan with me close behind.
“Woman, what on earth are you trying to do?” Bailey yelled just as she reached the ladder.
“Oh hell, don’t you start it too, girl. I hear enough of that shit from Chase,” she complained as she lowered her broom. “And that one right there,” she motioned toward me. “She is just as bad.”
She crawled down the ladder as Bailey and I both stood at the bottom hoping and praying she didn’t fall.
“I’m a grown woman,” she huffed. “I don’t need no god-damned babysitter.” She placed her feet on the ground and tossed the broom to the side.
“All you people wanna tell me how to act, what to eat, and when,” she started mumbling as she brushed off her pants. “I don’t need any one standing over me making sure I don’t break a hip.”
She threw her hands up in the air as she turned around and began marching her way up the stairs. “And I certainly don’t need no bossy ass woman telling me I can’t climb a stupid ladder to swat away some bees.”
The front screen door slammed behind her as she entered the house and Bailey and I remained in the same place, staring after her.
There was a moment of silence as we both tried to register just what happened, before Bailey broke out in laughter.
“That woman is a riot, she is a hoot.” Bailey held her stomach as she laughed and all I kept thinking was how I would have explained to Chase that h
is Nan fell off a ladder.
Bailey said her goodbyes and I chose to sit out on the front porch for a bit, allowing Nan to cool off, hopefully.
It was a nice fall day. The breeze blew through the trees and the smell of someone close cutting their grass filled the air. I loved that smell.
I leaned back in the swing, resting my head against the side and the day eventually caught up with me as I dozed off.
I was woken some time later to a gentle kiss against my lips and when I opened my eyes I came face to face with the most amazing man.
“Hi handsome.” I smiled up at Chase just before he sat down at my side.
“What are you doing sleeping out here?” he asked and I’d suddenly remembered the actions that had left me a little fearful of going inside.
“Bailey and I came home after Olivia’s dress fitting to find Nan up on that ladder there.” I pointed toward the ladder that still remained on the grass just off the porch. “She was on top of it trying to swat away some bees.”
Chase arched a brow as his gaze wandered over toward the ladder.
“She got a little pissed when Bailey asked her what on earth she was doing and she stormed off inside talking about nosy women and so on.” Chase chuckled as he shook his head.
“I thought I’d stay out here for just a little while, let her calm down. I never meant to fall asleep,” I assured him as I straightened up and leaned into his warm body.
He happily wrapped me in his arms as he kissed me once more.
“I’ll handle Nan,” he assured me. “I need to lock up the barn when I’m gone so she can’t access things that I know could only get herself hurt.”
There was a peace that settled over us as I curled in close to him.
“We got him,” Chase whispered and I instantly sat up and turned to face him. “They arrested him last night.”
“It was him?” I asked.
He nodded his head as he reached out and tucked my hair behind my ear. “He admitted that he did it.” He took in a deep breath. “I sat there in that room while he confessed to hurting you and the only thing I could think about was strangling him until he had no life left in him.”
