by Regina Cole
“What the hell is going on in here?” A nurse poked her head in the door, then yelled down the hall. “Security!”
“We’re going,” Jesse said, grabbing Everly’s arm and yanking her to her feet.
Before she was shoved out of the room by her best friend, Everly caught Drake’s gaze. His look spoke volumes.
Shit was so fucked up.
“Everly,” Drake croaked, his vocal cords still fried from the smoke.
“Ssssh, baby, don’t try to talk,” Belinda said, patting his cheek. He knocked her hand away with a glare.
Hunter was still standing by the doorway, his tattooed arms crossed over his chest, looking good and pissed off.
“You need to leave. Right now,” the nurse reiterated.
Belinda pouted, her too-full lips becoming even more exaggerated. “That’s no way to talk to his fiancée.”
Drake jumped in. “You are not my fiancée. We’re over. I’m not sure how many times I have to tell you that for you to get it through your skull.”
The nurse shook her head. “Security will be here in a few minutes. Get yourselves together by then.” She left the room.
Belinda drew back and crossed her arms as he swung his legs over the side of the bed. The pain wrapped around his skull and squeezed like his cranium was a lemon and someone needed a glass of tea. But he couldn’t sit there, not when Everly was hurting. If he hurried, maybe he could catch her before she got kicked out. He grasped the IV pole, wincing as he put weight on his bum leg.
He hobbled toward the door, his head throbbing harder with every step, and before he could get there, it swung open to admit his best friend.
Hunter didn’t seem to notice Drake at first. He speared Belinda with a “drop dead” look before turning those pissed-off peepers on Drake.
“What’s the she-devil doing here?”
“Leaving,” Drake said, tossing a pointed glare over his shoulder. “Where’s Everly?”
“Jesse’s taking her out of here before she gets escorted out by security.” Hunter crossed his arms. “You okay?”
“I’ve been better,” Drake said as he wheeled his IV toward the door. “I’m heading after Everly.”
“You’re not going to get far unless you unplug this sumbitch,” Hunter said as he yanked the cord. He bent down to gather up the extra leads and coiled them on the hook at the back of the pole. Grabbing Belinda’s purse, he tossed it to her.
“You can’t kick me out of here,” she said, temper making her face ugly.
“Yes, actually, he can, because I agree.” Drake said as he limped through the doorway, thankful that his best friend stood by his side to keep him from falling, and to keep his hospital gown from falling open and gifting Belinda with the sight of his ass. “When I get back, you’d better be gone.”
With Belinda angry and sputtering behind them, Drake and Hunter moved slowly down the hall toward the elevators.
“I didn’t know what had happened to you. The guys just said you’d been carted off in the ambulance,” Hunter said, an uncharacteristic note of emotion in his tone. “Looks like that hard head of yours took the brunt of the damage. You should be fine. Buck up, buttercup.”
“Thanks for the encouragement, asshole,” Drake said without venom. He focused on the wheels of his IV pole as they walked. It gave him something other than the pain in his head and leg to focus on. Like, the worry about Everly.
She’d seen Belinda at her absolute worst. And he wasn’t stupid. He knew what kind of mental comparisons Everly would be drawing right about now.
But she didn’t understand. Exactly how beautiful she was to him, how smart, how perfect. Belinda was Belinda. But Belinda was as artificial and calculating as Everly was loving and genuine. There was no comparison.
There was only one woman he wanted, and it was Everly.
“I love her, you know.” Drake couldn’t stand the silence any more. “I’d been about to tell her when I got the call.”
“I can tell you do,” Hunter said. He didn’t say anything when Drake stumbled, just grabbed him by the arm and helped to steady him while he regained his footing. “I love her best friend. When Jesse was abducted? I wasn’t sure I could live without her, the fear and pain was too fucking much. And I know you feel the same about Everly.”
A shared smile between them made the going a little easier, and Drake stood taller.
“Yeah. I can tell you do. You and Jesse are good together.”
They rounded the corner, and Drake’s heart flipped over in his chest.
Everly was seated in a row of chairs by the bank of elevators, staring down at the floor. Jesse was beside her, hand on her knee, talking earnestly as she leaned forward and held her hand.
“Everly,” Drake said, thankful now that his voice was a little more normal. Still scratchy, and rough, but not the nearly-dead he’d sounded not long ago.
She looked up, and her heart was in her eyes.
“He’s mine!” The voice shrieking behind Drake came at the exact wrong moment. Belinda was there, hands fisted at her sides, red-faced with anger. “He just told me he’s always loved me!”
“Ladies, you need to leave the premises immediately, or the police will be called.” The burly security guard glowered at Belinda and Everly.
Belinda stepped close and leaned toward Everly. Drake couldn’t make out what she said, but the color left Everly’s cheeks as she staggered back.
“We were just leaving,” Jesse said, yanking Everly into the elevator and jabbing the button hard.
“Wait.” Drake started for her, but the quick movement was too much for his bum leg. Before he could ass-plant on the cold tile, Hunter steadied him.
The doors whooshed open and the last thing he saw was the look on Everly’s beautiful face.
She looked the way he felt—broken.
18.
It was hard to see the road.
At the next stoplight, Everly dashed the back of her hand across her eyes. Her vision cleared for a second before becoming wavy once again, the red light distorting into a fuzzy halo of color.
Damn it, the tears wouldn’t stop falling. Her chest was on fire, her throat raw from the sobs she’d let out on the drive in Jesse’s pickup. Seeing how upset Everly was, Jesse had handed over the ignition key without a second’s hesitation.
Drake was okay. He was alive. But seeing that beautiful, perfect model of womanhood standing next to Drake had reminded Everly of everything she wasn’t. She should have just left the two of them together.
But she hadn’t. She’d caused a huge scene, and security had all but kicked her out. And she still hadn’t been able to talk to Drake.
And then there was that parting shot that Belinda had delivered. It was like she knew exactly what would hurt Everly the most, and had gone right for the jugular.
“Sleeping with girls like you is his favorite thing to do when we fight,” Belinda had nearly cooed. “Girls who are awkward, inexperienced. Lonely girls. He says the hero worship gets him off, helps him pass the time. But he always comes home to me. Always.”
Jesse had pulled her away before she could deny it, before she could look to Drake for any kind of argument. And the damage had been done.
The same tired thoughts tumbled through Everly’s brain like cement in a mixer, negative and ugly and just plain exhausting.
I’m not good enough.
Belinda would obviously be a better choice for him.
It’s only a matter of time before he realizes how weird and broken I am.
Everly tightened her grip on the steering wheel and forcibly cleared her mind. Fortunately, she was close to her destination.
The desire to go home and snuggle with her pups, especially tender-hearted Jacques, was huge, but the idea of roaming through the same rooms that Drake had walked in so recently was pouring salt into the wounds on her still-bleeding heart.
It was early on a Sunday, and the shelter was closed. She could be alone for several hours.
Nobody was expected there until Charlie would come at six to feed and water and do the evening checks. Normally Everly did that, but since she was supposed to still be out of town, Charlie was filling in.
As she cut the engine in the parking spot right behind the building, Everly leaned her forehead against the steering wheel.
It seemed like a million years ago that she and Drake were snuggled up on the couch in the lake house, naked, wrapped up completely in one another.
Shoving open the door of Jesse’s pickup, she nearly stumbled exiting the vehicle. Glancing back over her shoulder as she neared the back door of the shelter, she noticed she’d parked crooked. Like a drunk person, actually.
No more driving while emotionally broken. It wasn’t safe for her or the innocents on the streets of Dallas.
Her key skittered around the lock on Hopeful Paw’s employee entrance three times before she finally managed to shove it home and get it turned. She must have jammed it harder than she’d realized. Silver scratches lined the edges of the keyhole.
The familiar scents of animals and lemon-scented cleaner greeted her nose. As the door fell shut behind her, she turned to lock herself in, glancing out the window of the door as she did.
Huh. That was weird. At the very back of the lot, close to the dumpsters that belonged to the strip mall on the neighboring street, was a little silver two-door Nissan. She almost hadn’t seen it, parked halfway behind the oak tree as it was.
Probably some kids trying to get some nookie, or smoke some weed. None of her business.
Walking through the back kennels, she spoke in a low, calm voice to each of her canine residents. She was greeted by wagging tails and excited barks from most of the pups.
By the time she reached the hallway in front of laundry room between the dog and cat sections, where they washed and dried doggie bedding and volunteer smocks every day, the tightness in her chest was lessening just enough to let her breathe a little.
Maybe one day she’d remember her time with Drake fondly. Maybe one day she could find someone else—
She shook her head. No. She was acting like they were over. There was every chance that Belinda had been lying.
There wasn’t anyone like Drake. And that was why she couldn’t blame Belinda, not really. The woman had had a taste of what Drake had to offer, and who wouldn’t run to the ends of the earth to get him back? Though Everly’s pain at the possibility of being used as a rebound was real, and her longing for him would never stop, she really could understand the motive.
And maybe, when the pain that clouded her head and her heart dissipated, just a little, she could find a way to try to win him back. There was a big possibility that she would lose, but if she walked away from him without any more of a fight than this? There was no way she could live with herself.
Drake was too important to let him leave her for good.
A pile of laundry just outside the room caught her attention, and she frowned.
Who’d been in charge on shift yesterday? Harold? He was fastidious about everything; it wasn’t like him to leave something like this undone.
Oh, well. She’d just have to load it up in the big, industrial-size washer and let it take a spin while she hid in her office and finished her cry-it-out routine. Bending at the waist, she scooped up the blankets, most of which had been donated by a local elementary school’s charity drive, and shoved through the swinging doors.
The smell was what she noticed first, a heavy, sulfuric bite in her nostrils. And then she saw the corner of the room, where the commercial clothes dryer was sitting crooked, out of place.
The booted feet sticking out behind it were an even bigger surprise.
“Who-who are you?”
Even as she stuttered the question, she dropped the laundry and got ready to haul ass out of there.
His hand appeared on the top edge of the dryer, and he pulled himself upright. The silvery-gray hair on his head was perfectly straight, and his features were handsome, with crinkles in the corners of his eyes and his lips. He wore navy cargo pants with suspenders, and a plain gray tee.
She’d never seen him before, but she couldn’t shake the notion that he looked incredibly familiar.
“This is a private facility and we’re closed. You need to leave.”
His sigh sent shivers down her back.
“Why did you have to find me?” He bent down and a metallic clatter behind the dryer indicated he was picking up tools. “I didn’t want to hurt any person with this. It was just supposed to be the building. The animals? Eh, they’re all mutts anyhow, no real loss.” He shook his head as he hefted a toolbox in his right hand and moved to step out from behind the dryer.
Reflexes won out over shock, and Everly dashed for the door. She’d have made it, if not for a stray dog blanket that had fallen from her arms without notice on her way into the room. The fabric caught the toe of her sneaker, and her arms smacked hard against the tiled flooring. Scrambling, she tried to gain her feet, but before she could resume forward motion, he was there.
His grip bit into her forearm and he jerked her back.
“It’s you, isn’t it?”
“What do you mean? I’m not—listen, if you’re after money, we don’t have any here. This is a charity—”
“You’re the one Drake wants.”
When that name fell from the stranger’s lips, Everly’s heart squeezed, and she knew.
“Belinda. You’re related to her.”
At the sound of that name, an intense look of pain and longing crossed the man’s face. He shoved Everly back, to the corner where the huge utility shelves stood. Everly had gotten a great deal on them when a local library had upgraded the racks in their biography section.
Blocking her in with his body, he reached into the toolbox and extracted a short length of rope.
“I was,” he said as he began winding the rope around the edge of the metal shelf.
Everly looked wildly around for a way to escape, but his body was pressed full against hers, his hips twisted so she couldn’t even get a good kick in. She had to wait a moment, let herself get a better shot at making it out of there alive.
It might be the only one she got.
“She doesn’t want to see me again. I hurt her. I’ve only ever wanted to love her, protect her, give her what she needed, but somehow, I did the wrong thing by pushing her. I didn’t realize how much she loved Drake, needed him in her life. I thought she should move on, that that was the only way for her to be happy.”
“She’s with him now,” Everly whispered, tears of pain and fear streaming down her cheeks as he grabbed at her again. She twisted in his grip, but he wouldn’t budge, his body still in that blocking position. “She’s got what she wanted!”
“But I’ve still lost her. My baby girl,” he said grimly, shoving Everly against the metal shelving hard enough that her skull cracked loudly against it, throwing stars into her vision. “The only way I can make this up to her is to give her a gift.”
“This isn’t a gift!” The fumes in the room were making her dizzy, and she coughed. He’d obviously loosened a fitting behind the dryer, and the natural gas was filling the room with a slow, hissing sound. “This is a crime!”
“You took what she wanted from her, and so you’ve got to pay. It’s the only way I might be able to win her love back.”
Everly screamed then, kicking and flailing and doing her dead-level best to escape. There was no waiting for an opening any longer, the panic had her in a chokehold just as tight as the ropes that were circling her waist, pinning her to the front of the shelves full of paper goods and spare office supplies.
When the knots were done, Belinda’s father stepped back and examined his handiwork, a prominent frown on his face.
“The explosion will be biggest in this room, so the evidence should be gone, but I don’t trust you not to work out of those knots.” He set a small electronic device in front of the dryer. It looked like he’d cannibalized an RC
car, bits of plastic and wires cobbled inelegantly together. Then he propped his hands on his hips like he was trying to figure out a problem with an engine instead of looking for holes in his strategy for murder.
Everly swallowed hard, trying to find the key out of this.
“You don’t want to do this,” she said, pulling at her bonds ineffectually. “You’re not a bad person. You love your daughter, and she’ll forgive you for whatever it is you think you’ve done. She’s happy now, she’s got Drake, and I’ve lost him. Please, don’t take everything else from me too.” She was sobbing openly now, a glimmer of hope flaring in her heart as his expression broke slightly. “Please, let my animals live, and let me live.”
“Sorry,” he said, his eyes dimming as he stepped closer to her. “I really am. But this is the way it has to be. If I let you go now, you’ll turn me in. Once it got out back home that I’m a criminal, there’s no way she’d ever speak to me again. I’ve got to see this through.”
He placed his broad hands on the sturdy metal utility shelving and pulled hard. Everly braced back as tightly as she could, but his superior size and strength coupled with her bonds made her easy to overpower.
The heavy shelving hit the tile with a loud clang that she didn’t register—her body was trapped beneath the substantial weight and bulk.
When she could blink again, she looked around wildly. Her head was pinned beneath the shelf, but there was enough space between it and the floor for her to see just a little.
He’d propped open the laundry room door, and that was the only reason she hadn’t lost consciousness from the gas leak yet. As it was, she felt dizzy and nauseous with every breath she took. Of course, that could also be the blood that was pooling beneath her head. It didn’t matter. Either way, she was done for.
Here, in the place she’d spent so many happy hours, she was going to die.
The tears that dripped onto the tile floor weren’t just for her. They were for each of the animals in her shelter that would be lost along with her.
