Vonnie: Book Two of Broken Girls Series

by J. A. Hornbuckle

  Eyeing me warily, Pookie eventually stepped out onto the cement of my small patio, lifting her paws high as if the light covering of snow contained sewage which might contaminate her delicate paws. “Either get with the program or come inside, because we’re losing heat here.”

  With a disdainful look my way, the pooch did her business, using her back legs to fluff the snow over the remains of her doings. It did not bode well for me if she did that every time throughout the long months of a Colorado winter—and might provide plenty of frozen surprises come spring. But I didn’t have it in me to correct her as she ran back in the house with what I read as pride in getting the job done.

  “Good girl!” I tried praising, but my voice sounded as heavy as my heart. It wasn’t her fault I couldn’t muster any enthusiasm. “But that’s only half of why we go to the park. Yes, it is. We also get our exercise too. Yes, we do. Just by walking. And we need exercise, Pookster. Uh-huh, that’s right. We do.”

  God, if Rio’d heard me, he’d have a flipping fit. But his dog loved it when I talked to her like that and right then, right in that moment my tone of voice even helped a little in overcoming some of the doom and gloom I was feeling.

  Usually in winter, I’d break out a few exercise DVD’s to keep in shape. Reaching and bouncing along with the people on the screen to keep my butt from spreading as it was wont to do during the sedentary months of cold. But I didn’t think those would help her.

  Going for the junk drawer, I snagged the ball we’d played with before. Maybe I could kill two birds with one stone by getting her to play (exercise) and finding her a new name (which might keep Rio around a bit longer).

  But I knew which side of that argument my heart demanded.

  And it had shit-all to do with the damn ball.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Rio couldn’t think straight much less move except in fits and starts ever since that detective had oh-so casually informed them to get on with their everyday lives. Had offered it on a grin even, which had made the words so much worse.

  Because as far as Rio was concerned, the bottom dropped out of his world the very moment they were uttered, forget the frickin’ smile. Leaving him without an excuse to remain in Vonnie’s life, except as some kind of bystander. Her brother’s boss, of all things.

  Just a man she used to know.

  Some guy who’d moved in with her when she’d needed protecting.

  An interlude, albeit an outstanding one even though they both should’ve known it was only temporary.

  Why hadn’t he done something to cement what they were building?

  Make it one of the permanent kinds?

  Racing to his desk, hoping the work of the day would help take his mind off his circling, unanswerable thoughts, he printed off a couple of assignments for Zee. There was no way Rio’d be able to make a decision on which to send Vonnie’s brother to do. Better just have Zee take his pick, he thought as he shoved the papers towards the man he’d come to think of as a friend, rather than just an employee or his girlfriend’s sibling.

  “You okay, brother?” The red-headed man asked, his eyes, so much like his sister’s, roaming over Rio’s face.

  “Yeah,” he breathed, turning away, unwilling and unable to allow Zee to see what was imploding inside. “Use one of the empty cubicles and read these through. Lemme know which assignment you want.”

  Rio’s thought was to retreat to his office, to hide behind all that he needed to get done, but his feet had other ideas as they led him to Ryker’s space. “Got a minute?”

  Max’s youngest brother looked up from one of the multiple screens adorning his desk. “Yeah, sure, Rio. What’s on your mind?”

  Without thinking about it, Rio closed the office door and took a chair. But he didn’t know what to say, how to begin, and a couple of seconds turned into a couple of minutes of him just sitting there like some sort of bump on a log.

  “Cloud?” Ryker said his Ranger’s nickname softly, but it still made Rio jump. “Can tell you’re on edge, but you gotta talk in order for me to help.”

  Rio swallowed and looked out the window. Fuck it. He’d just ask and get it right the hell over with, just see what the kid did or didn’t know about the shit Rio’s heart held. “How’d you know?”

  “Know what?”

  “That your Phoebe was the one.” There. He’d asked and he’d listen to what Ryker had to say, which was sure to be some kind of hearts and flowers crap that didn’t have nothing to do with him and Vonnie. Then he could just leave with the remaining shreds of his pride and frickin’ get back to work.

  But that wasn’t what happened. No, Ryker sat back in his chair with a creak making Rio’s eyes turn back to the kid. “I didn’t. Not at first anyway. I mean, I knew I loved her and everything. But didn’t know how much until I found out she was planning to move away.”

  Rio took in a deep breath as he recognized Ryker was confessing to feeling something similar to what was going on with him and his spitfire.

  “Phoebe got accepted into a program in Denver she’d applied to long before we’d even met.” Ryker nodded at his own words which were given through a mouth screwed up into a rueful smile. “I thought she’d planned it as a way of scraping me off. Come to find out, I was wrong. But wrong in a way that showed me I needed to step up to the plate and ensure we’d never be apart again.”

  “By getting married?”

  “Bold move, huh? But it was the only play I could make, that I needed to do.” Ryker’s voice dropped a bit and became more fervent. “I couldn’t lose her, man. Couldn’t lose the best thing that’d ever happened to me.”

  Both men went quiet before Rio sighed. “Don’t think Vonnie wants all the hoopla of a big wedding. Not quite her style.”

  “So drag her down to City Hall,” Ryker offered. “Once they reopen it, that is.”

  Rio blinked as his thoughts turned from dire to hopeful at Ryker’s off-hand suggestion. “I’ll give it a think. But you can’t say shit about this, Ry. Not to your girl or your brothers, all right?”

  “Not a word, bro’,” Ryker promised, his face shooting to his office door where Max stood with hands on hips. “And since Phoebe’s been bugging me about another groom’s man to complete the wedding party, what’s your take on wearing a tux?”

  Turning to look where Ryker’s eyes were pointed to, Rio decided to leave. “You need me, I’m there, kiddo.”

  “Yeah, about that,” Ryker said, coming to his feet. “Need you to stop calling me kid, Cloud. It’s kinda insulting, if you get my drift.”

  Rio nodded and opened the door for Max, preparing to high-tail it back to his office and think over everything the ki…uhm, the youngest of the Santiago-Adams boys had said.

  “Just the man I wanted to see,” Max announced, putting a hand on Rio’s forearm to stop his forward movement. “Gotta client in Vegas who is looking for the same deal as what you negotiated in Denver. How soon can you leave?”

  Erupting laughter from Ryker’s way had Rio looking over his shoulder. “Vegas beats City Hall, hands down, dude.”

  Rio couldn’t disagree, but didn’t respond as he tried to listen to the spate of words pouring out of Max’s mouth.

  Words he still tried to make sense of as he drove back to Vonnie’s place, his balls in his throat with what could or wouldn’t happen over the next hour or so. Could he convince her, give her all the strong arguments of what his heart was demanding?

  Or would she dispute him, citing how stupid, how precipitous his plan was due to the fact they’d essentially only known one another for a week?

  Still and all…it was worth a try.

  She was totally worth taking a chance on creating a future with, becoming his in a way no one but themselves could ‘put asunder’, so to speak.

  He only hoped he could make her see it his way despite all the objections and concerns still holding them away from each other. The insecurities of their pasts that encroached on whatever tomorrow they’d f
ace.

  But Rio wanted them to face that shit together.

  Needed to know she would always be by his side, to understand he’d never leave her except by dying. To fully comprehend his intention was to grow old with her, create a family together and weather the coming years as a complete unit of two like-minded souls.

  God, he hoped so.

  While fervently praying he didn’t frickin’ fuck things up.

  *.*.*.*.*

  Oh. My. God.

  I got it. Finally understood the portion of Pookie’s name which caught her attention.

  It wasn’t the ‘P’ part of it at all. It was the ‘key’ sound.

  And to test it out for the fiftieth time, I went through them all, rolling the ball again and again.

  “Here, Priscilla.”

  “Bring the ball back to mama, Penelope.”

  “That’s it, Pam.”

  All which earned me nothing but a look of ‘say what?’ or to be summarily ignored.

  Then I tried the other ones I knew made her ears tilt forward. “Get the ball, Pinkie.”

  “That’s my girl, Markie.”

  “Bring it back, Kiki. That’s it.”

  Yep. She was totally into all the frilly, frou-frou names that were gonna make Rio absolutely lose his shit when he heard them and my theory. But then, if he wanted a bad-assed dog, he should’ve gone with a manlier breed.

  Pulling her into my lap from my place on the floor, I showered the little squirming, fluffy thing with love in all the ways I knew she liked. “You are mama’s precious girl, yes, you are. Oh you like those scratches, don’t you, you sweet thing.”

  “Seriously? This is what you two get up to when I’m at work?”

  Shit.

  Busted.

  But I tried to cover, to rally as much as I was able. “I didn’t hear you come in, Rio.”

  “That much is obvious,” he replied, dropping his keys onto the bar and shrugging out of his coat, his damning eyes never leaving mine.

  It was a joy to see he was over whatever crap he’d been working when he’d left.

  Scrambling to come up with an explanation, my mouth began to ramble. “I’ve been working on the other name thing, you know. Like you asked? And it seems Pookie doesn’t like—”

  “PK. Remember? I want you to call her ‘PK’ or find something similar.”

  As if I could forget, for god’s sake.

  “Yeah, okay,” I muttered with a head nod, struggling to stand. Our conversation would feel a lot better with me on my feet, or so I told myself. “But the reason she doesn’t respond is because she’s zeroing in on—”

  “Need to talk to you, princess,” he cut in on a note that warned me whatever was to be discussed next had nothing to do with his dog. Despite the way he leaned down to where she was trying to climb up his leg, in order to scratch her head.

  I grabbed onto the counter and took in a lungful of air, trying to fortify myself against whatever he said next. Would he be kind as he told me he had to go?

  Offer sweet words as he packed his stuff and vacated my place?

  “Max is sending me to Vegas,” he finally said and I closed my eyes to await the rest of what I was sure he’d say. Words about how it’d been fun and that he’d always remember me. “So I need you to put together a bag that’ll cover you for a couple of days.”

  “I-I’m sorry?”

  But Rio was already on the move, striding on long legs down the hall as he made his way to the army-issued duffle bag still filling up one corner of my office. By the time I made it there, he was bent over, rummaging through it. “Wants me to pick up another client who doesn’t trust the men he’d hired local. Pack enough for three days, though we may only be gone two.”

  “Rio?” It was all I could say, all my mouth could utter in the cacophony of the moment.

  His eyes, even from his canted position managed to hit mine with a thud I could almost hear. One that told me he wasn’t gonna leave, that I was still important to him. “Might want to get a move on, spitfire. Our flight leaves Durango in three hours.”

  “Wh-what are we gonna do with Pookie?”

  “DB and her husband will take her.”

  I looked to my feet, at where my little girl was sitting, her eyes shifting from her owner to me. “So should I pack for the both of us?”

  “You first. Won’t take me long to get my shit sorted. Then I’ll deal with hers.”

  Okay, then. Guess I was going to Vegas as Pookie went to the Milliken’s place.

  And as I pulled my suitcase out from underneath my bed, I tried to mentally sift through my closet, deciding what outfits to bring. But only after a short foray through my drawers for underclothes suitable to a place like Vegas, Rio joined me.

  Or rather he came to stand next me, as I leaned the front of my thighs into the mattress. But he was looking at everything but me as he turned a little box over and over in his hands. “Don’t know how to do this, princess. Only asked one other girl in my life and she fucked me over by getting nasty with my best friend from high school. A fact I clued into when I caught them at it while on an unexpected leave.”

  What the…what? Where was he going with this?

  “But she never held a candle to you, Vons. Wasn’t anywhere near the woman you are or what you bring to my life.”

  Okay, now he was getting dangerously close to making me cry at the admiration I could damn well detect in his voice.

  “And although we haven’t known each other very long,” he stated and then paused to take in another lungful of air. “I want us to be together forever.”

  Shoving the box my way, I had no clue what to do, no idea what he was on about. But when I didn’t immediately react, Rio grabbed one of my hands and forced me to accept the small square.

  Curious, I opened it.

  And then swallowed my gasp.

  “They were my mother’s,” he whispered. “Passed down from my dad’s mom.”

  It was a set of antique rings, a solitaire and a nestled band done up in gleaming gold, simple in design but making a statement that was hard to miss all the same. So much so, my voice shook as I glanced up at him then dipped my eyes back to the sparkling jewelry. “But what do they mean, Rio?”

  “Marry me, spitfire. Make my life complete and just frickin’ marry me. I swear I’ll make you happy if you’ll just give me the chance.”

  Dropping the box to the comforter, I wound arms around the man who’d walked into my life and taken me over. One who’d bam-blasted his way through all the roadblocks and shields to became the center of my life’s compass.

  To Rio, my true north.

  He spoke again, in more breath than speech. “We’ll do the deed in Vegas, no fuss and no muss. Just the way you want to.”

  “With pleasure, honey,” I finally averred, my limbs shaking with all the love spilling through my veins and happiness overflowing my heart. “Though we’re gonna catch some shit about this.”

  “No doubt, princess,” he shot back, tucking his cheek onto the top of my head. “No frickin’ doubt.”

  And I closed my eyes to savor the moment, for once totally and completely happy.

  Epilogue

  Zee’s eyes went from the window of the plane to the hand his sister kept flexing. The ones that held a pair of rings that caught the late afternoon light from across the aisle.

  She seemed just as dazzled by the doings as he’d been when he’d recognized her and Rio’s intent after they’d landed amidst all the glittering finery Vegas had to offer. But one thing was for sure, when his baby sister made up her mind to do something, nothing and no one could dissuade her.

  As he’d learned when he’d taken her aside for a little family get together about what she was determined to do with a guy she’d confessed to only knowing a week.

  “But think about it Zee,” she’d argued. “If we were to break my and Rio’s time down in two to four hour dates, we would’ve known each other six or more months. And that’s
not including how we’ve seen each other operate during times of stress.”

  A fact he couldn’t argue.

  Though he wanted to, felt compelled to do since his dad wasn’t there to either give or withhold his blessing. But what would’ve Zion have done in Zee’s stead? Would he have seen the obvious love Rio had for the tiny woman their baby girl had grown to be? At the way she’d blossomed under the ex-Ranger’s regard?

  No, Zee didn’t think so because even strangers reacted to the pair. Waitresses falling all over themselves as they served the couple, the way even the clerk in the courthouse had smiled at the way they’d bickered over her taking his name. Or the fact the damned judge presiding over their nuptials took special care as he coached them through their vows.

  Yeah, Rio would’ve gotten a hearty approval from Zee’s dad and maybe even a warm hand on his shoulder as the big man promised to love and care for their family’s special girl. And even Zee could admit getting a little misty-eyed when Vonnie repeated her vows, not so much from the words she spoke. But rather, the look of love and happiness shining in her eyes as she said them in a clear and ringing voice. One filled with such heartfelt truth even the minister and the woman who acted as the other witness were left smiling.

  At first, when Vonnie and Rio asked him to stand up with them, Zee wanted to refuse. Mainly because he’d never attended a wedding before, much less stood in as best man/man-of-honor. And also because he wasn’t keen on seeing his little sister get married by a Liberace or Elvis impersonator. Just tying the knot in Vegas was bad enough, in Zee’s opinion.

  But fortunately Vonnie put her foot down at having the ceremony performed in some kind of alternate reality situation. “I’m only gonna do this once,” she’d proclaimed when Rio opened the discussion concerning the where and how they’d be tying the knot. “So I want it simple, but sincere. No flash, no glitz and definitely no drama. I’ve had enough of that shit to last me a lifetime.”

  The fact that Rio was keen on giving Zee’s sister whatever her little heart desired, up to and including accompanying her to one of the fancier dress places, then leaving her to it—along with his credit card—also settled Zee’s heart. Especially when he’d seen her all done up in her finery, wearing her new, simple white dress and heels, their mom’s locket around her neck. Her hair, for the first time since he’d met her, all one color. The strawberry blonde, he remembered from their youth.