Evie felt tears forming. Bella was definitely an Avery, but the idea of a little towheaded girl or boy was precious. She blinked fast. Damn, she’d be happy when she didn’t need the pain pills. They were making her too emotional.
Drake dropped a careful arm around her shoulders as they headed back toward the parking lot.
“So what’s the scoop with you and Aiden?”
“There’s no scoop.”
“Bullshit,” he said mildly as he helped her into the passenger seat. “That man has you marked as his territory, and what’s more, you’re in love.” With that, he shut the door and walked around to the driver’s side. It still didn’t give her enough time to come up with an appropriate response.
“Got nothing?” he asked as he started the car.
“He doesn’t look at me like I’m his territory.”
“If he were a Southern boy, I’d say he was going to piss around you.”
She snorted. “Are you saying you were going to piss around Karen?”
“I was going to do whatever it took to make sure that she was tagged and treed. She’s mine, and nobody ought to be confused about that fact.” He pulled onto the freeway with a satisfied smile on his face. It was good to see Drake so happy.
Was Aiden as happy with her?
Drake looked at her sideways. “Are you getting confused, Evalyn Lavender? That boy is gone over you. I don’t know what happened in Tennessee, but he’s got his head out of his ass now.”
She laughed. Drake had a way with words.
“If I stayed here in San Diego, what would I do? Jim and Blake let me be a jack of all trades. I did everything from cleaning and booking rooms, to handling events. But I don’t think any fancy hotels out here would get past the fact that I was a maid.”
“Go to school.”
“I’m too old to go to school. It was painful enough to get my GED.”
Drake was silent until he pulled off the freeway. “Why was it hard for you to get your GED? I remember you tutoring Maggie and the twins. Wasn’t math one of your best subjects?”
“You remember that?”
“Sure. I had to really work at math, so I was impressed. Why was the GED hard?”
Evie thought back to the time when she was working over forty hours a week cleaning the LeeHy Motel, going home and making sure that Mom had actually gotten the twins and Piper fed. In between that, she scrambled to work on getting her GED. Those two years passed in a blur.
“I wasn’t as strong in the other subjects,” she lied. She didn’t want Drake to know how bad it had been.
“So get a degree in math. Shit, Evie, companies are crying for people with degrees in math and science. You’ll kick ass.”
“College costs a lot.”
“Let’s not forget the money that’s going to be coming to Piper. Granny Laughton’s land is going to sell next month. Those companies really drove the price up when they saw the natural gas surveys.”
“That’s Piper’s money.”
“Shut it. Piper’s already talked to us about parsing it out. I’m not taking any of it, but you sure as hell are.”
That pissed her off. They pulled into the parking spot for the apartment. As soon as Drake put the truck into park, Evie grabbed his arm. “Let me tell you something, you dumbass. I’m not taking a fucking dime if you aren’t.”
“Karen and I make great livings.”
“You have a baby on the way, and you need a house, and eventually you’re going to need to pay for Caroline’s college education. If you expect me to take some of the money that Piper’s giving out, then you’re taking some of it, too.”
“Granny would want it to go to you girls.”
“For God’s sake, she would want it to go to all of her grandchildren, not just the ones with vaginas!”
Drake let out a huge laugh. “Did you just say vaginas?”
“Yeah, haven’t you heard of those before?”
“Nope, never have.”
Evie started to giggle. Then she started to laugh.
“Oh, shit, you’re a pistol.”
“So it’s agreed, you’re taking some of the money?”
“Are you going to shack up with Aiden and go to school?” he asked.
“I’m going to go to school. I don’t know where I’m going to live yet. All the girls are in Tennessee.”
“Trenda’s thinking about moving out here,” Drake said quietly. He motioned his head, and she opened her door. “Wait for me.”
“I can get out on my own.”
“You’re tiny, the truck’s big, and you’re still healing.”
“Gah! Save me from bossy men.”
He came around and helped her out of the truck. How in the hell had he turned into such a gentlemen coming from Wanda and Norville? It was a freaking miracle. Actually, it was amazing that all of the kids had turned out as well as they had, she thought.
“Piper can’t wait to tell you about her first week of classes.”
“She already has. She’s been on the phone almost every day.”
“Yeah, but now you get facial expressions and hand gestures. Seriously, Evie, our Tinkerbell is so damned excited, I’m over the moon. After the shit that went down with Mom and Dad, I never guessed she could be this happy so soon.”
“You and Karen have a lot to do with this.”
“Well, come on in, and be prepared to be overwhelmed.”
“Gotchya.”
***
“Yeah, it happened before the sale went through. Chased away the buyers,” Dex said.
Aiden stopped using all of his focus on Evie’s body, which was displayed beautifully in a bikini on the patio.
“What did you say?”
“I said that Jim still hasn’t sold the hotel.”
“Yeah, but why? What happened exactly?”
“The office was ransacked. Scared the new buyers. They’d been told that the place had a state-of-the art security system.”
“State-of-the-art was pushing it, but for Jasper Creek, it was pretty damn good. If nothing else, it should have been enough of a deterrent to have someone go looking for easier pickings. Why would they ransack the place? There’s nothing of value there, it’s in the middle of nowhere. Was the safe found?”
“Not only was the floor safe found, they actually got it open.”
Aiden’s eyebrows raised. That was no easy feat. It had taken him a half-hour the first time when he had gone to check on Evie’s whereabouts. His uncle would have been so disappointed at his poor performance.
“So this was a professional hit,” Aiden said.
“Well, whoever it was, they were determined. They used C-4 to get it open.”
“Holy hell. They were serious. And all this happened after they had cleared out?”
“Yep. The perps would have come away empty.”
This was giving Aiden a bad feeling. “Dex, I want you to dig into their past. I want you to go over them with a fine-tooth comb. We’ve been assuming that Jim was just a patsy, but maybe it was something more.”
“You’ve got a bad feeling?”
“Call my uncle if you need to, just make sure you have checked every angle possible.”
“I’m on it.”
“Also-” Aiden stopped himself.
“What?”
He continued to look at all of the beauty and purity that was Evie. “Never mind. I’ve got this covered.”
“Well if you need anything, you know where to find me.”
“Always. And thanks, Dex.”
He disconnected the call, then roamed through his contacts until he found the name, Rylie Jones. She was soon to be married to Darius Stanton. He’d only met her once, but he enjoyed the hell out of her. But he was calling because of all of the stories he had heard about her. He had her number because he collected numbers and contacts. A man was foolish not to.
He dialed, and instead of her answering ‘Hello,' she knew it was him.
“Aiden, imagine my
surprise to be getting a call from our Drake’s soon to be brother-in-law.”
“And here I was going to say something nice to you, Rylie.” Aiden grinned. This was the reason he liked her. He’d enjoyed sparring with the little spitfire. When he’d been missing Evie, it was a little like being around her.
“You weren’t going to say anything nice to me,” she disagreed. “If you had bothered to track down my number, you were going to ask a favor. I’m warning you now, I believe in quid pro quo.”
“Who are you talking to?” he heard Dare Stanton’s voice in the background.
“Adam Levine needs a favor, I’m asking him to write a song for me. Let me negotiate,” she fired back.
Aiden heard Darius laugh. Rylie had that power over people. “Okay, O’Malley, what do you need? Know it’s going to cost you, I’ve pulled your financials.”
“For this, you can name your price. The deal is, it remains between the two of us.”
There was a long pause. “I don’t keep secrets from Dare,” she finally said.
“Hear me out.”
“This better be good. Otherwise, I’m going to be mad that you asked me to betray my man’s trust.”
Aiden gathered his thoughts as he looked at Evie. All that mattered was protecting her; making sure that she knew those images were gone, and she never had to go trolling the internet again.
He told Rylie the ugly story of two men forcing a sixteen-year-old Evie to take nude pictures after they had whipped her.
“Those motherfuckers! I’ll kill them.”
“Down girl, they’re in prison.”
“Which one? Which cell block? These things matter.” Shit, Aiden hadn’t considered that.
“Never mind, I’ll find out.”
“I wasn’t calling you so you could torture Huey and the sheriff,” Aiden reminded her.
“That’s just an extra service. I know why you’re calling. This is going to take a while. I’m going to have to do some digging to find out all the pictures. How many years ago was this when it happened? I need a timeframe.”
“Eight years ago. Like I said, she was sixteen.”
“That sick fuck and he was trying to get her fourteen-year-old sister too? Oh yeah, I’m going after them. If they’re not in the worst cell block, then I’m arranging a transfer.”
Aiden didn’t think Dex could even get that done. Rylie was crazy scary. “Do you think you can track down the pictures?”
There was a long pause. “Yeah, I think I can. The problem is getting them off the internet. I might get them taken down for a while, but people will have downloaded them, and after I’ve gotten them off a site, then somebody with a private collection might re-upload them. It’s a never-ending battle. But with facial recognition software, we can keep at it.”
“Fuck!” He looked at Evie, and his heart broke.
“You have options,” she said quietly. “Most people don’t know everything I do about how the internet operates.”
“What do you mean?”
“When the time comes, tell her that everything has been taken down. Leave it at that. I’ll have web-crawlers set up to find and take them down as soon as the pictures reappear. But she doesn’t have to know that it will always be a problem.”
He pressed his fingers against the bridge of his nose. It helped relieve some of the pressure. “You’re going to tell Dare, aren’t you?”
“Drake doesn’t know, does he?” Rylie asked cautiously. “Dare won’t break the trust of our relationship, I promise you.”
“Thank you.” And he meant it. “The same reason you’re going to tell Dare is why I’m going to tell Evie the truth. I don’t want to keep anything from her, that’s not how I want us to be. We’ll celebrate the day they’re down, and then I’ll tell her all you’re doing to keep them from showing back up.”
“I’m so happy for you. Not for nothing, I think you’re doing the right thing.” He could hear the warmth in her voice.
“I’m going to get to work on this today.”
“What’s your hourly rate?”
“Don’t insult me.”
“Seriously, this is a huge assignment. I’m going to pay. If you don’t charge me, then I’ll go somewhere else.”
She blew out a breath. “There’s a children’s home in Oklahoma that needs donations.”
“Done. Just tell me where to send the check.”
Chapter Eighteen
She couldn’t catch her breath. His hand smoothed up her hip. She loved how he felt, his hands were so big, slightly rough, warm, but more than anything, his touch was loving.
“Eyes on me.” She lifted her heavy lids. He always expected her to keep her eyes open. It was so difficult when sensation after sensation pummeled her system. But then she’d see his beautiful face and wonder why she ever closed them.
“There’s my girl.”
She smiled. He cupped her breast at the same time his leg slid between hers. He was still careful with her. It drove her crazy. She needed his power. Tonight, she was changing things. She curled her thigh around his hip.
He pressed her leg against the mattress. “Uh-uh. We’re taking this easy.”
She trapped his other hand against her breast and this time curled her right thigh around his hips.
“Kitten, I’m serious,” he groaned as her core ground against his cock.
“I want you on top tonight.”
“You’re still not healed.”
“It’s been five weeks, I need to feel you holding me, surrounding me, enveloping me.” She felt him shudder. She was going to win.
He bent his head and lapped at her nipple and sizzles streaked up her spine. His other hand cupped her ass, bringing her even closer. More pleasure arced through her. His body rasped against hers, every place they connected was another form of bliss. How could someone so raw and masculine be so beautiful and gentle? The dichotomy made her breathless.
“Are you sure?” he asked as he nuzzled her cheek.
“Yes.”
His eyes searched hers, and he must have been assured because a huge grin split his face. Their lips met, and it was another glorious wet, wild, mind-blowing kiss. Soon he was filling her, and it was just as she’d hoped. She knew he was still careful, but it felt wonderful to be enclosed in his arms with his heat filling her.
Her nails dug into his muscled back.
“Harder Eva,” he groaned. She dug in harder and scraped. She saw his eyes glint with pleasure. He thrust deeper, and she moaned.
He moved his hand to touch her. “No, I don’t need it,” she panted. She was almost there. She’d never been so turned on. She arched up. He angled down. He hit the right spot, and she went up in flames.
“Aiden!” she cried out, never wanting the moment to end.
***
“This time, will you listen when I ask you to live with me?”
Looking up at him, she shook her head. “Are you seriously trying to use your body to sway me?”
“Only if it works. Now if I need to try again, I’m willing to go for seconds.”
She gave a small laugh.
“Eva, can you tell me what’s stopping you?”
“Would you be asking me to live with you if I wasn’t basically homeless?” She held her breath.
He brushed back a dark curl. “What part of ‘you chase away the darkness’ did you not understand?”
“But you’ve been holding me during my nightmares. You haven’t had any nightmares,” she protested.
“I buried them too deep. But they were there. I haven’t talked about my mom and dad in over twenty years. Did you know that since I told you that story I’ve thought about some of our good times together? You did that. You’re helping me heal.”
Tears came fast. She couldn’t stop them. The idea of him not having those good memories hurt her heart.
“Hey, don’t cry. This is a good thing.”
“I know.”
“So, now you understand why I wa
nt you with me. This isn’t pity, this is pure unadulterated selfishness. I love you, Eva, you make me happy. Please stay with me.”
“I want to go to school. I won’t know how much I can contribute until Granny’s land sells,” she warned him.
“For God’s sake, I’m loaded. I’ll pay for your school.”
She reared back. “You’ll do no such thing. I just want to warn you I don’t know how much I can contribute to the household.”
He rolled her over on the bed, and she found herself looking up into dark, flashing eyes. “You will not pay anything towards my house, except raspberry syrup. I want raspberry syrup. That, you’re allowed to pay for. Are we clear?”
“So I guess I’m moving in.”
“Thank the Lord, I finally got my way.”
She dug her fingers into his ribs.
He yelped. “No fair.”
“Just don’t think sex got you your way. It was the pretty words.”
His eyes softened. “They weren’t just pretty words, they were the truth.”
She kissed the middle of his chest, over his heart. “I love you, Aiden Carlos O’Malley. You chase away my darkness, too.”
***
In the six weeks, since they’d returned from Turkey, they’d developed a routine. Aiden had been back in rotation for three weeks, and now he just asked for three days off to go to Tennessee with Evie. Blake and Jim had packed up all of her belongings and put them in a heated storage unit. Now she wanted to go through them and determine what would stay and what would go.
She’d explained that there was plenty of stuff that she would like to give to Maddie, Chloe, and Zoe. Maddie was meeting them at the storage locker, and then they were going out to dinner. She was the one sister that he hadn’t met. Evie had been apprehensive about it.
“She’s special. She’s super smart. You know she’s in a Master’s program.”
“Hey. What’s this about? You think I’m going to hold something against her that she did when she was fourteen?”
Evie ducked her head, then she looked up. “Then there’s the thing with that asshole boyfriend.”
“I hold you responsible for that. If you ever try going after someone with a bat and don’t call me for help, you’re going over my knee. Are we clear?”
“Now you sound like my brother, and that’s not a compliment.”
Her Relentless SEAL (Midnight Delta Book 10) Page 14
