“I do. But I’m begging you never to hurt me like that again. I’m strong, Jason. I can handle a lot, but the one thing I cannot is losing you. I’ve been in misery.”
“I’m going to make up for every second you hurt.”
“Good. I’m counting on it. You ready to go home? I’m afraid your nice couch is going to soak up the stink of this place.”
“Yeah, baby, I’m ready to go home.” He stood and pulled me up by my good hand. Inches separated us. “I’m gonna kiss you.”
Our lips touched, and I was lost.
Epilogue
I could finally breathe.
Even though Mercy had forgiven me, and invited me back into her life, I’d still been on edge. A week had passed of me babying Mercy and walking on eggshells, before she tossed a pillow at my head and told me to knock it off.
Tuesday was a regular at our house. I fucking loved that—ours. My dad and uncles had helped me move my couch in and Mercy’s out. When she found out I didn’t have any furniture in the bedroom, a last minute decision I’d made the day I’d moved out of my house, she shook her head and called me cocky. She was wrong. I hadn’t been cocky, I’d been hopeful. I was willing to do anything I needed to get back into her good graces. There was no other option. Mercy was it for me.
Mercy’s cell phone rang, I snagged it off the counter, expecting it to be Tuesday. She was coming with us today to the barbeque Nick and Meadow were hosting at their house. I was surprised when I saw Delaney’s name on the screen.
“Hey, sis,” I answered.
“Hi. Um. Is Mercy around?”
“She’s in the shower.”
“Oh.”
Delaney had been acting off since everything went down with Lowe. But she still refused to talk to anyone about what was going on with her.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Everything’s fine.”
“Bullshit. I was the king of fine when I was anything but. Please tell me what’s going on.”
“Really, Jason. I’m okay.” Her voice softened. She was trying to be reassuring, but the sadness couldn’t be masked.
“I love you, little sis. I know you’re hurting. I may not know why, but I can hear it. I wish you’d talk to me.”
“I can’t. I have to get through this on my own. Just give me some time.”
That was the first time she’d admitted something was wrong. It was a start. I wanted to push and demand she tell me. But it wouldn’t do any good.
“I can do that. As long as you know you can tell me anything. I’ll do whatever you need me to do to help you.”
“I know,” she sighed. “I’ll see you at the barbeque.”
“Do you have a message for Mercy?”
“No. I wanted to see if Tuesday was coming.”
That was a lie, but I wouldn’t call her out on it. “Yeah. She should be here soon. We’re driving over together.”
“Okay. See ya.”
Delaney’s haste to end the call confirmed she was lying about her reasons for wanting to talk to Mercy. I knew they talked frequently but I never asked what they spoke about, and Mercy never offered. I trusted she was helping my sister any way she could. At least she was talking to someone. Even if I wished that someone was me.
“Did I hear my phone? Is Tuesday trying to bail?” Mercy called from the bedroom.
I entered the room in time to see her drop the towel and pick up her lotion.
“Here, let me.” I took the bottle out of her hand and squeezed a liberal amount into mine. Flowers and mint. A smell I loved, but liked it even more when it was on Mercy.
I knelt in front of her, starting at her ankles I massaged the cream into her skin. Working my way up to her calves, her knees, her thighs. So damn soft. I alternated between rubbing both legs at once to using both my hands on one extremity to knead her muscles. I placed a few soft kisses over her close-trimmed pubic hair, and licked over her clit for good measure before I grabbed the bottle again.
“You’re such a tease,” she complained.
I worked more lotion over her stomach, up to her perfect breasts. Taking one pink tip into my mouth I plumped and squeezed her perky mound before moving to the next.
“You tasted so good.”
“You’re killing me, Jason,” she moaned. “I think I’m—”
My mouth came down on hers cutting off the rest of what she was going to say. Our tongues mingled, and I prayed there’d never be another day that went by I didn’t get to kiss her. I lived for this connection. Missed it when I was at work and looked forward to having it again when I was on my way home. With lotion covered hands I finished manipulating her tits and moved to her ass. My second favorite part on her body. I worked the rest of the lotion into her flesh there and when I broke the kiss she was panting.
“I’ll take care of you when we get home tonight.”
“Promise?”
I stopped myself from answering and thought about my response. I would never make a promise to Mercy I couldn’t keep. And I wasn’t sure if I was ready to make love to her yet. Not because I didn’t want to, but her shoulder was still healing, and I didn’t want to hurt her.
“I promise I’ll take care of you,” I finally answered.
Her eyes narrowed. “Nope. I want details. How do you plan on relieving the ache you’ve created?”
I nuzzled her neck and kissed the soft skin there before I sucked her earlobe into my mouth. Letting go I answered, “I plan on lying you on the bed, spreading your sexy thighs nice and wide before I eat your pussy until you’re screaming your orgasm.”
“Mmm. That sounds good. What else?”
She was insatiable, and I loved it. She’d let me suck and lick and torture her body for as long as I liked. If I was providing orgasms, she was generously offering her flesh.
“I’ll give you as many as you want.”
“I want you. Not your tongue, not your fingers. I want you inside of me tonight.”
“I don’t want to hurt you,” I reminded her.
“And I want you to trust me that if I didn’t think I was ready I’d tell you.”
“I do trust you. I don’t trust myself. I can’t control my need for you. Something in me snaps when I know you’re ready to accept me into your body. It’s this primal mating call that takes over, and all I want to do is consume you, push you as far as you’ll let me. I want to own you. I’m not satisfied until you’re a shaking, screaming mess of passion that’s ready to explode.”
My hands flexed, and my fingertips dug into her firm backside.
“Please, Jason. You won’t hurt me.”
“Anyone home?” Saved by Tuesday’s loud shout.
“Shit. Close the door,” Mercy whispered.
I was across the room in two strides. “We’ll be right out,” I called back.
“Oh, goody. I’ll just wait out here while you guys play hide the sausage.”
“Please tell me she didn’t just say that,” Mercy groaned.
“I don’t see why you have a problem with it. She didn’t refer to your dick as a sausage.”
Mercy’s giggle turned into an out-and-out belly laugh. Naked, standing in the middle of our room, she shook with laughter. Life didn’t get much better than that.
* * *
“You sure your family doesn’t care I’m crashing their party?” Tuesday asked.
“No. The more the merrier.”
“You haven’t met everyone have you, Mercy?”
“Not everyone. Just Jason’s immediate family and his uncles,” she answered, reminding me that after she’d kicked me out of her hospital room my dad and uncles had gone to check on her.
Mercy was a hero in their eyes. She’d saved Delaney’s life. Mercy hadn’t read the after-action reports and Delaney would never know, but Derek Lowe had enough GHL on his person to kill them both. The police had also found a batch of tablets in the trunk of his car, along with rope, duct tape, and an ax. No one will ever know for sure what his
intention was, but it was safe to assume he’d planned on ending Delaney’s life.
We pulled in front of Nick and Meadow’s house and an old familiar feeling of happiness slid into place. It felt good having Mercy by my side. I couldn’t wait to introduce her to everyone.
“Anything I should know before we go in?” Mercy asked.
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. Anything. I don’t want to put my foot in my mouth and have everyone hate me.”
“Nothing you could say would make my family hate you.”
“If you say so.”
We made our way to the door, I opened it, and had to stop.
“Do you hear that?”
Loud laughter rang out through the house.
“Um?”
“I’d forgotten. But thank God, you reminded me.”
Family.
“What are you talking about?”
Before I could explain, Carson ran to the front door, skidded to a stop, and put her hands on her little hips.
“There you are, Uncle Jason. Mom said I had to wait until you got here with your girlfriend to eat a cupcake. You’re like five hours late.” The little girl looked at Mercy, then Tuesday. “You brought two girlfriends? Is that allowed?”
“Squirt!”
“What, Daddy? Uncle Jason brought two girls. I’m just asking.” Carson said to her dad, Ethan.
Tuesday chuckled and Mercy busted into a belly laugh that had her bending forward.
“I hope that one is your girlfriend, she is pretty and silly.” Carson pointed to Mercy.
“Hey! I can be silly, too,” Tuesday said.
“Oh my God. I love her.” Mercy stepped forward and greeted her, “Hi, I’m Mercy. Your Uncle Jason’s girlfriend. That is my friend, Tuesday.”
“You have a cool name, like my mom. Her name is Honor,” Carson beamed.
“Why, thank you very much. I like your name, too.”
“Now that we’ve established my daughter likes your name, I’m Ethan. Nice to meet you.”
“Hi, Ethan.”
My mom came over and started to pull Mercy away but before she could get very far, I tugged her back to me and palmed her face, bringing it mere inches from mine. “The sound? Family. That’s what all this noise is, love and family. Thank you for giving it back to me.”
“Family. I like that. I never really had one.”
“Now you do. They’re all yours. Your new aunts and uncles, cousins, cute niece, sisters, and the best set of parents you could ever need.”
“You’re pretty lucky to have all of them.”
“I am. We are.”
I placed a chaste kiss on her lips and then let my mom drag her and Tuesday away. Never ending introductions were made over the next twenty minutes. The whole family minus my youngest sisters and Carter were there. I watched Delaney mingle and talk to everyone. She had her fake smile firmly in place, and I wondered if anyone else noticed. My eyes locked with my dad’s, and his jaw clenched. Yep. He saw it, too. Dad had given me two years before he’d had enough and sat me down for a come-to-Jesus talk. He wouldn’t wait that long to set his baby girl straight. I hoped she was getting what she needed from Mercy.
Nick had asked everyone to come into the living room for their surprise announcement. I hoped they were going to announce they were finally going to adopt. Nick’s wife, Meadow, had been attacked by a vicious serial killer. She narrowly escaped, but the attack left her unable to have children. They talked about it a few years back, changed their minds, thought about a surrogate, and recently I’d heard they were considering adoption again. My fingers were crossed they’d come to a definite decision.
Meadow walked down the hall, and Nick asked for everyone’s attention.
“Thanks for coming. Not that we need an excuse to get together, but, today, Meadow and I want to share our good news with you. First, we’ve been keeping secrets from all of you. And we lied. Last weekend we did not go up to New York for a weekend getaway. We . . . um . . . shit, sorry.” Nick swiped his face and everyone looked worried. “We went to California to be there for the birth of our babies,” he choked and wiped another tear.
Holy shit. Did he say birth of his babies? Meadow walked back into the living room holding a tiny bundle in each arm. I don’t think there was any oxygen left in the room after the collective gasp.
“We want you to meet our daughter, Ariana, and our son, Nolan.”
No one moved. No one said a word. Nothing but silence until my Aunt Reagan’s sob cut through the quiet. I thought I heard my Uncle Clark clear his throat and sniff a few times, too.
“Sorry we didn’t tell you before. But we wanted to make sure the adoption went through and the birth mother didn’t change her mind at the last minute,” Meadow said. “We hope none of you are mad.”
“Mad?” My Aunt Reagan asked. “We couldn’t be happier for you.”
“YAY! More cousins!” Carson shouted and danced around, cutting the silence.
She pulled off the sweatshirt she was wearing, and Honor tried to get to her before she got it off, but it was too late. Everyone was watching the cute little girl running around in her excitement, therefore, not missing her neon pink shirt with big white letters across the front.
BIG SISTER
“What?” My Aunt Lily gasped. “Are you—”
“Surprise,” Ethan muttered.
The room broke out in excited cheers, and I wrapped my arms around Mercy.
“Never a dull moment around here. Soon there will be a whole new generation of kids invading.”
“Huh?” she mumbled, and I followed her distracted gaze across the room. Jackson and Tuesday were talking. Nothing unusual there. He was probably hitting on her. Then my eyes landed on my sister. She didn’t look happy. She looked devastated. Shit. I looked around and caught sight of my dad. He saw it, too. Double shit.
“I need to go talk to Delaney,” Mercy mumbled.
Before she could walk away, the front door opened. “What are we celebrating?” Carter asked.
“Is that Carter?” Mercy whispered.
“Yeah.”
“Fuck. I have to go get Delaney.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Please trust me. I love you, and if I don’t come back, I’ll meet you at home. She needs me right now.”
“Okay. I love you, too. Go.”
“Uncle Carter.” Carson bounced to her uncle. “There’s so much you missed. Uncle Nick and Aunt Meadow have two babies. And I’m going to be a big sister.”
“Is that right? I’m a new uncle three times over.” He picked Carson up and spun her around in circles. “Let me say hi to everyone and then I’ll show you what I brought back for you.”
“New coins?”
“You know it.”
Carson ran off, not wanting to miss another moment of the celebration.
“Where’s Delaney?”
“She took off.”
“Fuck. I tried to get here sooner. But shit went sideways and my team had to stay.”
“Hey, bro. Welcome home.” Ethan came over, cutting off any further conversation.
“New kid, huh? Congratulations.”
The brothers embraced and clapped each other on the back.
“I’m gonna talk to Nick.” I excused myself.
There was happiness all around me, but all I could think about was my sister.
“Mercy go with her?” my dad asked before I could get through the crowd of family members now hogging the babies.
“Yeah. Didn’t tell me what was wrong, just that she was leaving with Delaney and she’d meet me at home later.”
“Good. Mercy will take care of her.”
“What?” I eyed my dad. Was he seriously trusting Mercy with his baby girl? No one fucked with the Walker girls. And no one protected and comforted them like my dad did. Not even me. And he was handing over care to Mercy. That was huge.
“I trust Mercy. The two of them have a bond. I don’t kno
w what went down with Lowe while they were alone with him in that house. But whatever it was cemented a deep friendship. Mercy won’t let her fall.”
“No. She won’t.”
“She’s your forever love, Bud. Hold on to her with both hands and never let go.”
“Thanks for everything. My head was jacked. It’s not anymore. I know exactly who she is and as soon as I can, I’m getting my ring on her finger.”
“We got you, Bud. Always.”
* * *
Two weeks later…
Jackson Clark
“Yo, Jackson, you know that woman?” Brice asked.
I stopped mid-step and looked around. Doctors, nurses, and volunteers were milling about outside the Autumn Lakes Nursing Home. The small fire that had started in the craft room was out before we’d arrived. However, being the type of facility it was, the fire inspector was inside and still not allowing the elderly occupants back in until she deemed it safe. Between the EMTs on scene and the ocean of people, I had no idea who Brice was talking about.
“Who?”
“There.” He pointed off to the side of the crowd. A woman stood next to an old woman sitting in a wheelchair.
Tuesday Knowls.
The woman who’d shot me down and had plagued my dreams ever since the family barbeque at Nick and Meadow’s house a few weeks back. The last thing I should’ve been doing at a family party was lusting after Mercy’s friend, Tuesday. But she had to be the hottest woman I’d ever had the pleasure of talking to. Not only was she beyond beautiful she was wicked funny. We’d spent most of the time talking and joking around. I couldn’t remember a time I’d laughed so hard. She had a fast comeback for everything.
I’d asked her if I could take her out for a drink, and she basically patted me on my head and called me kiddo. That had never happened before. She was a few years older than me, but it wasn’t as if the gap would classify her as a Mrs. Robinson.
“I take it you know her,” Brice called out as I took off in Tuesday’s direction.
“Tuesday?”
Her eyes raked over my turnout gear, and I couldn’t miss the spark when her gaze came back to mine. The uniform. It did it every time. Normally, it was a turnoff when a woman’s only interest in me was because I was a firefighter. When a woman’s first question was about my uniform, I knew she was a badge bunny and lost interest. But with Tuesday, I’d take all the help I could get. Hell, I’d take her on a date wearing my yellow helmet, coat, and pants if it made her say yes.
Finding Mercy: The Next Generation Page 19
