One More Time (MMG Series Book 3)

by Hilliard, R. B.

  She rolled her eyes and slapped my arm. “Keep going. This is good stuff.” My smile slipped at her words and she froze.

  “What?” I asked.

  “It was Jimmy,” she breathed. I had to give it to her, she had a damn good knack for solving mysteries. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have made the jump from blackmail to attempted murder that quickly.

  “It was,” I told her.

  In a flash she was back off the bed. “Jimmy paid to have you murdered?” she quietly asked. Her shocked expression made me tense.

  I patted the bed next to me. “Come sit.” She shook her head, no and I sighed. “I told Garrett and the boys to dig deep and bury his ass. I knew there was a chance he would figure out who tipped off the State Bar.”

  “Well apparently he did!” she shouted. “And then he tried to have you killed!”

  “Right before the guy knocked me out, he whispered, “This is from Jimmy,” in my ear. Ibby gasped. “Baby,” I said.

  She held up her hand and let out a tearful, “Don’t.”

  I was immediately off the bed and in front of her. “They got him, baby, I swear. He used his personal account to pay the guys to kill me. There was a money trail. What happened with the hit and run and his firm accounts no longer matters, because he has been formally charged with attempted murder.”

  “Wait, you didn’t finish. What did the firm accounts have to do with the hit and run?” she asked.

  “That was the only way he could pay her.”

  Her face lit with understanding.

  “The two guys I took down with me are willing to testify against Jimmy in exchange for leniency,” I further explained.

  “Did they find the two who ran?” she asked.

  “They found them all. Everyone is locked up and Jimmy can no longer access his bank accounts. He’s going away for a long time.”

  “Swear to me it’s over, Dillon, all of it,” she painfully said.

  “I swear it is all over.”

  Finally, she stepped into my arms and let me hold her.

  * * *

  One week later

  “Come on you two or we’re going to be late!” I shouted.

  “Do they always take this long?” Adam asked me.

  “They are women,” Charlie stated.

  Adam laughed. “Enough said.”

  We were waiting on Ibby and Sally to get their asses downstairs so we could be on time for Max and Ellie’s first annual MMG Fourth of July party.

  This past week had been unreal. After Ibby and I spent the day hashing everything out, life didn’t go back to the way it was before. It was better. Isabella was relaxed and happy. Nothing I told her had any residual effect on us. She wasn’t walking around on eggshells around me or avoiding my eyes and touch. She was…happy… and excepting. I had no idea it could be this good.

  Adam and Charlie had carpooled down from Charleston and arrived yesterday. We had a full house of family, something none of us had experienced in a long time, if ever. Tonight we were going to celebrate with our friends. Life was looking up and it was about damn time.

  “We’re here! Keep your pants on,” Ibby said from the top of the stairs. She had on a see through light pink shirt, tucked into a pair of short, white, extremely frayed jean shorts. I scowled at her. “What?” she asked, as she caught my less-than-happy facial expression.

  “I can see your bra,” I told her.

  She rolled her eyes and laughed. “It’s not my bra, silly. It’s my bikini top. Remember, Max said we might get wet? Well, I’m making sure I’m prepared.”

  Slightly mollified, I let it go and said, “Let’s load it up.”

  “I’ll ride with Charlie,” Sally said.

  “Ibby, Adam and I will take Milly in the jeep.” Leaning down, I gave Brutus a pat on the back. “Hold down the fort, boy,” I told him, as we headed out the door.

  Twenty minutes later we pulled into MMG. We could hear Beggin For Thread blaring all the way from the parking lot.

  “I love this song!” Ibby shouted.

  “Me too,” Sally agreed.

  “I’ll get Milly, you go ahead,” I told them.

  “You are not supposed to be carrying her,” Ibby scoffed. She planted a kiss on my lips and grabbed Milly’s car seat from my hands. I hated being treated like an invalid. The stitches in my face had already dissolved, but my side was still tender and it pissed me off. “I love you, grumpy grumpikins,” she sweetly cooed. My cock stirred in my shorts as I watched her walk away. Fuck, I am lucky.

  “I had that once,” Charlie said from beside me.

  “Yeah? What happened?”

  “I let her get away.”

  I thought about Charlie’s words as we crossed the parking and rounded the garage bays. I had almost lost Ibby twice now. There wasn’t going to be a third time. I started to hatch a plan. Adam and Charlie aren’t leaving until Sunday. If I propose to Ibbs tomorrow morning, we can celebrate with family and friends tomorrow night. The sound of Ibby’s laughter pulled me from my thoughts and back to the moment.

  The evening was great. Max, Kurt, Benny and Gage had bought an arsenal of fireworks in South Carolina, which made for a very impressive display. This was complemented by a massive spread of food the ladies had prepared. They made everything from queso dip and burgers, to peach cobbler and strawberry tarts. Except for the obvious tension between Cas and Sarah, everyone seemed to be in a festive mood. I busted Max and Ellie making out in the hall on the way to the bathroom, and Piper and Gage in a clinch beside one of the bays as I was searching for a corkscrew for Polly. Joss was looking healthier. I could even see her tiny little baby bump now. I looked forward to being a part of Ibby’s next pregnancy.

  So much wasted time ghosted through my head, but I pushed it away. I would happily spend the rest of my days making up for the time we’d spent apart.

  “Are you still mad at me?” Piper asked. I was watching Adam hold Milly and hadn’t heard her come up behind me.

  I slung my arm around her shoulder, pulled her in and kissed the side of her head. “Life’s too short to stay mad at you, Pi.”

  She snorted loudly. “Told you you’d get it,” she mused. “I’m just glad it’s not too late.”

  “I owe you for that.”

  Her head turned and her pretty blue eyes met mine. “You owe me nothing. That’s what friends do for each other. End of story.”

  I smiled at her spunk and said, “You handled everything that happened with me pretty well.”

  “I knew you were good. Plus, I had to stay strong for Isabella.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I’m so glad you found her, D. For the longest time I worried you were going to end up with someone who would never be able to love you like you needed, someone like Dana.”

  “Me too,” I admitted.

  She kissed my cheek and said, “Someone is looking out for all of us. I truly believe that.” Then she walked away.

  “Me too,” I muttered under my breath.

  The fireworks were awesome and funny. Awesome because of the variety and funny because of the three drunk idiots attempting to man the station. Halfway through, Cas, Tut and I took over for them.

  As I was helping to clean up, Ibby approached with a screaming Milly.

  “I think I need to get her home, babe,” she said.

  I took Milly from her and she rubbed her tired tearstained face against my chest. My heart melted. “Are you sleepy, baby girl?” I kissed the top of her head and she let out a sleepy sigh. My eyes locked on Ibby and we both smiled.

  “Sarah and Sally are also ready to go. I can drop Sarah off on the way home,” she said.

  “Did you drink anything tonight?”

  She scrunched up her face. “I started to drink a beer, but it tasted funny.”

  “Funny how?” I asked.

  “Like it was skunked,” she answered. I laughed.

  “You should have gone for the good stuff,” I told her.

 
“After that, thanks but no thanks,” she muttered.

  “Here,” I handed her the keys, “drive the jeep. That way you don’t have to mess with changing out the car seat base. I’ll catch a ride with Charlie and Adam.”

  “Promise you won’t be too long?” she asked with a twinkle in her eye.

  My girl wants to play tonight. “We’ll leave the second we get this mess cleaned up,” I promised. I handed Milly back over and gave her a hard, wet kiss. I smiled as I watched her walk away. Tomorrow morning could not come fast enough.

  Forty-five minutes later, we said our goodbyes and headed for home. Two miles down the road a police cruiser was parked with his lights flashing and we slowed to a stop behind a large truck.

  “Must be a wreck,” Adam stated from the back seat.

  A policeman had us pull over for two ambulances and a fire truck to pass.

  “How bad is it?” Charlie asked the officer.

  “Let me put it this way, if it had been a truck instead of a sedan that hit that jeep, there would be no survivors.”

  My chest seized as the officer slapped the top of Charlie’s truck and started walking away.

  “Wait!” I shouted after him. He turned to see what I wanted. “Did you say jeep?”

  “I did,” he answered.

  A horrible feeling rolled over me and I instantly shot out of the truck and started running. As I rounded the bend and saw my jeep crumpled against another car, I completely lost my shit. “Isabella!” I shouted.

  “Wait!” the officer shouted behind me.

  Ignoring him, I pushed forward. “Ibby!” I shouted. God, please let her be okay.

  Before I knew what was happening, I was landing on all fours on the hard gravely road. The officer apparently had tackled me from behind. Suddenly, I heard a faint “Dillon? Is that you?”

  “I’m here, baby!” I shouted from under the dickhead policeman.

  Charlie sprinted by us, but Adam stopped. And said, “Man, that’s his woman over there, you need to get off him and let him go to her.”

  With a muttered, “Sorry,” the policeman rolled off of me.

  In a flash I was up and running toward Isabella.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Isabella

  ‡

  So not to rouse Dillon’s suspicions, I told him I had a sip of beer and it tasted skunky. The truth is, I had been feeling off for a few days and strongly suspected I was pregnant. Until I knew for sure though, my lips were sealed.

  Dillon smiled at my skunky beer comment. “You should have gone for the good stuff,” he joked.

  “After that, thanks but no thanks,” I muttered and he laughed. It was so good to hear him laughing and having a good time.

  “Here,” he held out his keys, “drive the jeep. That way you don’t have to mess with changing out the car seat base. I’ll catch a ride with Charlie and Adam.”

  I flashed him a sexy smile. “Promise you won’t be too long?” He handed Amelia back over and gave me a scorching hot kiss. I had to take a deep breath and reign in the urge to jump his bones. “See you at home,” I shot over my shoulder as I went in search of the girls.

  After saying our goodbyes, we headed to the car.

  “Want me to drive?” Sarah asked.

  “No thanks. I’ve got it.”

  “I’ll take the back with princess,” Sally said.

  I handed Amelia over to Sally and she snapped her into the base before getting in.

  “So, what’s up between you and Cas?” I asked Sarah. “I think we’ve waited long enough to ask.”

  “Why do you have the base in the middle back here? You have it on the back passenger’s side in your car,” Sarah asked, clearly changing the subject.

  “Dillon likes to take the doors off in good weather. We put it in the middle, so we don’t have to continually switch it around,” I explained. “Now, time for you to spill about what is going on with you and Cas.” A pained look washed over her face and I immediately felt bad for pushing it. “Never mind. I’m sorry. It’s absolutely none of my business.”

  “Well, I want to know,” Sally chimed from the back. I turned and gave her a dirty look.

  “That man makes my heart hurt,” Sarah announced.

  I reached over and squeezed her hand. “I hate to break it to you, but they all do.”

  “Ain’t that the truth,” Sally muttered. “We’re all set back here, Izzy. Turn on some tunes and let’s roll.”

  “Sarah, you can talk to us anytime you want, okay?” I said.

  She gave me a weak smile. “Thanks, I really do appreciate the kindness you both have shown me.”

  I gave her hand one more squeeze before turning on the radio and scrolling through the stations. When I landed on Uptown Funk, I put the jeep in drive and pulled out of the parking lot.

  About a mile or so down the road, a car sped up behind us. They must have been in a hurry because they were riding my bumper. As we were nearing a sharp curve, I decided to slow down, pull to the right and let it pass us by.

  Instead of passing, they continued to ride on our tail. When they began honking the horn and flashing their high beams, I started to get irritated.

  “What the hell?” Sally asked.

  I quickly turned down the music and lowered my window. As I stuck my hand out to wave the car around us, I said, “It’s probably someone from the party. Maybe we forgot something?”

  “Do you recognize the car?” Sarah asked Sally. She and Sally both craned their heads around to see if they could make out who it was.

  Suddenly, Sally’s face appeared between the seats. “Roll up your window and move it. It’s the same car that tried to run you down at the doctor’s office.”

  BAM! We screamed as the car rammed into us from behind. Amelia started crying and Sally tried to shush her.

  “Shit!” I screeched. “Can you see who it is?”

  BAM! It hit us again with more force.

  “It looks like Dana,” Sally said.

  I glanced at Sally through the rearview mirror. “Please tell me you’re kidding?”

  “I’m dead serious, Izz. It’s Dana.”

  “Sarah, get your phone and call 911!” I shouted.

  BAM! She slammed into us again.

  “Don’t you dare pull over!” Sally shouted.

  “Hang on,” I told them and pressed the gas pedal. The jeep lurched and then shot forward.

  “My eyes met Sally’s in the rearview mirror. “Watch Amelia,” I said.

  “I got her. You just watch the road,” she replied.

  My heart was pounding out of my chest, yet, somehow I was still managing to keep it together.

  “Oh God,” Sarah whispered as we approached the bend in the road.

  Dana was hot on our tail. Right as I turned the curve, she rammed us again. For a split second, I lost control of the steering wheel, but got it back.

  “Hold on!” I screamed.

  “She’s going to hit us again!” Sally shouted.

  Pumping the breaks, I wrenched the wheel as I hard as I could to the right. Dana’s car clipped the left bumper as it rocketed past us through the guard rail and down into the gully. We heard crashing noises and then …silence.

  Amelia wailed in the back seat.

  “What the fuck?” Sally breathed.

  “Oh shite, oh shite,” Sarah panted next to me.

  “Everyone okay?” I asked.

  Before anyone could answer, there was a blinding flash of light followed by a loud screeching noise and then…darkness.

  “We have three women in a dark blue jeep Sahara,” a faraway voice said. “We don’t want to move them until we know the extent of their injuries.”

  Baby…

  Wreck…

  Jeep…

  Oh God…

  My eyes flew open. I tried to assess the situation, but was disoriented. To the left I saw the road and to the right was…Sarah. Behind Sarah was a slumped over Sally and…no baby seat. Suddenly it all c
ame back. Dana tried to kill us.

  “Amelia!” I screamed. Reaching down, I fumbled with my seatbelt. My hands didn’t seem to be working.

  “Sarah! Sally! She has Amelia!” I screamed.

  A man’s face appeared in my window. “Hold on and we’ll get you out, ma’am.” Suddenly my door was open, my seat belt was off and I was being pulled from the jeep.

  “That psycho has my daughter!” I shouted and they paused.

  “Are you the mother of the baby?” One of them asked.

  “Yes!” I shouted at him. Can he not hear?

  “She’s just fine, ma’am. We’ll take you to her right now.”

  “Oh thank God,” I panted. “Are my friends okay?”

  “We’re checking on them right now.” They carried me over to a bright red stretcher and laid me on top of it. One of them put something around my neck and the other strapped me down. As they hefted me up and carried me around the back of the jeep, I saw the nose of a green sedan crumpled against the right side of Dillon’s jeep and what happened clicked in my head. We were hit by another car.

  “Are my friends going to be okay?” I repeated.

  “We’re working on getting them out right now, ma’am,” the guy at my feet said.

  As we rounded the back of an ambulance, I heard Amelia’s angry cries. The second I spotted her in the paramedic’s arms, I broke into sobs of relief. The guys set me down and two paramedics squatted down beside me. One shone a bright light in my eyes and asked me a bunch of questions while the other hooked me up to some machine. After a few minutes of poking and prodding, they relaxed a bit.

  “Can you please take this off?” I pointed to the brace on my neck.

  “Not until we get you checked out. We are taking you to the hospital,” the EMT said.

  “I’m fine, really. I just want to see my baby and my friends.” Suddenly I heard someone shouting my name. It sounded like Dillon. “Dillon?” Is that you?” I called out.

  “I’m here, baby!” he shouted and I immediately started crying again.

  A second later my uncle appeared. “Holy-Mother-Mary-Joseph,” he said when he saw me lying on the ground, strapped to a giant red stretcher.

  “I’m okay, Uncle Charlie,” I cried. “Please get Amelia for me.”

  “I’m on it,” he said and sprinted away.